Matter - The Library of the Uncommons

544 pages

Published July 6, 2008 by Orbit.

ISBN:: 978-1-84149-417-3

(5 reviews)

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 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. MATTER is a novel of dazzling wit and serious purpose. An extraordinary feat of storytelling and breathtaking invention on a grand scale, it is a tour de force from a writer who has turned science fiction on its head.

6 editions

Ubiquitous Photon reviewed Matter by Iain M. Banks (Culture, #8)

Slow burner, but quite the story

4 stars

Content warning Spoilers Ahead

I have been re-reading these books because I finally forgot all of them since the last time I read them (sometime in the 90s), and I really remembered enjoying them the first time round, so... So far, as with the other Culture books, its the pace that has surprised me. I'm not sure if its that I have been recently spoiled by reading particularly fast paced books, but I must admit finding these books rather slow. This is ok for me, Banks takes his time to build the world and the plot slowly, and I think the book benefits greatly from that, but I now understand some of my friends comments about the culture series. At the beginning I began to wonder if this was another "inversions", given the story is majorly focussing on a rather low tech civilisation, and the power wielded by the Royal family of that civilisation. This is, however all set within a planet sized hollow sphere, which gives an indication to the direction things are going to head.

Without going too deep, the tech level and the speed slowly ramp up through the latter half of the book, until the finale is, well, really not what I expected of it anyway.

Still, its a really good book, and I remained gripped throughout. Recommended to anyone who doesn't mind a slower pace