I haven’t read all of Iain M. Banks The Culture series, but I highly recommend Use of Weapons. I’ve read it three times, and it gets better each time.
It’s not a bad introduction to The Culture, but please feel free to recommend another novel to start with, or your favourite. I’ve read this, Look to Windward, Consider Phlebas, and The Player of Games. As I recall, Look to Windward has some good descriptions of a large Culture ship.
I’d also love to hear your favourite ship name.
Edit: I see I added The to the title…
I’ve gone through (I think) the whole Culture series of Banks. Weirdly enough, they got recommended to me by a barber when I was ~15yrs. Sweet guy, he had no tv & read a shit tonne. I love the philosophical and/or societal talking points overarching each of Banks book most, I’m awful at recalling the actual stories. There’s identity crisis in Consider Phlebas, purpose in Player of Games, excession in the aptly named Excession, the list goes on really. Plus hyper sci-fi, so a bunch of wobbly physics and warfare situations going on. If you can’t tell, I love these books lol