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Matter

Author: Iain M. Banks
Publisher: Orbit
Category: Book

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Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

67 reviews
Sales Rank: 428

Media: Hardcover
Pages: 544
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.5 x 2

ISBN: 1841494178
EAN: 9781841494173
ASIN: 1841494178

Publication Date: January 31, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new, in stock. Shipped from the UK by First Class Royal Mail service in eco-friendly packaging.

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Customer Reviews: Read 62 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

Another great read from a sci-fi master July 17, 2008
This book seems to have received a fairly mixed response but I think it stands up with Banks' best sci-fi adventures. I honestly did not want it to end, savouring each page. The imagination and scale of the ships, shellworld and story itself are simply breathtaking. Highly recommended.

3 out of 5 stars

Time to Sublime? July 2, 2008
I've been a huge Banks fan since The Wasp Factory and Consider Phlebas, but on reading Matter it appears that the joyousness has gone from the Culture. Where is the humour that marked other novels?
Maybe the Culture started growing up around the time of Look To Windward and this just continues the process into middle age.

3 out of 5 stars

The Banks magic is there but........ June 21, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Aaarrrggghhh! You wait all that time for another Banks/Culture masterpiece, you finally get it in your sweaty little paws and what happens? Well, not much actually.
Sure the elements are all there (though in somewhat strange - and often diminutive - proportions) but somehow he doesn't seem to have knitted them all together to deliver the highly satisfying experience that was "Excession" or "Look to Windward".
Having found his last three novels all excellent (Dead Air/Algebraist/Garbedale) I suppose my expecations may have been impossibly high and destined for an anti-climax, but then I suppose I had developed a strange belief that Mr Banks had reached a point in his art where he could defy such earthbound phenomena as human fallibility.
Nevertheless, it was still a decent read, it just lacked some of the expected potency - where was the usual visionary display of technology in combat? The space-opera set pieces that tax your ability to visualise? The trademark unguessable twists that force you to pause your fevered reading to absorb what he has just revealed?
Perhaps the inclusion of a glossary gives a clue to one piece of the problem. Part of the Banks magic (in my opinion) was that he induced you to involve yourself in the story by introducing some elements without explanation, though with enough context that you could extrapolate and fill the gaps with a good guess. You then later had the reward of Mr Banks nonchalantly confirming you were largely correct in your extrapolation just in time for him to take matters off in a delightfully breathtaking direction.
This time round though, it seems he has opted for visible complexity. Sure there are a lot of elements species/locations/characters etc on display but they seem to add substance but little depth. Everything is a little too clearly defined and part of the journey is travelled for you. However, despite this slight disappointment, my faith in Mr Banks' skill remains undiminished - it may have not been the helter-skelter I was expecting but I'll still be waiting eagerly to buy my hardback-ticket for his next ride.

5 out of 5 stars

Hang on a second... June 10, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful

I have been an avid hardcore Sci-Fi fan for the past 30 years and have read all of Banks' works. Each of the culture books has introduced some significant new aspect of the culture (with the possible exception of Inversions) which has continued to entertain and enthrall. Matter, once again, has lived up to the previous outings and introduces a magnificently conceived variation on a Dyson sphere, which, to my reasonably extensive knowledge of Sci-Fi over the past 30 years, is unique. However, even set against this enigmatic edifice, Banks has still managed to weave an intricately woven story about ordinary people that illuminates the technological tour-de-force of the background. He has used the juxtaposition previously employed in Feersum Endjinn to great effect and after a slightly slow start where he builds the tension and sets the scene for the final battle, the story goes into imagination overdrive as the main characters leave the Shell world and journey out into the culture.
It beggars belief that some of the previous reviews complain of it being "contrived" or even "predictable", or best yet "nothing new here". ?????

Read it. Be amazed. Read it a second time, and truly appreciate the mastery and craftsmanship that emanates from Banks' mind. Enough said.

4 out of 5 stars

Matter June 10, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful

A new Iain Banks novel is something to look forward to like that holiday you booked late last year, or that annual bonus you were promised with your next pay cheque. Alternately releasing mainstream novels as Iain Banks, and his hugely successful science-fiction novels as Iain M. Banks, there's always something to look foward to. His last book was set outside his usual universe, meaning that it's been about eight years since his last novel set within the galaxies-wide civilization known as "the Culture".

"Matter" is a faithful return to the universe that Banks has created, further developing not only the Culture, but the outlying words and civlizations that the Culture must interact (or interfere) with. There is a lot to enjoy within the 600-or so pages, including a selection of bizzare new races, the usual Special Circumstances agents who get all the interesting dirty work, and their deadly and quirky drone accomplices. Fans of the Culture novels might be disappointed that the Minds, supremely powerful AIs that control the Culture's quirkily-named spacecraft, take a bit of a back seat here. In fact, the Culture itself is primarily something draped across the background of the story, rather than playing a huge part in it.

The novels is set mostly on a rare type of planet called a "Shellworld", apparently-artificially-created worlds that are hollow and composed of several layers, each occupied by a different atmosphere and one or two accompanying species. The world itself is a centrepiece for a great drama that begins with the death of a king, and the resulting squabbles and battle. It's a sound plot with several twists, played out by some well-drawn characters and sprinkled liberally with gimmicky gadgets and awesome action set pieces. More linear that most Banks novels, it can afford to get into detail without confusing the readers or making them wait for a concrete details to figure out when and where they are. There are a lot of details, with Banks taking liberties with the knowledge that publishers and readers pretty much expect it now. Thankfully there aren't many irrelivancies, and of course the more specifics about the new species and the unfamiliar planet-type the better.

Banks seems fully aware that he will need to do a lot of satisfy fans with this one. He opens with a traditionally Culture-like scene involving action, drama, humour and sarcastic drones. He then throws us into the almost medieval style society of the Shellworld, describing its intricacies and introducing its close cast of relevant inhabitants. From there we are shown the Culture from the outside, which although providing us with a new view of the morally ambiguous civilization also serves to distance us from it. Bad move from Mr Banks, but it's not a total loss. There's enough of Special Circumstances and its interaction with neighbouring races to keep things familiar as we explore the Shellworld and the revelations that take place there on, in and around it.

His creations and their almost senseless banter are too fruity to be believed (although he did more than stretched believability to begin with). They all leave the reader with a mild suspicion that Banks is, to put it bluntly, taking the piss. Seeing how much he can get away with before somebody slaps him down and says, "Okay, too far." It does get silly at times, but then that's kind of what Banks' sci-fi is about: yanking imagination out into big long strings like warm Blu-Tack, and then rolling them up into a confused bundle and hope that something amazing takes shape. In this case, Banks is reasonably successful. It's not perhaps the best thing he's written, and nothing to match "Consider Phlebas" or "Excession", but it's a good read and its length counterbalanced by the fine prose and well-tuned dialogue. If you like the Culture novels, or even if you just like sci-fi, you're sure to enjoy it. And, as always, you needn't have read any of the others to understand it, which is common practice nowadays. Give it a go, enjoy the depth of the characters, the silliness of the aliens, and the breathtaking final scenes. It's awesome and its fun and it's proper literature as well. Bonus!