Consider Phlebas

A voyage of discovery, capture and escape forms the backdrop to Iain M. Banks's phantasmagoric tour de force incorporating cutting-edge ideas, phenomenal saga and a most audacious plot. A war across the galaxy is imminent. The Idirans fight for their Faith and the Culture for its right to exist. Their principles are at stake. There can be no surrender! Within the cosmic conflict an individual crusade: deep within a fabled labyrinth on a barren world lies a fugitive Mind. Both sides seek it as their own destruction looms.