Consider Phlebas is the first sci-fi book written by author Iain M. Banks. It's the first book in his classic sci-fi series The Culture, about a post-scarcity civilization — called the Culture — controlled by powerful artificial intelligences. Consider Phlebas drills down on a war between the Culture and the Idiran Empire, an expansionist empire dominated by religion. When a Culture Mind — a powerful AI — takes refuge on a distant planet, agents from both the Culture and the Idiran empire are sent to retrieve it.
Per Deadline, Prime Video is now adapting Consider Phlebas — which gets its title from T. S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land, if you're wondering — for TV. Author Charles Yu, who served as showrunner on the Hulu series Interior Chinatown in addition to writing on shows like Westworld, will be heading up the new series. Among the executive producers is Chloé Zhao, who won a Best Director Oscar for her film Nomadland. She's also working on a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot.
Banks wrote 10 Culture books in all before his death in 2013; Consider Phlebas originally came out in 1987. The premise is cool, and obviously relevant as the world grapples with increased use of generative AI. The Culture civilization is unique among sci-fi series in that the AIs are mainly benevolent, although you could make the argument that the Minds treat the biological citizens of the Culture like pets. If Prime Video chooses to adapt more of the books, we'll be introduced to other advanced civilizations and see how they approach the question of artificial intelligence.
Prime Video was actually working on an adaptation of Consider Phlebas six years ago, but that version fell through. The service has long been interested in sci-fi and fantasy shows, from The Expanse to The Wheel of Time to Fallout. Some of these series, like The Boys, have become big hits for Prime Video, while others, like The Peripheral, were cancelled before their time. Let's hope Consider Phlebas is one of the lucky ones.
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