Awesome / Consider Phlebas

• At the very start of the book, a Culture warship manages to ambush the Hand of God. How had it remained hidden? By hiding in the outer layers of the system's sun.
• Horza's certifiably-insane Indy Ploy escape from the Ends of Invention — once he figures out that the Culture's onto him, he literally blasts his way out of the ship, nearly getting everyone onboard the Clear Air Turbulence killed innumerable times while performing extreme aerobatics... And he gets the old ship through the whole thing unscathed, something so ludicrous that even the Minds probably wouldn't have expected it.
• Unaho-Closp, the tiny little engineering drone the crew accidentally kidnapped from Vavatch, ramming an Idiran in the head to save Horza...TWICE.
  • The first time doubles as a Crowning Moment of Funny, as it comes completely out of nowhere and hits the Idiran straight in the chin with enough force to send him up into the air and down onto his back.
• A villainous example, but you have to hand it to Quayanorl. While he's the primary cause cause of the book's "Everybody Dies" Ending, this is due to him pulling off an epic Taking You with Me. He is literally shot to pieces, including once in the head, but because he's an Idiran, and just really damn stubborn, he manages to drag his shattered body to the controls of a Command System train (described in excruciatingly gory detail), and just survives long enough to direct it towards the protagonists.

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