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Matter
Posted by
samzenpus
on Wed Mar 19, 2008 02:03 PM
from the space-opera dept.
from the space-opera dept.
sdedeo writes "Less known than he deserves to be among American science fiction readers is Iain M. Banks. In his native United Kingdom, Banks' work is released in hardcover at the front of bookshops; here, those seeking his science fiction work, at least, must dig down into the trade paperbacks — and often find things out of print. Those who do discover him in the States are usually pleasantly surprised to find the writing far more clever and engagingly written than the low-budget production values imply. With Orbit's release of his latest work, Matter, as well as its planned re-release of some of his earlier classics, things look to change." Read below for the rest of Simon's review.
Banks is one of the leading authors of what might be called the Space Opera Renaissance. While the 1980s saw the creation of the cyberpunk genre, and the 1990s were for many the great era of "Hard SF" — science-centered masterworks such as Kim Stanley Robinson's Martian trilogy and Gregory Benford's Timescape — the 21st century seems to perhaps be an era impatient for the sometimes comical, sometimes tragic galaxy-wide sweep of writers such as John Meaney and Peter Hamilton.
The space opera is not a science-driven work. Unlike the harder stuff, quantum mechanics rarely makes more than a parenthetical and deus ex machina appearance, and relativity's time-bending constraints do not apply. Unlike the cyberpunk genre, epitomized by Neal Stephenson, it is rarely "idea driven"; McGuffins remain solidly unexplained, and society drives technology, not the other way around.
If the hero of Hard SF is a scientist, and the hero of cyberpunk is the wildcat entrepreneur, the hero of the Space Opera would be quite familiar to readers of myth and legend — the Quixotian wanderer, the deposed prince, the second son. Indeed, to the less sympathetic, the space opera can seem closer to the fantasy genre, following the usual dictum that sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Which brings us to the particular flavor of opera in Matter. Over the course of nearly a dozen novels, Banks has tuned and fine-tuned his own version of the Milky Way, one crowded by a huge number of species of wildly differing technologies and abilities. In a largish corner is the Culture, a kind of humanoid amalgam of different species whose point-of-view forms the center of Banks' vision.
This far in the future, technology renders scarcity obsolete, leaving the Culture free to practice a kind of anarchistic benevolence towards less developed species. Emphasis on the anarchistic: this is no Star Trek chain-of-command, but a strange, sometimes disturbing group characterized by a near-fanatical individualism and occasional pangs of guilt. Some of Banks' most charming stories are about various offshoots of the Culture, including the strange choices made by the many sentient AIs.
Banks' prose is free-flowing and liberally dosed with a kind of cynical, post-colonial British humanism; as the Culture meddles and blunders Banks' narrators look on with a sad half-smile. The British charm appears also in his characterization of the artificially intelligent machines, who often play Jeeves to more fallible, biological, Bertie Woosters.
Meanwhile, death and suffering accumulates liberally as the usual plot drivers — competing species at the Culture's level of development, or far less advanced places that hack away with swords, guns and terribly retro fission devices, observed by grains of spy-dust that entertain or horrify the more advanced.
The wide scope of Banks' world gives him plenty of space to play out, in miniature, a number of different genre conventions. Steampunk makes something of an appearance in Matter as the central story putters along with steam engines — beneath an artificial sky created eons ago by a vastly superior race that has long-disappeared.
Matter is perhaps not Banks' best — earlier novels such as Excession or Look to Windward might be a better place for newcomers to Banks. In Matter, things drag from time to time and perhaps fifty of the five hundred pages could be cut without pain. One wishes occasionally for a North-by-Northwest cut past some of the plot development that feels a bit dutiful near the end.
But the sparkle of Banks is largely undimmed, both in the grand sweeps of plot and the dozen-page grace-notes that for a less-talented writer would be the germ of a novella. Neglected since the era of E. E. "Doc" Smith, the space opera is back. And Banks has been there all the time.
