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hirvox's review against another edition
4.0
"The stage is small but the audience is great." sums up life in the Culture series. Someone is always watching and opining, even though it would be improper for them to intervene in the play. So what happens when one of the unwitting actors in a pre-industrialization Macbethian regicide drama decides to appeal to the audience?
While I always enjoy Banks' worldbuilding and how he explores how his premises can go horribly wrong or horribly right, there is just something off with Matter's pacing. Unlike in Excession, the pieces in this particular play move so slowly and so separately that the overall plot doesn't coalesce together until the very end. The level of danger escalates quickly by several orders of magnitude, so it looks like the book is heading to a cliffhanger.. and then it just ends. While there is an epilogue, I would have preferred it to be about the political aftermath of the whole mess.
While I always enjoy Banks' worldbuilding and how he explores how his premises can go horribly wrong or horribly right, there is just something off with Matter's pacing. Unlike in Excession, the pieces in this particular play move so slowly and so separately that the overall plot doesn't coalesce together until the very end. The level of danger escalates quickly by several orders of magnitude, so it looks like the book is heading to a cliffhanger.. and then it just ends. While there is an epilogue, I would have preferred it to be about the political aftermath of the whole mess.
cmbeam's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
amanova's review against another edition
3.0
It was good. Quite good. Recommended with the assurance that it's not necessary to read the other books in the series to enjoy it, which I think is true, although I would like to know a bit more about the Culture and if Djan Seriy Anaplian is a character in other books, that might spark my interest - I thought she was interesting. A quality sci-fi fix. Oh, but the ending? Terrible.
michael5000's review against another edition
4.0
I listened to an audiobook of this in March 2016 and kept getting the impression that I'd accidentally skipped forward, and that things were moving with crazy speed. Turns out that it was an aggressively abridged version. Bleh.
loxrie's review against another edition
4.0
Slow build (400 pages), enjoyable characters and a almost a "Slice of life" story. Until the last few chapters when all hell breaks loose and the final pages leave you with a "What happened next... aghhh" feeling. Worth a read. I sometimes wonder whether people have read the same book as me. :) I know they haven't as every book changes in interpretation for the reader.
anndra's review against another edition
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
aneve's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
informative
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
treetop's review against another edition
4.0
The implied threat of future cataclysms might be the result of coincidence, nothing more.
Happily for the governing class, a well-formed faith also kept people from seeking their recompense in the here and now, through riot, insurrection or revolution.
A temple was worth a dozen barracks; a militia man carrying a gun could control a small unarmed crowd only for as long as he was present; however, a single priest could put a policeman inside the head of every one of their flock, for ever.
tell him that it was all okay, that there was nothing really to worry about, that the universe was a terrible, utterly uncaring place and then people came along and added suffering and injustice to the mix as well and it was all so much worse than he could imagine
One of the last-resort methods of dealing with those displaying such voyeurism was to turn their own devices against them, scooping the surveillance machines up from wherever they had been scattered, fiddling with their software and then infesting the worlds of their creators with them, concentrating on the homes and favoured recreational facilities of the powerful. This usually did the trick.
Happily for the governing class, a well-formed faith also kept people from seeking their recompense in the here and now, through riot, insurrection or revolution.
A temple was worth a dozen barracks; a militia man carrying a gun could control a small unarmed crowd only for as long as he was present; however, a single priest could put a policeman inside the head of every one of their flock, for ever.
tell him that it was all okay, that there was nothing really to worry about, that the universe was a terrible, utterly uncaring place and then people came along and added suffering and injustice to the mix as well and it was all so much worse than he could imagine
One of the last-resort methods of dealing with those displaying such voyeurism was to turn their own devices against them, scooping the surveillance machines up from wherever they had been scattered, fiddling with their software and then infesting the worlds of their creators with them, concentrating on the homes and favoured recreational facilities of the powerful. This usually did the trick.
jchadwick's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
tamouse's review against another edition
4.0
This was actually the first Banks and Culture novel I read. I enjoyed it quite a bit, and at the time I wanted to get into more of Banks' stuff.