Matter
by Iain M. Banks
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Book Reviews of Matter
Book Review: what happened?
Summary: 3 Stars
As a great fan of Ian Banks and the Culture series, I could read 600 or 6000 pages without finding it too long and many of the ideas (such as Shellworlds and the mystery of their purpose) are quite interesting and fun. But Matter has such a rushed and sketchy ending that it's ultimately unsatisfying. If the brief ending is intended to tell us how fragile life is and how war really occurs, then this is done in a way that is pretty sophomoric and not very compelling. Also, many of the characters seem underdeveloped and none, other than a few AIs, are very sympathetic. And without spoiling the ending any further, to have a god-like (apparent) bad guy AI tricked in a simple fashion by the (apparent and frankly not very compelling) hero seems almost silly. Altogether, it feels like the publisher got antsy about the deadline and said "turn in your work now!" when it wasn't really finished. Too bad, because this is one of the most creative and stimulating Sci Fi series out there and Matter v2.0 could have been quite good.Book Review: Not Banks' finest novel.
Summary: 3 Stars
I've just come back from an exhausting session at the gym, so I'm in no shape to come up with a literary masterpiece of a review. Basically it's a long novel, as Culture novels often are, but in this case, it's too long. The synopsis given is actually misleading regarding one of the main characters and, while the ending has a twist I didn't foresee, it's not one that I found satisfactory. I have a feeling that Mr Banks is running out of ideas (or he's made enough money from his writing, or both).
These days I prefer to read Neal Asher's Polity series of books, which are similar to Culture, but could be interpreted as the early days of Culture, like Star Trek- Enterprise is to Star Trek- The Next Generation.
I have no doubt that Mr Banks has his share of fans and many will find this book more enjoyable than I. If you are one of them, then by all means grab a copy. Although I didnt like certain aspects of it, it is totally consistent with the Culture universe.
Thanks for reading :)
Book Review: Awesome Space Opera
Summary: 5 Stars
Take "Macbeth" and "The Hobbit", shake them together with a pinch of "The Lord of the Rings", set the result far in the future, and you've got the basics for this book.
A king is murdered and a son flees for his life into adventures that take him far beyond anything he'd ever expected to experience. On his adventures, he runs into his sister, long gone from the family and all grown up to be the far future equivalent of a special operator. They all return home to avenge the murder, and in the process stop Sauron.
Oh, and Samwise Gamgee lives happily ever after.
I picked this book up on Saturday afternoon, and finished it on Sunday evening. It sucked me in completely.
UPDATE: BTW, the book is worth it just for the names of the ships. Who'll ever forget "Eight Rounds Rapid", "Don't Try This At Home", or "Subtle Shift In Emphasis"? Reading Banks's books you get the impression that AIs have this hysterical, never quite revealed, take on the humans.
Book Review: Banks needs a better editor
Summary: 3 Stars
I wonder if some of Bank's earlier work (like "Player of Games" and "Consider Phlebus") are better because before he was successful he was forced to listen to the criticism of his editor(s). It just feels like "Matter" could really have benefited from some better editing. The writing is good, the characters are interesting and the basic concept of the story is cool, but the pacing of the plot is just awful (tedious) and the ending feels rushed and unsatisfying. Frankly this really goes for all of the Culture books since "Use of Weapons." If you are new to the Culture series, I recommend you read Player of Games first (great story, great character development). And don't worry about the order you read Culture books. Each one stands alone - they aren't sequels, they just happen in the same Universe. Once you have read enough of the other culture books, then you will probably be interested (and invested) enough to make reading "Matter" worth it.
Book Review: Not quite up to the standard of his other books
Summary: 4 Stars
For whatever reason, I just couldn't get into this novel like I could the other Culture novels. Banks's sentence structures seemed winding and vague, so at first I thought this was the problem. I went back and checked against an older novel (Player of Games), and found that the grammar in that was very similar, though. Lots of semi-colons, em-dashes, and asides.
So why was this one so much harder to get into? I think the problem is that while Banks's writing style works okay for Sci-Fi, it doesn't work so great for the more "fantasy"-esque sections of this story which focus on the royal family of The Eighth level of Surmasen. Those were the parts that I consistently had a hard time getting into.
That said, I did eventually get into the swing of things around page 100 or so, and am currently enjoying it. This one just took a while to pick up, unlike other Culture novels, where I've been hooked from the get-go.