The hunt for a Culture Mind hiding on a planet off-limits to both sides in the galactic war they're raging with the Idirans. Only the Changer, Horza, has a chance of being allowed to land on the world, and he works for the Idirans. After being ejected from an Idiran craft attacked by a Culture ship, he's picked up by a rag-tag group of mercenaries and manages to fight his way to a slot on the team. It's not the most elite or even lucky gang, and one disaster follows another until they end up on a massive orbital about the be destroyed to deny either side using it as a strategic asset, and Horza seizes his chance. 

Packed with big ideas about diffeernt societies and ideologies as well as a number of set-pieces that privide dramatic action and retinal kicks, with a protagonist sincerely opposed to everything the Culture stands for, a crew of oddballs that's rapidly whittled down and a grand finale in an ancient underground train system, this was an explosive addition to the New Space Opera revival of the late eighties, early nineties, and of course the first of the now-legendary series of Culture novels. Still manages to impress with tis daring and bravura and thrills, but the more than ever I'm convinced the bit on the island with the cultists should have been cut or reduced significantly.