Matter - Iain M. Banks

A worrying trend

Matter is an unnerving continuation of a trend, which has run, for me, probably since Dead Air or Look to Windward as appropriate, of what seems like Iain Banks (with M and without) either sitting on his laurels or running out of ideas. If it was written by someone else and you happened to pick it up, you'd be reasonably happy with your purchase - it is by no means a bad book although it feels oddly paced for the story. I found the huge index pretty pointless too; all it does is add weight to the book. I don't have the greatest memory in the world and I didn't need to refer to it once.

What made it disappointing, like the Algebraist and Garbadale, is the lack of a new direction, spark, idea, approach or gear that Banks has brought in with new books previously. Getting hold of the new Ian Banks has been enjoyable in its anticipation for me for years - there have been lesser books before but three successive (and regressive) disappointments is a new experience. I don't know if you can call someone derivative when what they are derivative of is their own work, but that is how this feels. Banks becoming a run of the mill author cannot be a good thing.

I'm undecided as to whether the book is too long or too short. The ending seems rushed and incomplete, which would argue for more length, but there is a lot of totally irrelevant stuff going on and characters and civilisations which add nothing to the story. Whichever, it isn't right, and there are some lengthy sections where I got the child-like urge to skip on a few pages to see if something was happening.

So, if you manage your expectations carefully you may well still enjoy this book. If you've read the rest of the M books you probably won't find anything new in here. It takes up a lot of space on your shelf too and weighs just under a ton in hardback. If this is the only Iain M Banks you've read, don't worry, the rest are better. I just hope the next one is too.

Anti Climax

I can keep this review fairly short. Matter is 450-ish pages of very good story telling in Bank's magnificent Culture universe let down by a 50 page rushed, anti climactic and sometimes downright bad conclusion. If you're interested in the Culture books, try one of the earlier ones.

Solid addition to the Culture canon

I've been a Banks fan for a long time and he has certainly produced some disappointing books recently. At his best, he is truly brilliant, but sometimes the books just don't work.
It took me a while to get into this book, because the plot is multi-layered, and the layers are only revealed as the book progresses. As a result, what seems like a relatively simple plot at the beginning becomes much more complex and wide-ranging by the end.
I grew more and more interested and impressed by the book as it went on, and really liked the latter parts. There are many very different and varied characters from the different races and societies, as well as a fascinating and novel physical environment. Lots of imagination, and I always like Banks' writing style.
It's not his best book, but it was very enjoyable, and a worthy addition to the Culture canon. I hesitate between four and five stars - for Banks it's a four-star effort; for anyone else it might have scored five.

The last Ian M. Banks novel I'll ever read

Another of Bank's "Culture" novels, Matter has finally convinced me I should skip his offering on the bookshelves from now on (and I'd stress I've only bought 2, and borrowed others from a friend). Grand in scope and ideas, Matter rehashes familiar (and now very irritating) plot and stylistic themes in the Culture series.

-For some unexplained reason, there's a load of humans in the Culture universe who are at the technological level of either a rural 16th or 17th Century or living a fascist-type state in the 1940s era, and who are seperate from the Culture themselves. Consequently, everyone (including some aliens) from these places tends to speak as if they're a saucy character from The Life and Times of Tristram Shandy. (The Algebraist takes this to new heights, where even the aliens sound as if they were creations of PG Wodehouse.). This is incredibly predictable and very tiresome in the final analysis.

-As with Excession, the pacing in this novel is utterly dreadful. Literally the first 350 pages are mere scene-setting, while the last 50 pages or so are like a speeded-up film from the 1920s. Ultimately, the characters of Ferbin, Oramen, Holse and Tyl Loesp are all, incredibly, completely throwaway. They have very little impact on the outcome and are simply vehicles to get the plot to a certain point - which ends very very abruptly in a "I couldn't think of anything else" kind of way. I realise that you could say the same for any character in any novel, but it's especially pronounced in Matter. The characters' actions and revelations are all completely moot.

Stay far, far away. Banks' concepts are wasted on his execution here.

Derivative

I have read a lot of SF, and so his Banks. I can tell, because it's all there: from Niven, Heinlein and Varley to The Hitchhiker's Guide and Dr Zoidburger. In fact, the whole thing is the Guide taking itself seriously, filled out with 'hard' sc-fi elements. It's entertaining all right, just not much cop. Oh, and the sex scenes are grating.