A review by ianbanks
Matter by Iain M. Banks

4.0

It doesn't take long for the reader to realise that this is very familiar but your outrage or amusement will depend on how you venerate J. R. R. Tolkien. It's the world-building however - in Tolkien a joy, here merely quite interesting - that really gives it away. As with The Algebraist you feel that the Shellworld is another Big Dumb Object (google it) that Banks has developed as a background rather than as a backdrop. It's an astonishing place but it isn't until the last couple of chapters that you really get a proper sense of the scale of the place: characters talking about how big it is really don't compare to the grandeur of the climax which is a shame because I wanted to love this book, from the sheer cheek of the Frodo/ Sam "homage" (or Don Quixote/ Sancho if you're better read than me) to the political thriller of the other main storyline but it just doesn't quite make it. What is interesting, though, is the nods you get towards some ideas laid out in the next two Culture novels...