It's almost the opposite of a Culture novel; the mainstream small-c culture is an extremely hierarchical, religious, rather technophobic, pseudo-capitalist society (the Dwellers are arguably a bit more Culture-y).
I'm not sure it's clear that Luceferous is even the villain. He's pretty unpleasant, obviously, but almost a side-issue.
The other major non-Culture sci-fi novel, Against a Dark Background, is also notably un-Culture-y.
It’s weird how Banks can casually create a villain character with such depth and richness almost as a side character and discard the character, whereas other sci fi books/movies would build everything around such a character, if they could manage to make one, which they can’t.
I'm not sure any [M] Banks books have a villain as a central character. Closest would probably be Veppers in Surface Detail (a wonderful creation, one of the most dislikable villains in any work), but even then he's arguably slightly a side-character.
I've wanted to see a movie of Consider Phlebas ever since I read the book in one sitting (literally) in May 1988... :-)
Edit: I remember it vividly as I took one day off between handing in my final year project on the CS degree I was doing and starting the final round of revision for the exams that were starting soon.
Wandered down to Bauermeister Books on the George IV bridge and picked up a copy and spent the rest of the day (until the wee small hours) reading it.
Oh, yeah, forgot about that one. I don't think it's really particularly clear where it's set at all; very little detail given about the wider world, IIRC.
I'm not sure it's clear that Luceferous is even the villain. He's pretty unpleasant, obviously, but almost a side-issue.
The other major non-Culture sci-fi novel, Against a Dark Background, is also notably un-Culture-y.