I found this at WikiPedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consider_Phlebas

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Consider Phlebas (ISBN 1857231384) is a science fiction book by Iain M. Banks first published in 1987. It is Banks' first science fiction novel, set in The Culture, and takes its title from a line in T. S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land; Look to Windward could be considered a follow up because of both the storyline and the fact that both titles are from that poem.

The novel revolves around the Idiran-Culture War, and Banks plays on that theme by presenting various microcosms of that conflict.

read here, for more on The Culture...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Culture

formerly known as etaoin...