Excession by Iain M. Banks

"You can't escape the fact that humanity is a technological species, homo technophile or whatever the Latin is. Technology is neither good or bad, it's up to the user. We can't escape what we are, which is a technological species. There's no way back." Iain M. Banks

"Excession is a rollicking space opera that is exciting, fun an funny! Expertly crafted by a master of the genre." Damian O'Brien

Although Excession is the fifth novel in the Culture series, it can be read without any prior knowledge of this particular science fiction universe. Bathurst Library has a copy. A free electronic (scanned) version is googleable.