Six hundred pages of pleasure and stimulation

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	• Matter Iain M. Banks Orbit, 2008 - 608 pages average customer review:based on 43 reviews view larger image
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Six hundred pages of pleasure and stimulation

It seems that everything that reviewers have complained about here are things that I actually liked about "Matter."

(1) Length. I had no problem reading the nearly six hundred pages, and gladly would have read more. Those who found much of the material irrelevant should wait for the Cliff's Notes. The question of what is and is not important is, after all, one of the book's main themes.

(2) The fact that it's not "Consider Phlebas" or "Use of Weapons." Good. I'm sure that Banks would be bored with writing the same book over and over again, and I'd be bored reading it.

(3) The ending. Most books can't manage even one terrific ending. This one provides TWO. Granted, it may not be what most readers might have expected. But that's the point. Those who become too invested in the petty doings of a barbarian culture deserve to be reminded that they really DON'T amount to a hill of beans in the pan-galactic scheme of things--and rather sharply.

And on the purely positive side, the book contains things that every reader should like. Culture. Cheeky AI's. Neat weapons. An endless supply of REALLY alien civilizations. Moral ambiguity and inscrutability.

If Banks' next Culture book is completely different that this one, and is at least six hundred pages long, I bet I'll be completely satisfied as I was with this one.

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The Culture is back..

I'm a big fan of Ian Banks and the Culture series and this latest chapter
is a great read and addition to the series.
While not as stunning as earlier Culture books (Consider Phlebas, Use of Weapons, Player of Games), Matter continues Ian Banks mixed dark and hopeful themes, examining human nature, economics and technology.

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Great!!!

First of all I love the entire Culture series...aside from Frank Herbert's Dune series, this is the best sci-fi series of all time. The philosophy and sociology in these books offers a fascinating lesson for modern times. Alot of the professional reviews said this book was too long, I thought there was a sense of adventure throughout the book and I thought it ended all too soon. The ending was abrupt, and typically Banksian i.e. lots of people die. I would have liked to learn more about the Aultridia and the Morthanveld, but maybe they'll turn up in later novels...

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One of Bank's better

Bank's latest Culture novel, Matter, is one of the strongest in the series, together with Player of Games and Excession. The plot involves several perspectives on the Culture universe as Banks presents a whole hierarchy of civilisations, from a medieval society placed within an artificial world, to the different caretakers of the same world (and their conflicts with one another), to the supremes like Culture and the Morganwelt. We meet a lot of characters: a medieval prince fighting for his right to the throne, a SC agent on her way home, an ancient ship mind, a renegade from the culture and some really weird and dangerous aliens, to mention a few. Highly recommended.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

In a world renowned even within a galaxy full of wonders, a crime within a war. For one brother it means a desperate flight, and a search for the one - maybe two - people who could clear his name. For his brother it means a life lived under constant threat of treachery and murder. And for their sister, even without knowing the full truth, it means returning to a place she'd thought abandoned forever.

Only the sister is not what she once was; Djan Seriy Anaplian has changed almost beyond recognition to become an agent of the Culture's Special Circumstances section, charged with high-level interference in civilisations throughout the greater galaxy.

Concealing her new identity - and her particular set of abilities - might be a dangerous strategy, however. In the world to which Anaplian returns, nothing is quite as it seems; and determining the appropriate level of interference in someone else's war is never a simple matter.

MATTER is a novel of dazzling wit and serious purpose. An extraordinary feat of storytelling and breathtaking invention on a grand scale, it is a tour de force from a writer who has turned science fiction on its head.

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