Matter by Iain M. Banks

[lightreads]

Matter by Iain M. Banks

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Far future scifi in his Culture universe. One of those books that cross-sections a story down civilizations, from the nearly sublimed galactic empire to the tiny steam-powered local monarchy. I keep running across those types of books (Vinge, some others I'm not thinking of) and going 'meh.' This one also got a 'feh' for the 500 pages of ponderous, bloated setup, followed by a totally weaksauce punch. I can see that Banks had something here – the background texture of this universe with the smugly utopian Culture kept snagging my awareness with little sparks of interesting detail. But this book qua book was a bust.

Case in point: I could write another three paragraphs about how part of the Culture's utopia involves the elimination of disability, and how I snorted and twitched at that, because naturally improving a society involves removing people like me. But then Banks complicated it a little, and raised a dry eyebrow over it, and made me go "huh" in surprise, because hard scifi authors basically never stop to think through that particular proposition. All of this occurring in a half-page background digression having nothing to do with the actual story. And the actual story is already fading from my mind. So yeah.




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