List of Culture ships

This is a list of ships found in the Culture novels by Iain M Banks.

Except where indicated, all ships in this list are members of the fictional society known as "the Culture".

Banks composed many of the Culture ships' names very carefully to express the attitude of the ship's Mind, and a few names contain puns where both meanings are appropriate to the ship's attitude. A few of the ship names are installments in running gags.

Common ship types include General Systems Vehicles (GSVs), Medium Systems Vehicles (MSVs), Limited Systems Vehicles (LSVs), Rapid Offensive Units (ROUs), Limited Offensive Units (LOUs), Very Fast Pickets (VFPs) and General Contact Units (GCUs).

Consider Phlebas

Type

Name

Class

GCU

Nervous Energy

Mountain

GCU

Prosthetic Conscience

n/a

GSV

Bora Horza Gobuchul

Ocean (later Range)

GSV

Determinist

System

GSV

Eschatologist (temporary name)

n/a

GSV

Irregular Apocalypse

n/a

GSV

No More Mr Nice Guy

n/a

GSV

The Ends Of Invention (ex-Culture)

n/a

LSV

Profit Margin

n/a

ROU

Revisionist

Killer

ROU

Trade Surplus

Killer

The Player of Games

Type

Name

Class

n/a

Screw Loose

Clipper

GCU

Flexible Demeanour

n/a

GSV

Just Read The Instructions

n/a

GSV

Of Course I Still Love You

n/a

GOU

Limiting Factor

n/a

GSV

Cargo Cult

n/a

GSV

Little Rascal

n/a

GSV

So Much For Subtlety

n/a

GSV

Unfortunate Conflict Of Evidence

n/a

RSV

Youthful Indiscretion

n/a

LOU

Gunboat Diplomat

n/a

ROU

Zealot

(demilitarised)

n/a

Kiss My [...]

Superlifter

n/a

Prime Mover

Superlifter

Use of Weapons

Type

Name

Class

GCU

Just Testing

n/a

ROU

Xenophobe

(demilitarised)

GCU

Very Little Gravitas Indeed

n/a

GSV

What Are The Civilian Applications?

n/a

GSV

Congenital Optimist

n/a

GSV

Size Isn't Everything

n/a

GCU

Sweet and Full of Grace

n/a

Excession

Type

Name

Class

GCU

Different Tan

Mountain

GCU

Fate Amenable To Change

River

GCU

Grey Area

n/a

GCU

It's Character Forming

n/a

GCU

Jaundiced Outlook

Ridge

GCU

Problem Child

Troubadour

GCU

Reasonable Excuse

n/a

GCU

Recent Convert

n/a

GCU

Tactical Grace

Escarpment

GCU

Unacceptable Behaviour

n/a

GCV

Steely Glint

Plains

n/a

HighPoint

(ulterior)

n/a

Shoot Them Later

(eccentric;ulterior)

LOU

Attitude Adjuster

Killer

ROU

[...] Time

Torturer

ROU

Frank Exchange Of Views

Psychopath (demilitarised)

GSV

Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The

Plate

GSV

Death and Gravity

n/a

GSV

Ethics Gradient

Range

GSV

Honest Mistake

n/a

GSV

Limivourous

Ocean

GSV

No Fixed Abode

(Sabbaticaler,Equator)

GSV

Quietly Confident,
later GSV Sleeper Service

Plate

GSV

Uninvited Guest

n/a

GSV

Use Psychology

n/a

GSV

What Is The Answer and Why?

n/a

GSV

Wisdom Like Silence

Continent

GSV

Yawning Angel

Range

GSV

Zero GranitasGravitas

n/a

LSV

Misophist

n/a

LSV

Serious Callers Only

Tundra

MSV

Not Invented Here

Desert

n/a

Appeal To Reason

(Zetetic Elench)

n/a

Break Even

(Zetetic Elench)

n/a

Long View

(Zetetic Elench)

n/a

Peace Makes Plenty

(Zetetic Elench)

n/a

Sober Counsel

(Zetetic Elench)

n/a

Within Reason

(Zetetic Elench)

n/a

Kiss the Blade

(Affront)

n/a

Frightspear

(Affront)

n/a

Furious Purpose

(Affront)

n/a

Riptalon

(Affront)

n/a

Wingclipper

(Affront)

n/a

SacSlicer II

(Affront)

n/a

Xenoclast

(Affront)

n/a

Full Refund

(Homomdan Empire-class
Main Battle Unit,convertcraft)

n/a

Superlifter Charitable View

Cliff

n/a

Cruise Ship Just Passing Through

n/a

The State of the Art

Type

Name

Class

GSV

Bad for Business

n/a

GCU

Arbitrary

n/a

GCU

Cantankerous

n/a

GCU

Only Slightly Bent

n/a

GCU

I Thought He Was With You

n/a

GCU

Space Monster

n/a

GCU

A Series Of Unlikely Explanations

n/a

GCU

Big Sexy Beast

n/a

GCU

Never Talk To Strangers

n/a

GCU

Funny, It Worked Last Time...

