Matter
by Iain M. Banks
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Book Reviews of Matter
Book Review: About the same as Look to Windward
Summary: 4 Stars
Like all banks Culture novels it takes a while to get going; usually about a third of the way before you find it possible to start putting it all together coherently. This one took its own sweet time too, but once it did, it still did not hold me like The Algebraist, Look to Windward, and especially Excession. That, however, doesn't mean it is still not better than ninety percent of what is being published nowadays. And like all of his other novels, it will grow on you. What I found most difficult was trying to like the World setting in which the main action took place, but that's still a minor objection that caused me to rate it "only" four stars instead of five. It's worth the read if you have the patience to get through the first two hundred fifty or so pages of stage setting.And I think I'll probably enjoy it even more if I read it a second time. 1/1/2009 Update: I just finished reading it a second time, and it indeed grew on me and I found it more enjoyable to read this time. I still have trouble with the setting, but the rest of it made more sense as well as being easier to integrate everything earlier due to having read it last winter. Maybe that doesn't make too much sense , but I found myself paying closer attention to details I had not noticed were important the first time I read it, if that helps make it clearer.
If you can, you should read Excession and/or Look to Windward before reading this in order to attain a better understanding of Banks' "Culture" milieu. But even if you don't you will still find this book to be thoroughly enjoyable. Read with care and attention to detail, it will be even more rewarding.
Book Review: Big Ideas overwhelm Story
Summary: 3 Stars
There are essentially two kinds of science fiction writers: those who use a story to expound their Big Ideas, and those whose Story just happens to contain a big idea or two.
I've always been a fan of the latter group, and long thought Mr. Banks to be its shining example, but I'm forced to conclude that in his latest offering, the man has too many Ideas and not enough Story.
With twenty four other reviews already on this site, it falls to me to reinforce and amplify some of the comments made by earlier reviewers. Much of the novel is taken up with characters moving from place to place without doing very much of anything except ruminating on the nature of the universe. Go-nowhere subplots overload the front end, while the ending feels rushed and compressed almost to the point of unintelligibility. The end result feels hurried and uneven, with little payoff for your efforts to wade through the earlier chapters.
That's the bad news. The good news is that this is indeed some of the most inventive fiction out there, and the scope of Mr. Banks' universe-building remains awesome. Every setting is entirely fresh, fascinating in concept and thoughtful in delivery, populated with truly *alien* aliens, and powered by technology of almost giddy inventiveness.
Still, it is hard to recommend Matter to anyone new to Mr. Banks' works. Consider Philebas also explores our insignificance in the universe, but does so with far more wit and dash and far less navel-gazing, while Use of Weapons is both more inventively structured and more entertainingly written. Both are highly recommended.
Book Review: supern science fiction
Summary: 5 Stars
Far from the affluent technologically advanced Culture buried deep underneath the surface of the artificial "Shellworld" Sursamen lays the backwater Kingdom of the Sarl ruled by King Hausk who has three offspring. His heir is Oramen while his spare is Ferbin; the third sibling and only female the discarded Djan vanished into exile a long time ago.
In a coup, the conspirators assassinate King Hausk and blame Ferbin, who escapes their attempts to kill him to cover their crimes. They place Oramen on the throne as an image of continuity, but the assassins are the true power and do not hide their control of power. Meanwhile Ferbin seeks the help of his sister to free Oramen, take back the throne and avenge their sire. However Djan is no longer the same person she once was since she became an operative of the Culture's Special Circumstances that intrudes on lesser civilizations for the better good of the galaxy.
The Kingdom of Sarl comes across as a genuine backward place surrounded by seemingly superior technology everywhere outside the monarchy. The three siblings are fully developed especially the "spare" and the "discarded" who must go home to save their people in spite of the fact that neither is wanted nor needed. The eighth "Culture" tale is a superb entry that merges political machinations that come across as Renaissance Era Machiavellian maneuvers with advanced space technology; the smooth blending showcases why Iain M. Banks is consistently one of the best science fiction authors.
Harriet Klausner
Book Review: Fascinatingly Boring
Summary: 2 Stars
This story, set in Banks' Culture universe, follows three siblings from a world where firearms is a recent invention. The brothers are princes of a people on this world, and for a long time, the story mostly follows their adventures on the world itself.
The princess is now a Culture citizen, and we follow her adventures as well.
Obviously, the three interchanging stories are related to a central plot, but my main problem with the book is that although the Culture chapters are fascinating in general, the other story archs could just as well have appeared in a fantasy or historical novel. They just don't feel like science fiction and leaves me lacking a sense of wonder and awe.
Add to this that the plot isn't that original and chugs along at a slow pace, and you've got a book that's vaguely fascinating in places, but mostly just boring.
The book is almost 600 pages long, but could have easily been trimmed down to 200-300 pages without losing much of the overall plot.
Although I must admit that I find it refreshing to read far-future SF where mankind, for once, is at the top of the galactic food chain, it's also the Culture universe's biggest narrative problem, because Banks has to seek conflict and intrigue in other places, but as a reader, you fail to become engaged.
Given that the book does contain some good SF ideas and concepts, it's intriguing that the result is so dull as is the case.
Book Review: Right up there with his best
Summary: 5 Stars
Several years ago I was browsing through a used book store and saw a book with a strange title, and this really neat looking ringworld on the cover. I had never heard of Banks, and certainly never heard of the Culture or Consider Phlebas. But I grabbed it. And I was completely blown away.
I've been a Culture devotee ever since. And this time I got even more than I was looking for.
A lot of Banks' novels just use the Culture universe as a vehicle for the larger story Banks is trying to tell. Whether or not the reader likes it, its what makes the Culture universe so impregnably great. Sure, he could water it down, give everyone what they're clamoring for, and cash in - but I think Banks saves his favorite plot threads for use in Culture novels, or ones that he can fit to it anyway. I found Matter highly satisfying. It is so much larger than just another Culture novel. Banks has a tendency to go off into the thicket from time to time, but in Matter I felt the story had a coherent, consistent pace. The plot does speed up in the end but so does the excitement! Part of what makes Bank's writing so exciting is how he leaves just enough up to the imagination to take your thoughts to that next level - moments when you get to climb up there with him and his lofty creativity.
In the end, Matter wraps up not the backing Sci-Fi plot intricacies we're drooling to know more about, but the theme, and very well.