Banks, Iain M. CONSIDER PHLEBAS. London: Macmillian London Ltd., 1987. ISBN: 0333454308. First edition. Octavo, blue pebbled cloth, gilt spine, 471 p. ; 23 cm. Jacket art by Richard Hopkinson. One of 176 numbered copies signed by the author. First novel in the critically acclaimed CULTURE SERIES. Summary: The war raged across the galaxy. Billions had died, billions more were doomed. Moons, planets, the very stars themselves, faced destruction, cold-blooded, brutal, and worse, random. The Idirans fought for their Faith; the Culture for its moral right to exist. Principles were at stake. There could be no surrender. Within the cosmic conflict, an individual crusade. Deep within a fabled labyrinth on a barren world, a Planet of the Dead proscribed to mortals, lay a fugitive Mind. Both the Culture and the Idirans sought it. It was the fate of Horza, the Changer, and his motley crew of unpredictable mercenaries, human and machine, actually to find it, and with it their own destruction. A fine copy in fine dustjacket and slipcase. $3500.00.