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tom_leslie's review against another edition
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
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
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
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.
benny_n's review against another edition
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.
jasonhenry42's review against another edition
3.0
I liked it, and I love the Culture universe and Banks' writing style. But the ending was weird.
jeremyhornik's review against another edition
3.0
Culture series books. Some I like more, some less. This was a more.
testpattern's review against another edition
3.0
This is a pretty rad horsechoker of a novel. This is the kind of thing I like to read on the bus. It's candy, but smart, engrossing candy.
rixx's review against another edition
3.0
I like *Iain Banks* and his **Culture** series very much, but **Matter** was a let-down for me. It's an okay book, and that's really quite disappointing copared to the potential of both the series and its own contents.
**Matter** shows us a *lot* of things I'm really interested in: We get to see somebody who is still in training to be a Special Circumstances agent, *and* she comes from a fairly archaic non-Culture world, to boot! This gives us a nice comment on the Culture from her eyes, and at least a bit of character development. This was definitely the good part.
But we get many more POV characters, and most of them weren't all that interesting. Her two brothers, princes in said archaic world, drag the plot instead of carrying it (although those two definitely get most of the character development).
On the scifi side of things, again, we are introduced to many really cool things: Several different non-humanoid alien species with very alien needs and views and communication tactics. Different kinds of world, like the Nestworld and the Shellworlds. These are the things Banks is really, really good at. But sadly we spend about 10% of the book exploring these concepts, 80% with set-up maneuvering getting all characters to the point of readiness, and then 10% of an action-packed, sudden climax and resolution. With an appropriate amount of Meta, one character notes towards the end that war is "a lot of waiting and then a few short moments of uninhibited terror". That's **Matter**.
**Matter** shows us a *lot* of things I'm really interested in: We get to see somebody who is still in training to be a Special Circumstances agent, *and* she comes from a fairly archaic non-Culture world, to boot! This gives us a nice comment on the Culture from her eyes, and at least a bit of character development. This was definitely the good part.
But we get many more POV characters, and most of them weren't all that interesting. Her two brothers, princes in said archaic world, drag the plot instead of carrying it (although those two definitely get most of the character development).
On the scifi side of things, again, we are introduced to many really cool things: Several different non-humanoid alien species with very alien needs and views and communication tactics. Different kinds of world, like the Nestworld and the Shellworlds. These are the things Banks is really, really good at. But sadly we spend about 10% of the book exploring these concepts, 80% with set-up maneuvering getting all characters to the point of readiness, and then 10% of an action-packed, sudden climax and resolution. With an appropriate amount of Meta, one character notes towards the end that war is "a lot of waiting and then a few short moments of uninhibited terror". That's **Matter**.