n/a

GCU

Boo!

n/a

GCU

Ultimate Ship The Second

n/a

GCU

It'll Be Over By Christmas

n/a

n/a

A Ship With A View

n/a

n/a

Ablation

n/a

n/a

Arrested Development

n/a

n/a

Credibility Problem

n/a

n/a

Dramatic Exit

n/a

n/a

Excuses And Accusations

n/a

n/a

God Told Me To Do It

n/a

n/a

Halation Effect

n/a

n/a

Happy Idiot Talk

n/a

n/a

Helpless In The Face Of Your Beauty

n/a

n/a

Heresiarch

n/a

n/a

Just Another Victim Of The Ambient Morality

n/a

n/a

Minority Report

n/a

n/

Not Wanted On Voyage

n/a

n/a

Perfidy

n/a

n/a

Sacrificial Victim

n/a

n/a

Stranger Here Myself

n/a

n/a

Synchronize Your Dogmas

n/a

n/a

Thank you And Goodnight

n/a

n/a

The Precise Nature Of The Catastrophe

n/a

n/a

Unwitting Accomplice

n/a

n/a

Undesirable Alien

n/a

n/a

Well I Was In The Neighbourhood

n/a

n/a

You Would If You Really Loved

n/a

n/a

You'll Thank Me Later

n/a

Look to Windward

Type

Name

Class

n/a

Winter Storm

(Chelgrian)

n/a

Piety

(Chelgrian temple ship)

n/a

Soulhaven

(Chelgrian temple ship)

ROU

Nuisance Value

Torturer

n/a

Vulgarian

Superlifter

GSV

Sanctioned Parts List

n/a

VFP

Resistance Is Character-Forming

Gangster

OU

All Through With This Niceness And Negotiation Stuff

n/a

n/a

SomeOne Else's Problem

n/a

n/a

Lacking That Small Match Temperament

n/a

GCU

Poke It With A Stick

n/a

OU

I Said, I've Got A Big Stick

n/a

n/a

Hand Me The Gun And Ask Me Again

n/a

n/a

But Who's Counting?

n/a

n/a

Germane Riposte

n/a

n/a

We Haven't Met But You're A Great Fan Of Mine

n/a

n/a

All The Same, I Saw It First

n/a

n/a

Ravished By The Sheer Implausibility Of That Last Statement

n/a

n/a

Zero Credibility

n/a

n/a

Charming But Irrational

n/a

n/a

Demented But Determined

n/a

n/a

You May Not Be The Coolest Person Here

n/a

n/a

Lucid Nonsense

n/a

n/a

Awkward Customer

n/a

n/a

Thorough But ... Unreliable

n/a

n/a

Advanced Case Of Chronic Patheticism

n/a

n/a

Another Fine Product From The Nonsense Factory

n/a

n/a

Conventional Wisdom

n/a

n/a

In One Ear

n/a

n/a

Fine Till You Came Along

n/a

n/a

I Blame The Parents

n/a

n/a

Inappropriate Response

n/a

n/a

A Momentary Lapse Of Sanity

n/a

n/a

Lapsed Pacifist

n/a

n/a

Reformed Nice Guy

n/a

n/a

Pride Comes Before A Fall

n/a

n/a

Injury Time

n/a

n/a

Now Look What You've Made Me Do

n/a

n/a

Kiss This Then

n/a

GSV

Lasting Damage

n/a

GSV

Lasting Damage I

n/a

GSV

Lasting Damage II

n/a

GSV

Experiencing A Significant Gravitas Shortfall

n/a

Guardian Interview

The following ships have not appeared in any books, however they were named by Iain M Banks in an interview 1 with The Guardian. These ships obtained their names as a result of another (unnamed) involved civilization criticizing Culture ship naming policy, claiming that such powerful ships ought to have names with a little more gravitas.

  • Stood Far Back When The Gravitas Was Handed Out
  • Gravitas, What Gravitas?
  • Gravitas... Gravitas... No, Don't Help Me, I'll Get It In A Moment...
  • Gravitas Free Zone
  • Low Gravitas Warning Signal
  • Absolutely No You-No-What

See also

  • List of fictional spaceships

See Also

Ship Types of the Culture

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List of societies of the Culture setting

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