Look to Windward

A Culture novel by Iain M. Banks. As the light of two stars destroyed during the Idiran War is about to reach the Masaq' Orbital, the Chelgrian emissary Quilan arrives to bring the exiled composer Ziller home. Quilan carries a secret purpose rooted in a Chelgrian caste war that the Culture helped provoke, and the novel explores guilt, grief and the consequences of the Culture's interventions.