Identification points are listed only where two independent sources agree. Last reviewed 20 Oct 2026.
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Published under the science fiction byline Iain M. Banks by Orbit in London in late January 2008, as a hardback in dust jacket, ISBN 9781841494173 (593 pages). Orbit issued a trade paperback (ISBN 9781841494180) on the same day, so the hardback is the collectable state; Sotheby's has offered it as a first edition, first printing in its original jacket within a set of Culture firsts. The American Orbit hardback (ISBN 9780316005364) came out about a month later with different pagination and is not the UK first. Check for the Orbit imprint and a 2008 date on the copyright page.
We have not yet confirmed the issue points that tell this first impression from later ones. Until we do, compare your copy's title page and copyright page with the publisher, place and year above: any later printing or edition statement means it is not this one.
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Orbit, London, in 2008, in hardback.
Points of issue are listed only where at least two independent sources agree. Last reviewed 20 October 2026. Reviewed by Harriet Ellis; read how we check facts.
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