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josher71's review against another edition
4.0
Started off good and then just bored me. He's got much better than this.
jerushalynnx's review against another edition
3.0
Abrupt ending
A book about death and pointlessness. There was a lot said about having a “good death” and how not much matters because “matter” is just form changing into different form. That’s fine, except the most loved characters got the most terrible deaths! A certain loved character did not deserve that! Matter has the usual bits about the inanity of war and the repetition of cycles but Iain drawled on and on belaboring the point with too much exposition and overly detailed description of various environments which were not actually that interesting. The concept of the shell worlds was awesome! The description of its environments felt dry however.
A book about death and pointlessness. There was a lot said about having a “good death” and how not much matters because “matter” is just form changing into different form. That’s fine, except the most loved characters got the most terrible deaths! A certain loved character did not deserve that! Matter has the usual bits about the inanity of war and the repetition of cycles but Iain drawled on and on belaboring the point with too much exposition and overly detailed description of various environments which were not actually that interesting. The concept of the shell worlds was awesome! The description of its environments felt dry however.
toc's review against another edition
4.0
I read this a while ago so I can't be too specific. But I remember this book as being filled with mind-blowing science fictional concepts that had me gulping it down like cheap wine. That's a good thing. You want to drink the wine, you want to keep that high, but you don't want to take your time to savor it. There's no time to take because things keep coming at you and you have to keep up! Savor it the next time you read. Be breathless the first time.
tgispideys's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
madfil's review against another edition
4.0
(29 November, 2022)
Banks is really comfortable in his 'Culture' universe and it shows. A whooper of a story set within, almost exclusively, a backward, relatively primitive world - a Shellworld, to be precise. Each strand of the overall tale buttresses the other and gives the reader the impression of a cohesive whole, an impressive feat considering its length.
Not super sure what I found more pleasing: the story itself or the discussions within. The former is well paced, filled with interesting characters and political intrigue. The latter has destiny, family, responsibility and honour as subject matter. They could have been developed a bit more but none distract from all the action.
Most central figures are well defined and developed, the only real exception is Mertis tyl Loesp, he is rarely shown to be above anything more than Emperor Palpatine type evil. After Ferbin's and Djan's backstory, it's a big disappointment.
At the heart of it all is a simple question: should one do something when the only reason to do so is because one can? When power, personal glory, revenge, even 'Fighting the good fight', are all after-the-fact justifications (more or less), where exactly does one cross the line from thought to action?
And speaking of action, that ending: "Wow!"
Banks is really comfortable in his 'Culture' universe and it shows. A whooper of a story set within, almost exclusively, a backward, relatively primitive world - a Shellworld, to be precise. Each strand of the overall tale buttresses the other and gives the reader the impression of a cohesive whole, an impressive feat considering its length.
Not super sure what I found more pleasing: the story itself or the discussions within. The former is well paced, filled with interesting characters and political intrigue. The latter has destiny, family, responsibility and honour as subject matter. They could have been developed a bit more but none distract from all the action.
Most central figures are well defined and developed, the only real exception is Mertis tyl Loesp, he is rarely shown to be above anything more than Emperor Palpatine type evil. After Ferbin's and Djan's backstory, it's a big disappointment.
At the heart of it all is a simple question: should one do something when the only reason to do so is because one can? When power, personal glory, revenge, even 'Fighting the good fight', are all after-the-fact justifications (more or less), where exactly does one cross the line from thought to action?
And speaking of action, that ending: "Wow!"
tarnop's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I really wanted to give this 5 stars. I loved the story, loved the characters (Mr. Holse might be my new favourite Banks character) but there were a couple of problems that brought this down slightly compared to previous Culture novels.
Matter expands the galaxy significantly; we've had equivalent tech civilisations before with the Idirans and the Culture-breakaway Elench. Here we are introduced to the first truly alien-feeling species that are not at war with the Culture, as well as two of their subsidiary lower-tech civs, a whole new type of world whose creators are long gone. This is a lot of new information to convey in one book, and a few times too often we get multiple pages of characters descending into exposition-laden internal monologues, or characters from low tech societies staring in wonderment at things.
My other, smaller, complaint is that we get a classic Banks crescendo of plot threads colliding for the third act, but where previous books have laid the groundwork in a way that an attentive reader might figure things out, here it feels perhaps a little unearned. I expect this is a complaint that might be lessened with a second read, however I suspect that my issues with the exposition might be exacerbated.
Still a very enjoyable read, just not quite reaching the heights of the impeccable run from The Player of Games through Look to Windward
Matter expands the galaxy significantly; we've had equivalent tech civilisations before with the Idirans and the Culture-breakaway Elench. Here we are introduced to the first truly alien-feeling species that are not at war with the Culture, as well as two of their subsidiary lower-tech civs, a whole new type of world whose creators are long gone. This is a lot of new information to convey in one book, and a few times too often we get multiple pages of characters descending into exposition-laden internal monologues, or characters from low tech societies staring in wonderment at things.
My other, smaller, complaint is that we get a classic Banks crescendo of plot threads colliding for the third act, but where previous books have laid the groundwork in a way that an attentive reader might figure things out, here it feels perhaps a little unearned. I expect this is a complaint that might be lessened with a second read, however I suspect that my issues with the exposition might be exacerbated.
Still a very enjoyable read, just not quite reaching the heights of the impeccable run from The Player of Games through Look to Windward
rickwren's review against another edition
4.0
It's fantasy inside of science fiction that's inside cyberpunk with a healthy dose of frightful Utopia thrown in for good measure.
I'm impressed by Banks's vision. He's created a structure for the galaxy that preserves emerging civilization through observation with minimal interference while allowing them to emerge and become part of the culture. And he's created a special operations unit of meddlers that scare the piss out of everyone else. Then he's turned it all on its head by bringing the reader from the Iron Age to the far future and back again in dizzying cycles of narrative.
I've read them all. They stand independent, but world-build as revelatory volumes.
I'm blown away by his creativity and by the fact that he creates engaging plots within this framework. Talent is a remarkable thing.
I'm impressed by Banks's vision. He's created a structure for the galaxy that preserves emerging civilization through observation with minimal interference while allowing them to emerge and become part of the culture. And he's created a special operations unit of meddlers that scare the piss out of everyone else. Then he's turned it all on its head by bringing the reader from the Iron Age to the far future and back again in dizzying cycles of narrative.
I've read them all. They stand independent, but world-build as revelatory volumes.
I'm blown away by his creativity and by the fact that he creates engaging plots within this framework. Talent is a remarkable thing.
x0pherl's review against another edition
2.0
A lot of people really wanted me to like this book. It didn't take for me. This is a really slow burn of a story: there's about 400 pages of build up followed by about 70 pages of intense action.
Big world-building fans will probably love the book, but I found paragraphs like this to be tiresome:
Big world-building fans will probably love the book, but I found paragraphs like this to be tiresome:
Djan Seriy Anaplian, who had been born a princess of the house of Hausk, a dynasty from a wide-spectrum pan-human species lately from a median level of the Shellworld Sursamen and whose middle name basically meant fit-to-be-married-to-a-prince, stood alone on a tall cliff looking out over a rust desert deep within the continent of Lalance on the planet Prasadal.
Spoiler
I think the biggest problem I had was that the "human" plot involved a bunch of characters that we simply don't have any reason to care about. Holse was the only character I ever came close to caring about. Given that most of the setup is misdirection that the story is about the humans, this was problematic for me.simotomaton's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.5
littlelynn's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0