The Idiran War, which lasted fifty years and claimed hundreds of billions of lives, ended several centuries ago. Culture, a community of advanced civilizations and artificial intelligences, is the most powerful force in the Universe and protects more primitive races. Among these wards are the inhabitants of the gas giants, known as Hams, whose character fully corresponds to their name. But all the cards are mixed when a physically impossible object Excession appears near the distant star Esperi - as if a relic of the “previous” Universe... A classic novel from the cycle about Culture - in a new translation!