It's got to be Iain M Banks' "Consider Phlebas'.

The opening scene; the attack on the temple; the fight under the hovercraft; the CAT shooting its way out of the small-bay; the ice-berg; taking an orbital down with grid-fire; the train. It's made for the big screen. It's the ultimate space-opera, with weird aliens, hyper-intelligent machines, rocket-ships and ray-guns. There's even a plot twist where the "evil" culture turn out to be the good guys (oops, spoiler, sorry).

But it doesn't stop there. Once the culture has been introduced, the sequel potential using it as a framework is fantastic; Excession, Use of Weapons; The Player of Games; Look to Windward...

And Iain's on record as saying that he wouldn't mind (too much) if they stapled a happy ending onto it. You know: Horza survives and sees the error of his ways; hooks up with Balveda, who recruits him into SC. Job done. Hollywood'll love it!

The Rat obviously

Of the Stainless Steel Type naturally.

Then there is the wondeful

Venus on the Half Shell by Kilgore Trout (aka K Vonnegut)

Mines the one with a copy of Stranger in a Strange Land in the pocket. (I'm reading it on the train at the moment)