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Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. This magnificent eighth novel (after 2000's Look to Windward) of the Culture, an interstellar posthuman civilization of incredible wealth and technological sophistication, centers on three siblings: Ferbin and Oramen, the misfit heirs of conquering King Hausk of the Sarl, who rules a backward and patriarchal realm deep beneath the surface of the artificial Shellworld Sursamen, and their exiled sister, Djan, now a powerful agent of the Culture's Special Circumstances division. When King Hausk is murdered, Ferbin narrowly avoids the conspirators and sets out across the galaxy to ask Djan's help with revenge against the killer, now serving as Oramen's regent. Soon they learn of the horrific forces a hidden enemy is about to unleash on Sursamen, and must race to save the home that has rejected them both. Beautifully written and filled with memorable characters and startling technology, this tale of intricate politics and interstellar warfare ably demonstrates that Banks is still at the height of his powers. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Review
'You can always expect the unexpected with an Iain M. Banks novel. So sit back and enjoy a tale with more than a twist or three in Matter. For a start, it's a rattling good story: a man accused of something he didn't do. Lots of action, lots of mind-boggling imaginative thought in this excellent piece of SF, read by Toby Longworth' Daily Express 'You can, if you must, draw clever comparisons between the conflicts in Matter and what's happening in Iraq. Or you can just sit back and listen to Toby Longworth's tongue-in-cheek reading of a very funny book' The Guardian 'There is now no British SF writer to whose work I look forward with greater keenness' The Times 'Confirms Banks as the standard by which the rest of SF is judged' The Guardian 'Explosive' Sunday Times 'Gripping, touching and funny' T.L.S. 'A wild imagination' Mail on Sunday 'Captivating' Time Out 'Spectacular ... the field needs his energy' The Scotsman 'Banks is a phenomenon' William Gibson 'Beautifully written and filled with memorable characters and startling technology, this tale of intricate politics and intersteller warfare ably demostrates that Banks is still at the height of this powers' - Publishers Weekly 'Banks can bring across the essence of a character with one sentence where others might hammer things home over the course of a chapter. . .Matter is as engrosing as you'd expect a Banks book to be' - Starburst 'Unexpectedly savage, emotionally powerful and impossible to forget' - The Times 'Set in an intricate, yet wonderfully realised world, this latest Culture novel will pull you in and keep you hooked right up to the explosive finale. Matter cannot fail to captivate established fans and newcomers alike' - Waterstone's Books Quarterly 'This long-awaited return for both a writing legend and his finest creation is a delight' - SFX 'A searing inquiry into justified warfare and the dangers of imposing your ideas of civilisation, told at a rattling pace with breathtaking set pieces and oddles of wit and charm. ..It's exhilarating to see what he can do when he goes full-throttle into the form: to my mind, he's simply the finest and most consistently challenging writer in that genre' - Scotland on Sunday
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Most helpful customer reviews
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
My favorite Culture story yet.,
By
This review is from: Matter (Hardcover)
Matter is the latest Culture book by Banks, and I personally found it superb. The story works on several levels and explores more of the rich Culture universe; in fact, the one area I'd be close to griping about is the amount of depth added in the galactic community. It almost feels like the Culture is overshadowed.Well, almost. Banks takes us deeper into the areas of Special Circumstances (the covert operations branch of his anarchic utopia) and though some of it feels like a modernizing of his earlier concepts, there's a lot of new ideas of his at play here concerning the responsibilities of societal intervention, morality as applied across massive cultural boundaries, cross-species relations and much more. In true Banks fashion there's healthy doses of action, well-written dialogue and politically clever ideas driving the whole story and Culture forward. Whether you're a fan of his other work or not, this book is a must-own for any s.f. collector.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
another terrific Culture novel,
By A reader (Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Matter (Hardcover)
This is the latest Culture novel from the fantastic Scottish SF writer Iain M Banks and it is well worth your time regardless of whether you're already a devout fan or just approaching the Culture for the first time.As usual, the human characters are not terribly compelling but Banks more than compensates for this with beautiful writing, incredible scene-setting and his matchless imagination. There is always so much to look at, think about and drown in that you hardly notice the flaws. Matter is set outside the Culture, mostly on an incredibly complex, multi-layered world inhabited by a variety of species at various technological levels who maintain stable relationships through a careful system of mentoring and political control. On the most technologically primitive level, dastardly intrigues and an archaeological dig in a ruined hi-tech metropolis threaten not only the stability of the world but its very existence. A Special Circumstances agent native to the level sets out to investigate only to find the situation complicated by the fact that the world is managed by a civilization as advanced as the Culture. The story unfolds (as is typical with Banks) through multiple viewpoints scattered sometimes hundreds of light years of space and years of narrative time apart. This is superb high-concept SF which will leave you amazed at the author's capacity for invention.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Underwhelming from a superb author,
This review is from: Matter (Paperback)
Weak. Iain M Banks has established a far higher standard than this for his sci-fi novels and this one simply fails under its own pretensions. It drags badly through the early stages (which led me to take up to three attempts to overcome the early part of the book - something which is nearly unheard of as I often slog through books that I detest simply to finish the story - even a Dan Brown book) and only starts to pick up pace about 7/8 of the way through at which point it clatters along quickly to a conclusion that even Mr Banks himself has to admit is disappointing in its abrupt failure to complete the book. He has set himself an unusually high standard with earlier books which stand out as superb examples of when sci-fi goes right and it's very disappointing to see such a great author deliver something so unworthy of his name. Surface Detail, Use of Weapons, Consider Phlebas all stand as far superior novels from a sci-fi author who has done better and will do better again.
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