"A Gift from the Culture", published in 1987, is a short work of space opera, by the Scottish science fiction author Iain M. Banks. The story is an early venture into the "complex and unusual and very distant" setting of the Culture, which Banks would further develop through various full length novels, stories, and his essay "A Few Notes on the Culture". It was re-published in the Banks anthology, The State of the Art (1991, ISBN 0-356-19669-0). Source: Wikipedia (en)