Although currently 30,000 feet over the Atlantic, Simon DeDeo is usually at home in Chicago, Illinois, where he works as an astrophysicist at the University of Chicago and moonlights as a literary critic. He last wrote for slashdot on the politics of blogging.
You can purchase Matter from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
The space opera is not a science-driven work. Unlike the harder stuff, quantum mechanics rarely makes more than a parenthetical and deus ex machina appearance, and relativity's time-bending constraints do not apply. Unlike the cyberpunk genre, epitomized by Neal Stephenson, it is rarely "idea driven"; McGuffins remain solidly unexplained, and society drives technology, not the other way around.
If the hero of Hard SF is a scientist, and the hero of cyberpunk is the wildcat entrepreneur, the hero of the Space Opera would be quite familiar to readers of myth and legend — the Quixotian wanderer, the deposed prince, the second son. Indeed, to the less sympathetic, the space opera can seem closer to the fantasy genre, following the usual dictum that sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Which brings us to the particular flavor of opera in Matter. Over the course of nearly a dozen novels, Banks has tuned and fine-tuned his own version of the Milky Way, one crowded by a huge number of species of wildly differing technologies and abilities. In a largish corner is the Culture, a kind of humanoid amalgam of different species whose point-of-view forms the center of Banks' vision.
This far in the future, technology renders scarcity obsolete, leaving the Culture free to practice a kind of anarchistic benevolence towards less developed species. Emphasis on the anarchistic: this is no Star Trek chain-of-command, but a strange, sometimes disturbing group characterized by a near-fanatical individualism and occasional pangs of guilt. Some of Banks' most charming stories are about various offshoots of the Culture, including the strange choices made by the many sentient AIs.
Banks' prose is free-flowing and liberally dosed with a kind of cynical, post-colonial British humanism; as the Culture meddles and blunders Banks' narrators look on with a sad half-smile. The British charm appears also in his characterization of the artificially intelligent machines, who often play Jeeves to more fallible, biological, Bertie Woosters.
Meanwhile, death and suffering accumulates liberally as the usual plot drivers — competing species at the Culture's level of development, or far less advanced places that hack away with swords, guns and terribly retro fission devices, observed by grains of spy-dust that entertain or horrify the more advanced.
The wide scope of Banks' world gives him plenty of space to play out, in miniature, a number of different genre conventions. Steampunk makes something of an appearance in Matter as the central story putters along with steam engines — beneath an artificial sky created eons ago by a vastly superior race that has long-disappeared.
Matter is perhaps not Banks' best — earlier novels such as Excession or Look to Windward might be a better place for newcomers to Banks. In Matter, things drag from time to time and perhaps fifty of the five hundred pages could be cut without pain. One wishes occasionally for a North-by-Northwest cut past some of the plot development that feels a bit dutiful near the end.
But the sparkle of Banks is largely undimmed, both in the grand sweeps of plot and the dozen-page grace-notes that for a less-talented writer would be the germ of a novella. Neglected since the era of E. E. "Doc" Smith, the space opera is back. And Banks has been there all the time.
Although currently 30,000 feet over the Atlantic, Simon DeDeo is usually at home in Chicago, Illinois, where he works as an astrophysicist at the University of Chicago and moonlights as a literary critic. He last wrote for slashdot on the politics of blogging.
You can purchase Matter from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
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Republic.com 2.0 59 comments
sdedeo writes "Republic.com 2.0 is an updated and reworked version of Cass Sunstein's Republic.com, which was reviewed on slashdot back in April 2001. That earlier version was written before blogger was purchased by google, before wikipedia broke "10,000th most popular" on alexa, and — most importantly for Cass — before the terrorist attacks of September 11th unleashed a torrent of political blogging that has yet to peak." Read on for the rest of Simon's review
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Excession and Look to Windward? (Score:5, Informative)
If you haven't read a Culture book before, do yourself a favour and grab a copy of the The Player of Games, Matter (which is probably the most straightforward novel he's done) or Consider Phlebas.
