Consider Phlebas

During the war between the Culture, a post-scarcity machine-guided civilisation, and the theocratic Idiran Empire, the shape-changing mercenary Bora Horza Gobuchul works for the Idirans. He is sent to recover a Culture Mind that has taken refuge on Schar's World, a forbidden Planet of the Dead. Horza's route runs through a wrecked orbital, a cannibal cult, and a pirate ship whose crew he joins and betrays. The novel is space opera told from the side that opposes the Culture: a chase across habitats and barren ground to seize a single fugitive intelligence.

Bound in blue cloth blocked with an orange design on cover. Orange endpapers. Blue slipcase blocked with tiny gold stars and with printed illustration inside.