Matter – book review
Posted by Ed on 26 January 2008
Matter - Iain M Banks - Orbit - 2008
It’s been a long time coming but The Culture is back. Sort of. Matter is much more than a new Culture book, it’s beyond The Culture. Much of the plot takes place outside Culture space, within the domain of another massive alien alliance and focusing more on its inhabitants. But of course, The Culture is never far away.
Readers of Banks’ SF novels and the Culture in particular will know what to expect. Huge artificial constructs, interweaving plots and shifting narrative viewpoints, bizarre alien races, blood soaked battlefields, smart-ass drones and ships with funny names, all pulled off with the intelligence, skill and fun that we have come to expect from an author of Banks’ calibre. This may be the longest Culture novel yet but it’s a straightforward, and very entertaining, read.
Matter book review - Matter - book review said
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disrepdog said
Can’t wait and I’m very envious that you’ve already read it!
:-)
Ed said
It’s in shops now so everybody can go and get their copies forthwith.
Darren T said
To what extent do you think it’s a Culture book for Culture fans, mate? I kinda got the impression that because I’m not absolutely steeped in Culture lore, I was missing out on a few references here and there… or is that just me being paranoid? ;)
Ed said
You have a point. Despite there being some Culture background included as a few info dumps, I don’t think it’s the title to introduce newcomers to the books. Yes, there are some obvious references to events in previous books (eg. the Idiran War in Consider Phlebas) and there may well be more but, to be honest, it’s been quite a few years since I read them all so I suspect I might have missed some of the more subtle ones too. Or they may not be there at all and Iain’s just messing with our heads (like he would ever do that).
So yes, it probably is one for the fans. But then I don’t think Iain worries about attracting new readers anymore. He lets us do that for him. He just writes what he wants to write.