Re:Excession and Look to Windward? (Score:4, Insightful)
If you live in a city and drive to work, start taking the train or bus. It gives you a nice chunk of time for reading going both ways and you'll get to work and home without getting your anxiety level up from sitting in traffic. Depending on where you live, it could also save you some money.
I hate to think of what my mental landscape would look like if it wasn't for my lifetime of reading fiction. Probably something like the ocean of night in one of Benford's books.
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Matter (Score:2)
What happened to the days of articles having titles about the subject matter?
Re:Matter (Score:5, Funny)
How so? Are you suggesting that Matter is lacking in Gravitas?
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Re:Matter (Score:4, Informative)
Should you of? I thought the heading of "Book Review" and first sentence of "Less known than he deserves to be among American science fiction readers is Iain M. Banks..." was a pretty good indicator that this was going to be a book review about a science fiction book titled "Matter" by an author named Iain M. Banks. But then again I might just be crazy...
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Re:Matter (Score:4, Interesting)
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A good series (Score:4, Interesting)
I am glad that he is still writing on the series, the review for Matter suggests an enjoyable read.
Hamilton (Score:2)
Re:Hamilton (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:Hamilton (Score:4, Interesting)
That said, I do enjoy his works in the way I enjoy bubblegum, but damnit, writing huge trilogies with endings as unclimactic as Hamilton's is just sadistic.
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Re:Hamilton (Score:4, Funny)
If you disagree, you can Kiss My Ass
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Re:Hamilton (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm not sure if you can go straight from Hamilton to Banks and expect a similar ride. The Banks Culture novels are *very* different. Actually, my favorite Banks space opera is not a Culture novel: The Alchemist. Great save the galaxy stuff, giant fleets of warships travelling at relativistic velocities and blowing each other up, exotic aliens and weaponry...yum.
In the mean time, if you like Hamilton, check out Neal Asher's "Polity" novels, very much in a similar vein and style.
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Which Iain Banks? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Which Iain Banks? (Score:4, Informative)
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Excession is better (Score:1)
This book just seemed long winded and boring in places, and the ending was a bit sudden and boring as well.
I mean come on, I didn't buy a Banks book to read about some feudal kingdoms fighting.
And all the characters are a bit annoying as well, and the fun drone/ship stuff is quite absent.
Good timing! (Score:2)
Not a review of Matter (Score:2)
Other Banks books (Score:5, Informative)
However, if you can find it, "Raw Spirit" is a non-fiction book about him touring Scotch factories and talking about how Scotch is made and why it taste like bog and how, despite that, people keep buying every bit the little distilleries can produce. It's a good book.
Re:Other Banks books (Score:4, Informative)
It is a very very twisted book, and it was an excellent way for a new author to get himself noticed (what exactly is wrong with flame-throwering a bunch of little bunnies?). I read the Steep Approach to Garbadale a few months ago and thought it was a pretty good read. Nothing like world-domination board games, incest, and family politics to get a story going...And although many don't like Song of Stone, for some reason I go back to it and reread it every few years. It has a weird darkness that just resonates with me. *shrug*
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What is matter? (Score:1)
What is matter? Never mind.
argh why do people just make up stuff on slashdot? (Score:2)
What are you talking about? Banks is extremely prominent in US science fiction circles. Or is this that typical slashdot thing where you can't have a book review without the reviewer trying to spin it so he looks ahead of the curve?
In his native United Kingdom, Banks' work is released in hardcover at the front of bookshops; here, those seeking his science fiction work, at least, must dig down into the trade paperbacks -- and often find things out of print.
"Dig down" into the trade paperbacks? In the US trade paperbacks have apparently become the most prominent format, which I certainly don't mind. They're more portable than a hardcover and have better typeface and printing than a paperback, and last longer too. Banks' works are on the science fiction shelves, generally. Under "B." No digging required.
