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Matter (Paperback)

by Iain M. Banks (Author)

3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

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Product Details

Paperback: 624 pages
Publisher: Orbit; Reprint edition (Feb 10 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0316005371
ISBN-13: 978-0316005371
Product Dimensions: 21 x 13.8 x 4.6 cm
Shipping Weight: 581 g

Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

Amazon.ca Sales Rank: #51,712 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
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#7 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > ( B ) > Banks, Iain M.

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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.

Product Description

In a world renowned even within a galaxy full of wonders, a crime within a war. For one man 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 civilizations 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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Customer Reviews

3 Reviews

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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3.7 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars another terrific Culture novel, Aug 24 2008

By	A reader (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Matter (Hardcover)

This is 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.

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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite Culture story yet., Aug 20 2008

By	L. Reeves (Toronto, ON Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

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2.0 out of 5 stars Too much universe building not enough action, Nov 27 2009

By	MartinH (Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

This was the first Iain M. Banks book I read and will probably be the last unfortunately. While I'm normally a big fan of universe and technology invention (authors such as Peter F. Hamilton, Tolkien, Asimov, etc...) it needs to have a purpose, it needs to be applied. Matter leads us down a number of secondary story lines which abruptly dead-end. And, while I applaud Banks for the breath of his imagination, I was never the less disappointed to see much of what he described in great detail go un-leveraged.

Matter never managed to grab my attention, never became a page-turner for me, never kept me up reading at night as other books have. The action was simply too slow to start (somewhere around the 550th page it I recall) and by then I was just looking for the end.

Maybe the whole of Bank's Culture books is greater than the sum of its parts, but, I don't plan on sitting through any of the others to find out.

The story in and of itself isn't bad and with some serious editing might make it a good movie or earn it 3 or 4 stars from me :-)

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