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Read an extract from The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks

Space

Read an extract from The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks

The 51�� Book Club is currently reading Iain M. Banks's classic sci-fi novel The Player of Games. In this extract, we meet protagonist Gurgeh for the first time

Culture

Why sci-fi novelist Iain M. Banks was an ‘astounding’ world-builder

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Why sci-fi novelist Iain M. Banks was an ‘astounding’ world-builder

Culture

Grace Chan and debut novel Every Version of You

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Grace Chan: 'How to stay in love after uploading into virtual reality'

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Our verdict on Our Brains, Our Selves: A mix of praise and misgivings

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Our verdict on Our Brains, Our Selves: A mix of praise and misgivings

Culture

Book Club: Read an extract from Every Version of You by Grace Chan

Technology

Book Club: Read an extract from Every Version of You by Grace Chan

Culture

If you could upload your mind to a virtual utopia, would you?

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If you could upload your mind to a virtual utopia, would you?

Culture

A human brain made with golden wires

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Neurologist explains how brain disorders shape our sense of self

Video

Handout still for the film Blue Planet Red. Wrench Tool and Container Discovered by Rolf Varga, the Spirit Rover photographed two funny-looking rocks that resemble a wrench and open-top container laid on its side. https://blueplanetred.net/images

Space

Blue Planet Red is wrong about Mars – but it's surprisingly poignant

Culture

A human brain made with golden wires

Mind

Why Our Brains, Our Selves won the Royal Society science book prize

Culture

Marcel Proust, photographed in 1905

Health

Read an extract from Our Brains, Our Selves by Masud Husain

In this passage from Our Brains, Our Selves, winner of the Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize, neuroscientist Masud Husain recounts how novelist Marcel Proust became convinced, wrongly, that he'd had a stroke

Culture

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Our verdict on ‘The Dispossessed’: A tricky but rewarding novel

Culture

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The best new science fiction books of October 2025

Culture

Video

Why is Ursula K. Le Guin's 'The Dispossessed' so popular 50 years on?

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Humans

A compelling book about the end of the Neanderthals is a rare treat

Culture