Matter
by Iain M. Banks - Hardback £9.49
There was nobody of her own kind within several thousand light years of where Djan Seriy Anaplian sat. However, news from her home world of Sursamen would still reach her. But would the news be good or bad?
Product Description
In a world renowned even within a galaxy full of wonders, a crime within a war. For one brother it means a desperate flight, and a search for the one - maybe two - people who could clear his name. For his brother it means a life lived under constant threat of treachery and murder. And for their sister, even without knowing the full truth, it means returning to a place she d thought abandoned forever.
Only the sister is not what she once was; Djan Seriy Anaplian has changed almost beyond recognition to become an agent of the Culture s Special Circumstances section, charged with high-level interference in civilisations throughout the greater galaxy.
Concealing her new identity - and her particular set of abilities - might be a dangerous strategy, however. In the world to which Anaplian returns, nothing is quite as it seems; and determining the appropriate level of interference in someone else's war is never a simple matter.
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Synopsis
In a world renowned within a galaxy full of wonders, a crime within a war. For one brother it means a desperate flight, and a search for the one - maybe two - people who could clear his name. For his brother it means a life lived under constant threat of treachery and murder. And for their sister, it means returning to a place she'd thought abandoned forever. Only the sister is not what she once was; Djan Seriy Anaplian has become an agent of the Culture's Special Circumstances section, charged with high-level interference in civilisations throughout the greater galaxy. Concealing her new identity - and her particular set of abilities - might be a dangerous strategy. In the world to which Anaplian returns, nothing is quite as it seems; and determining the appropriate level of interference in someone else's war is never a simple matter.
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Product Details
ISBN: 9781841494173
Publisher: Orbit
Publication Date: 07 February 2008
Format: Hardback
Language: English
Pages: 593 p.
Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review 
It does matter, 17 April 2008
By David Reid (Paris)
his is Iain Banks alter-ego working at hyperspeed but slowing the information rate down for us bottom-dwellers to follow.
A serious work examining at a macroscopic level exploring what civilisation might mean in the future. The underlying story provides us hints and red-herrings at what may be the final outcome.
Iain M Banks creates monsters and much worse by imaginative parallels to the real world for us "non-sublimal 8th Levellers", and filling us with hope and frustration by asking the question of us: will our societies ever achieve an advance "Culture-type" philosphy or will they simply "disappear".
It's a great book. But then I am a fan of his creativity and analysis.
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Fear of Flying, 10 April 2008
By G. C. H. Poles (London, England)
Space operas can be ungainly beasts. Carrying the heavy load of vast stretches of galactic history, manifold ultra-advanced civilisations, hyper(supra?)-intelligent machines and an abundance of very, very silly names, their early stages often resemble nothing more than an overweight, young goose making its first attempt to get aloft: first comes the slow and steady glide into starting position as millennia of backstory are doled out by characters who might as well be named Ba's-l xPo'zish'n for all that they resemble octopoid man-pigs, diamond-eyed cyberdogs or (as here) a large piece of shrubbery; next comes the beginning of forward momentum, the legs of our over-extended metaphor quickening their pace beneath the water as multiple plot-lines are set out, conspiracies put in place and overwhelming threats to the galaxy itself are foreshadowed; and then, at last, comes the take off - a sudden burst of frantic flapping and splashing as we leap from sub-plot to sub-plot and character to character, aware that they must inevitably come together to create that thrilling, magnificent moment when the story finally soars. It may sometimes be a messy process but the promise of flight is what keeps us watching.
Iain M Banks has proved himself something of a master of space opera aerodynamics over the years. Ever since Consider Phlebas in 1987 he has provided a series of thrilling, witty praise-showered tales of futuristic derring-do, that have deservedly attracted a large audience of devoted fans and a significant number of Wikipedia pages.
Unfortunately, with Matter, Banks seems to have mislaid his flight manual. At least two-thirds of the story is spent paddling into position, setting out the internecine conflicts of a basically Medieval society with a few steampunk leanings and sketching out some slightly new takes on Banks's traditional male hero figure, the man/boy with an essentially teenage mindset, and retreading his traditional female hero figure, the preternaturally mature but emotionally distant young woman.
Normally in an Iain M Banks story nominally set in The Culture, Banks's anarchic, high-tech utopia, this long set-up period would at least be accompanied by some hilarious byplay from the "Minds" (those supra-intelligent - and rather camp - machines that run the society's culture) or a plethora of laugh-out-loud spaceship names (it was far too long before the Lightly Seared on the Reality Grill made itself known in Matter). Here we get instead the machinations of court and the workings of a baddie who is, in essence, merely another take on the wicked vizier.
The story does take off, eventually, but it's a very short flight. There's less than a fifth of the book left when the real source of evil finally makes itself known and the forces of good finally manage to come together and from there everything happens at such a frantic pace that it's difficult for either the reader or the author to care that much. What could have proved promising territory, as family members kept apart for years and further distanced by vast technological and cultural space are reunited, is skipped over in a few paragraphs. Indeed, by the time of the final confrontation I found the only character I still had any time for was a gung-ho offensive drone, particularly worrying given that most of the other characters were frantically applying for Sidney Carton like moments of redemption at the same time.
Ah well. Like most of Iain M Banks (and Iain Banks)'s work, this is undoubtedly a page-turner. There are plenty of well-hewn sentences to admire, alongside some interesting new coinages. There is excitement and wit, though not aplenty. If that's what you're looking for, why not have a gander at Feersumm Endjinn or even The Bridge?
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