Matter 232
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.
| Matter | |
| author | Iain M. Banks |
| pages | 593 |
| publisher | Orbit |
| rating | 8 |
| reviewer | Simon DeDeo |
| ISBN | 0316005363 |
| summary | Iain M. Banks latest space opera |
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.
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.
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: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...
Re:Which Iain Banks? (Score:4, Informative)
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*
Re:Hamilton (Score:3, Informative)
Some may disagree, as the epic Night's Dawn trilogy ended with something of a deus ex machina, but I hold that this sort of device was foreshadowed throughout the trilogy. And regardless, it was a heck of a ride getting there; it's a kick-ass space opera, and Hamilton leaves you wanting more. The Confederation milieu is one of the best in SF, on par with those of Brin, Niven, Asimov and (dare I say) Herbert.
I recently finished the Commonwealth sagas, and while the first 500 pages took some patience for me, others may enjoy the rich character development. And by the time I finished the following 1500 pages, I was grateful I slogged thru the first bit. Hamilton ties together all of his storylines, leaving few (if any) loose ends. And he's following it up with another pair [peterfhamilton.co.uk] of novels in the same milieu, "The Dreaming Void" and "The Temporal Void"
I'm now reading Fallen Dragon, and it has the same slow start as Pandora's Star... I'm hoping it develops well.
I don't recommend his Greg Mandel novels... unless you like fast, predictable reads.
Not to disrespect Iain M. Banks, those of his novels that I have read, I enjoyed and would recommend. But the Culture novels can be obtuse and difficult reads. Hamilton's novels do not suffer from this.
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.
Re:Excession and Look to Windward? (Score:3, Informative)
Ultimately, I think the best introduction to Banks is to start at the beginning, with Consider Phlebas.
If you start at the beginning, that would be "The Wasp Factory" and "Walking On Glass". His best book has got to be "Complicity", which combines the unexpected twists and nastiness of his first two books with a cracking thriller plot. In fact, Banks is at his best when he's not allowed to indulge in sci-fi too much - as someone mentioned above, it's often masturbatory shite.
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.
Re:Excession and Look to Windward? (Score:3, Informative)
My personal recommendation is Player of Games next. Consider Phlebas is good, but doesn't really have the same flavour as the later books.
I'd also recommend The Business, which is published under the name Iain Banks (without the M.) due to not being SF. But it's still incredibly geeky.