And he has plenty of books in print, far more than most SF authors. And some of those are in hardcover as well.
really, i didn't make it up (Score:5, Informative)
As for relative availability in the US versus the UK: I've already covered the extent to which his sci-fi is far more celebrated in blighty, but to elaborate: it is tough (but getting easier now) to get a hold of Banks' books. Booksellers tend to class them with the usual muck and laser-slash-grunge and don't really consider him (as they should) an essential writer to stock. And, yes, there is digging required: Inversions and Look to Windward are, for example, not available on amazon (Look to Windward is "temporarily out of stock", and Inversions appears to be out of print and only available used.) This is changing now that Orbit is re-releasing the books, as you can see from a cursory glance at release dates.
In conclusion: you are wrong, and also a bit mean.
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I can't agree enough... (Score:3, Interesting)
His descriptions of Lazy Guns is one of the funniest things I've ever read (Use of Weapons or Against a Dark Backround, I can't remember now).
But his contemporary Iain "no M" Banks stuff is not nearly as good (not bad though). What is it about Sci-Fi that lets otherwise average authors become great? Is is the chance to suspend disbelief?
Or am I just biased towards Sci-Fi?
The State of the Art (Score:2)
Against a Dark Background (Score:2, Interesting)
intriguing "timelessness" (Score:1)
Against a Dark Background (Score:1)
Banks is not a good author (Score:2)
His books fail to give any real backstory or context, which can be ok however characters will make decisions based on things you don't know about and aren't told. He takes little effort to bring the reader into the universe he's writing on and once I had the misfortune of picking up a book in the middle of a series and he made no attempt to explain anything, even after making the attempt to pick up the first book in the series things made little sense.
You want a good British author read Terry Pratchett or Philip Pullman, Banks can look inviting because everyone of his books has words like "Times best seller" and "Winner of Award xyz" don't fall for it.
an error of mine (Score:2)
One error I made in this review was to say that Benford's Timescape was published in the 1990s. This is incorrect: it was actually published in 1980 (I believe my mistake stemmed from my having read it in the 1990s in a new edition at the time.) Trying to fit sci-fi (or anything else) into neat decades is pretty tricky even if it does provide a satisfactory narrative device. One interesting note is that steampunk, which I think most of us think of as a Gibson/Sterling 1990s thing, actually had its birth wayyy back in the 1960s, with Pavane: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavane_(novel) [wikipedia.org] -- a really fantastic read that doesn't "date" at all despite its release during the Summer of Love.
something I had trouble with (Score:2)
I can excuse this sort of thing in televised scifi because shit, true alien costs money! Bumpy foreheads are much cheaper. I just am less tolerant when there's no need for sticking with Trek aliens and yet they do (Mass Effect). Ok, maybe we can pretend it would cost them more money to do something truly alien. But in prose? Shit, there's no reason not to!
I find the Culture novels somewhat frustrating, a mix of good and bad ideas. I really enjoy the premise, though. Use of Weapons was strange but the Chairmaker's ultimate weapon was suitably creepy.
What about his grandmother Rosie? (Score:2)
amazon.co.uk (Score:2)
Consider just ordering the UK edition from amazon.co.uk. I've found most titles arrive in less than a week, and prices are extremely comparable to buying in a bookshop in the USA.
Banks -- Not for everyone. (Score:2)
This is an understatement, and should be underlined and in bold when discussing Iain M. Banks. Those expecting science fiction in the mode of Heinlein, Asimov, or Clarke will not enjoy Iain Banks' work.
Banks' novels are best described as fantasy stories set in space, with characters that may have alien appearances but who act like humans in rubber suits. He makes no attempt to suspend the readers' disbelief or justify his worldbuilding. And he often writes scenes or entire novels that are blatantly experimental, which may be mind-expanding for some readers but those with more literary experience find these amateurish excursions rather tedious.
