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.
Re:Excession and Look to Windward? (Score:3, Insightful)
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:Hamilton (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Re:A good series (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Excession and Look to Windward? (Score:3, Insightful)
That's encouraging then. Because I have very little time for fiction and so Excession is the only Banks novel I've read so far. I thought it was an absolutely killer story, and one of these days I'm going to make time to read more of him. Banks and Greg Bear are just the most amazing writers IMO. But then as I said, I have so little time to read fiction, so my opinion may not be worth much.
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?
Re:Excession and Look to Windward? (Score:1, Insightful)
Excession is where I started; and ---sad to say--- is yet to be topped.
Re:grouchy day on /. (Score:3, Insightful)
Its not enough to say you don't think its his best, you're supposed to tell WHY you think it wasn't his best! Was it not as creative? Were the characters unbelievable? Was the plot well paced? Was there not enough action? Too much action? It wouldn't even kill you to quote some passages that support your opinion.
I'm offering some criticism so you can write better reviews in the future and you accuse me of being grouchy, dismiss my complaints and tell me to take your word for it. Typical blogger hack.
Re:A good series (Score:1, Insightful)
This is a lesson that we should study closely because we'll soon be facing these issues in the real world.
from a blogger hack to a comment troll (Score:3, Insightful)
In response, you demand a totally different product, a review of the book for someone who already has read Banks' culture novels. That's fine, but that's not the review I wanted to write. Then you as much as accuse me of deception -- that I never actually read the book -- and when I bite back, you get huffy and claim that you were simply providing kind guidance and that if I don't listen to you I will be doomed to write crappy reviews.
I, blogger hack, salute you, friend and comrade comment troll!
Re:Hamilton (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Re:Against a Dark Background (Score:3, Insightful)
Just about everyone who liked Against a Dark Background mentions the "lazy gun". I think I remember what it is: a weapon that weighs a bit more or less, depending on which way is up. That makes the book great? All I can recollect is that the plot was an incoherent mess. I must not be properly recollecting the lazy gun.