Consider Phlebas
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Consider Phlebas (ISBN 1857231384) is a novel by Iain M. Banks first published in 1987. It is Banks' first science fiction novel, set in the Culture universe, and takes its title from a line in T. S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land. Look to Windward, whose title comes from the same poem, can be considered a loose follow-up.
The novel revolves around the Idiran-Culture War, and Banks plays on that theme by presenting various microcosms of that conflict. Perhaps surprisingly, especially since this is the first (published) Culture novel, its central character is actually an enemy of the Culture.
The Culture and the Idiran Empire are at war in a galaxy-spanning conflict. Horza, a genetically-engineered mercenary capable of altering his appearance at will, is assigned the task of retrieving a Culture Mind from a remote planet by his Idiran handlers. In the course of his travels he encounters, and joins, a band of pirates, all the while doggedly pursued by a Culture agent, Balveda. By way of an Orbital scheduled for destruction, Horza ultimately leads the pirates to Schar's World, a Planet of the Dead, and the hideout of the fugitive Mind. There, joined by some Idirans and Balveda, he battles through its labyrinth as he attempts to capture a worthy prize for the Idirans.