In short, you either love or hate Iain M. Banks novels. He is not for everyone.
Banks has shown us the bottom of his bag of tricks (Score:2)
There's only so many times that the 'collision between the Culture and some ridiculously primitive society that it could wipe out in a millisecond' story needs to be told. OK, we get it, we get it, the Culture's interventions need to be super-subtle because that's the right way to bring along backwards civilizations (a rather ahistorical idea, but hey, it's his universe to play with).
Take a ultra-cool Special Circumstances agent with some gnarly personal skeletons in the closet, give them a magical 'knife missile', and send them to some backwater to alternately fret about how they shouldn't intervene and eventually decide do to so (usually lots of lovingly described payback for equally lovingly described horrible torture and the like; this seems to be a rather ugly fixation of Banks that Richard Morgan appears to have decided to follow in full). We've read it before, really.
I am not sure whether this repeated motif is a clumsy metaphor for something about the real world (e.g. the collision between a possible near future super-enlightened 1st world - or at least, the West on one of its better days - and, well, everywhere else). If it is, it's pretty bloody silly. If it's not, it's a pretty strange motif to keep returning to.
Perhaps if we all chipped in, we could send Iain down to Africa and hire someone to kidnap a serial human rights abuser that he could beat up. It would be theraputic for him, and on his return, maybe he could write a new book. Maybe a Culture novel about the bloody Culture, for a change.
Huh? (Score:1)
> In his native United Kingdom, Banks' work is released in hardcover at the front of bookshops; here, those seeking his science fiction work, at least, must dig down into the trade paperbacks -- and often find things out of print.
Really? I saw Matter on the shelf at Barnes and Noble this very day when I was picking up an order over lunch in Beaverton, Oregon. If we have it prominently displayed here, it should be pretty much everywhere. I'm thinking of picking it up this weekend.
Slight correction: the Culture isn't "far future" (Score:3, Informative)
This incident of nitpickery has been brought to you by the letters "E" and "Schwa" and the number needle-nardle-noo.
The Culture is neither human or far in our future (Score:2)
Consider 'Consider Phlebas' (Score:1)
It was also the book that though me that there are things that are impossible to translate to translate into a movie and not because of budget/length/audience constraints but because it's simply impossible to capture in film. Although it could be done if you make a *very, very intensive* use of voice over narration, but its awkward to do it compared to a book where it is expected.
Stuck in Matter (Score:2)
I'm perhaps a quarter of the way through Matter, so this review was timely for me (and thanks for not including spoilers). "Not his best", you say? Regrettably, that's the comment I'd have for just about anything Banks has written in the last 10 years. "Not bad" would also be apt.
Up to this point of Matter, my reaction can be characterized as "trying to remember why I ever liked this author so much". The Banks I remember from Use of Weapons, Player of Games, and Consider Phlebas (to concentrate just on the space opera) had a razor wit, a well-developed sense of irony, and a deft command of the story-teller's craft. None of these qualities is evident in Matter: so far, it has been a ponderous, boring slog through very familiar territory. Perhaps the worst thing about Matter is its long-windedness. Had editors not become extinct some time in the latter decade or so of the twentieth century, perhaps someone could have given Mr. Banks a hand by drawing fat red lines through about 75% of the narrative and dialogue of this book. One heavy concentration of red lines would be drawn through the portion of the book in which a character the reader knows to be a hypocritical (but egregiously loquacious) jackal makes an extended funeral oration for one of his victims. One sensible way for an author to handle this would be to cite the opening phrases, then say something like, "...and the loquacious, hypocritical jackal went on in this vein for several hours". Instead, Mr. Banks subjects the reader to the entire boring speech. There's no excuse for that, and no forgiveness.
It doesn't get better, you say. Hmm. Don't know if I am going to make it. Ironically, when I received the book (from Brit Amazon), I rejoiced at how thick it was. Some early reviews had claimed that Matter was a return to form for Banks; I really wanted to like this book.
