Matter by Iain M. Banks

Mlenk · Post by **Mlenk** » 2008-02-26 05:53pm

I can't believe that it's been selling here in bookstores for awhile already here in America and I didn't even know about it. I'm gonna pick it up later on tonight on my home. Anyone here read it yet?

Luzifer's right hand · Post by **Luzifer's right hand** » 2008-02-26 06:04pm

There was another thread about it in here some time ago iirc.

I read it when it came out and enjoyed it. However I'm a real Banks fanboy and like all of his books expect Excession and The Steep Approach to Garbadale.

Big Orange · Post by **Big Orange** » 2008-02-26 07:01pm

I'll go and get it as soon as possible if I were you, do not at all be intimidated by the high number of pages of Matter, it is a much easier and less leaden read than Excession or The Algebraist, comparable in quality to Look to Windward.

Vendetta · Post by **Vendetta** » 2008-02-26 07:35pm

It's a good book. Could probably have done with a bit more ruthless editing, much of the first 400 pages (of 600 odd) is Iain pointing and shouting "Look at this mad shit I've made up", and whilst that is fun, it doesn't always impact the story, and keeps the pace quite slow at first.

Big Orange · Post by **Big Orange** » 2008-02-26 08:06pm

I don't think Matter is quite as bloated or meandering as The Algebraist, although in The Algebraist's case Banks was thinking up of a completely different universe with it's own set of rules and different alien civilizations, so he spent loads of time fleshing that out. In Matter's case he was going back to a better established setting with looser rules, so he had more fun in expanding on it.

Mlenk · Post by **Mlenk** » 2008-02-26 11:01pm

So in terms of the story, is it set primarily within the Culture like Look to Windward, a mix of both like Use of Weapons, or Inversions, which is the total opposite of LtW?

The Grim Squeaker · Post by **The Grim Squeaker** » 2008-02-27 12:59am

Mlenk wrote:So in terms of the story, is it set primarily within the Culture like Look to Windward, a mix of both like Use of Weapons, or Inversions, which is the total opposite of LtW?

It's a bit in the direction of Inversions from Use of weapons. About 2/3 of the book is from the perspective of non Culture people.

I picked it up in London, loved it, although the long descriptive paragraphs Really got on my nerves. (He seemed a cunning man, yet with a glint of something in his bushy eyes that seemed to suggest that it came from looking for things, not an innate cunning" and blah, blah blah

).
I wish he'd kept the long appendix with the extended Galactic history, of all the things for an editor to chop

Big Orange · Post by **Big Orange** » 2008-02-27 07:22am

I heard that much of Matter was cut down by 250 pages, but the end product does not seem too bloated and actually makes me want more, since the ending was so sudden. I actually want a bigger appendix, but the cut bits could seen in another Culture book two to five years down the line (I wouldn't minded abstract blueprint of the Shellworld, including a few old world style maps of Level 8 and 9).