Matter
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anti-matter
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I have been a fan of Iain M. Banks' "Culture" series for a while. A hyper-advanced interstellar society run by a bunch of playful AIs that spend their free time interfering in the fates of less developed races? Yes please! Banks normally brings a big dose of imagination with a literary bent to science fiction.
I wish I could tell you that "Matter" is a book that epitomizes everything Banks does best, but in fact it's the opposite. It's slow-moving, un-focused and just plain sloppy. It really feels like Banks phoned this one in.
The plot revolves around a 'shell-world', an artificially constructed world that is in onion-like layers, each 'level' inhabited by a different race. Way down on the 8th and 9th levels are the Sarl, a pre-industrial, war-like civilization. The book primarily follows the adventures of three princes and princesses of the Sarl. The woman has grown up in the Culture and become an agent of Special Circumstances. She is returning home after hearing their father has died. Another is on the run, because he knows that their father was in fact assassinated by his closest friend. A third is now the presumptive heir to the throne and must deal with having all the responsibilities and politics thrust upon him.
First nitpick - if you're a fan of the Culture, you're going to be bored to tears by the Sarl, and they take up about half the book. Banks has made every alien race that surrounds them fascinating and mysterious, but instead of hearing more about the aliens we get Sarl Sarl Sarl.
Second, the plotting is just sloppy. There is a major subplot about the growing tension between two leaders, one who is virtuous and one who is villainous. This is setup throughout the book as one of or perhaps even THE major conflict. Then, a few chapters before the end of the book, it is completely jettisoned and we learn the unsatisfying payoff after the fact from different characters.
Third, this book needed to be shorter. A LOT shorter. Who is this guys' editor? I love Banks' universe as much as the next reader, but the fact is that the Morthanveld and Nariscene have very little relevance to the plot and we don't need to spend pages and pages learning about their ships and their homeworlds. Come to think of it, most of this book feels like a digression, although from what the reader is never sure since it's not clear where the book is going.
The ending is perfunctory and unsatisfying, leaving most of those plot threads completely untouched. We don't ultimately learn anything about any of the ancient galactic mysteries Banks has been building up (Why are the Oct ships making secret, holographic copies of themselves? Who built the ancient city and put the mysterious cubes in it in the first place? Does the Xinthian WorldGod ever actually DO anything?).
It's obvious that Banks is making a larger philosophical point with the abrupt ending, but it's not one that the reader is likely to grant him after several hundred pages of rambling nonsense.
There are so many books worth reading out there. Don't miss out on one of them for this. |
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Matter Books In Print, Audio Books.