Reviews

Matter by Iain M. Banks

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tarsel's review against another edition

4.0

Massively imaginative, awesomely scoped, brilliantly authored. But, after the climax there are too many loose ends, leading to questions which Banks would normally have answered in a serious of epilogues.

tom_leslie's review against another edition

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4.0

Matter
Iain M. Banks

Has a fairly obtuse start, so oddly think I had a better time after accidentally spoiling some aspects of the setting. Found myself really enjoying the characters in this one, especially Holse, and - as always - was a big fan of the tech and environments throughout.

3.5/5

zrinkas's review against another edition

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5.0

Absolutely loved this book, imho the best Culture book I’ve read! I loved the whole idea of Shellworlds and their complexities and my favorite part was that each Shellworld is inhabited by a wide variety of species, each at a different level of evolution/technological advancement. Would love to see this one turned into a movie!

kejadlen's review against another edition

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2.0

As fascinating as I find the concept of the Culture, I just don't really enjoy the stories all that much. I think this will be the last Culture book I'm going to read.

writinwater's review

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adventurous slow-paced

3.25

benny_n's review against another edition

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2.0

Solid and enjoyable but ultimately forgettable Culture novel. The climax especially felt a bit underwhelming. I think the problem was that although the standard themes of Culture novels around different levels of quest for power (which is itself a critique of this quest) worked well, there wasn't much in terms of new specific insights that made this particularly work-through of those themes important.