In the galaxy-spanning war between the Culture and the Idirans, the hero of this space-opera, Horza the Changer, has sided with the Idirans, even though he is humanoid and they are not. Because of his ability to assume the appearance of anyone, he is able to spy on the enemy on behalf of his allies. But then he gets caught by the Culture. And then rescued by the Idirans. And then their ship is blown up. And then he alone escapes death and goes in search of an escaped Mind (a sentient super computer), along with the rag-tag crew of a pirate vessel. And so on and so forth, from one peril to another.
Iian M. Banks saves all this from becoming ridiculous by his near-flawless ability to narrate set-piece space and personal battles so that they become easily visualized and ultra-exciting. He is much less successful at portraying believable characters and elucidating cloudy motivations. In particular, Horza's reasons for hating the Culture are never convincingly explained.
I chose to read this because Banks has been one of the "big names" in science fiction for the past 20 or so years. Judging from this sample book, I would say that he represents the school of action adventure novels very well. It's just not my preferred type of science fiction.
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Interesting note: This author also wrote mainstream novels under the name Iain Banks. His novel The Wasp Factory is ultra-creepy and highly memorable.
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