Speaking of good Banks, only one person mentioned Inversions. It's my personal favorite, because of its extreme subtlety; the book demands a lot of work from the reader; it is not frothy reading. The Bridge is also one of his best, I think—though it's hard to pigeon-hole, it's definitely not space opera.
Speaking of which (Score:2)
Speaking of UK Sci-Fi authors, do yourself a favour and look up Steven Baxter if you've never heard of him. He's written dozens of intelligent, entertaining, and highly-engaging stories involving multitudes of subjects. He has a talent for being able to tie together events that span millions of years and many distinct time periods while keeping them all relevant to the story. I'd really place him firmly in the top tier of Sci-Fi authors writing today.
In particular, I'd recommend looking into the Destiny's Children series (starting with 'Coalescent') and 'Evolution'. Highly recommended.
Interesting mix... (Score:1)
I didn't. Tried a couple of times now, due to some rave reviews, but I just can't get past the inlish yoosed in da bok. vary dificlt to rede.
Its sometimes hard to consider that these books are all from the same author, given the differences in complexity and writing style.
Let's not forget Alastair Reynolds (Score:1)
I only mention this because if Iain Banks is off the radar in American bookshops, I wouldn't be surprised if Mr. Reynolds is too.
Reveiw auther seems not read Banks books much (Score:2)
"Culture" series is not about "our" human future. According to Banks lore Culture exists in some corner of our galaxy simultaneously with us, and we are one of the "less developed species". In the "State of the Arts" short story collection Culture ship is visiting our contemporary Earth.
Warning (Score:2)
In a word RE-READABLE (Score:1)
Needs more space (Score:1)
I think it would have been nicer and would have maintained a faster pace had it concentrated on and filled-out the culture side more, whilst skipping some of the sub-plots in the "historic" side (the mother of the Prince Regeant, for example, which really I think was just a device to move him to another setting.)
In the engaging parts of this book though - which was most of it in my opinion - this book was gripping and exciting, with a good touch of cynical wit to it. It's nice to see the Culture again, though I would like an entirely Culture based book, which didn't meander off into other worlds.
To compare one Banks against another is a difficult task, as they are all different, and yet all the same. Personal favourites of mine are The Bridge and The Business (From non-m Banks) and Against A Dark Background, The Player of Games and Feersum Endjinn (AADB was my first Banks sci-fi, Player of Games a very inticing read, and Feersum Endjinn was book-long-set-up that leaves you with an amused feeling.)
Good, but not the best Culture book (Score:1)
Once issue affecting this book and most of Banks' other SF novels is his tendency to include too many long travel sequences and other unnecessary (or unnecessarily long-winded) scenes in the first 3/4 of the book, then to start rushing everything in the last 1/4 to bring things to a conclusion.
Overall I liked it but I think by the end I liked it a little less than I did at the half-way point, with the plot preceding a little too straight-forwardly (at least by Banksian standards). The ending was decent and there was one horrific image in particular that really stuck in my head but compared to someone like George R. R. Martin, Banks doesn't isn't a good enough writer of compelling characters to have the full impact he may have intended. His strengths lie more in fascinating, detailed settings and an enjoyable general writing style. I feel like the actual writing here was better than ever, but the "seen it all before" nature of the plot (and to some extent the setting) reduced my enjoyment a bit.
Space opera: see Mc Master Bujold (Score:2)
And I would add that for me, Lois Mc Master Bujold is as good as Isaac Asimov when she write SF: the whole Vorkosigan serie is very good..
Re:New Science (Score:1)
Perhaps he's lacking necessary gravity.
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how banks sees the culture (Score:5, Insightful)
I do agree that Banks is pretty sophisticated about his relationship to the Culture, and is tuned-in to the sort of "cultural imperialism" that the Culture's unrestrained hedonism and vaguely-Enlightenment extrapolations practice. But would you really join the Iridians?
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