Consider Phlebas

Consider Phlebas (ISBN 1857231384) is a science fiction book by Iain M. Banks first published in 1987. It is Banks' first science fiction novel, set in The Culture, and takes its title from a line in T. S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land; Look to Windward could be considered a follow up because of both the storyline and the fact that both titles are from that poem.

The novel revolves around the Idiran-Culture War, and Banks plays on that theme by presenting various microcosms of that conflict.