Matter: Culture Series, Book 8 (Unabridged) [Audio Download]

Matter is Banks' return to the world of the Culture after a lay-off of 8 years ( Look to Windward 2000) and focuses on the often mentioned mentoring aspect of the Culture, and more specifically
the shadowy Special Circumstances division within the Culture. The story focuses on the Shellworld Sursamen (Shellworlds are ancient artificial planet consisting of fourteen nested concentric spheres internally lit by tiny thermonuclear "stars", whose layers are inhabited by various different species. )

On the 8th level of Sursamen live the Sarl, a Humanoid race lead by the royal household of Hausk.
The story begins with Ferbin Hausk , prince of Sarl and heir to the throne witnessing the murder of his father the king at the hands of his friend and right hand Tyl Loesp. Ferbin is forced to flee his home with his man servant Choubris Holse and makes his way to the tower superstructures that support the individual levels within the shellworld and provide transport to the surface. His aim is to find his sister whom left Sursamen 15 years previous to join the Culture .

Presuming Ferbin dead, Tyl Loesp is installed as regent until Oramen , youngest of King Hausks children and now heir to the 8th is of age . Oramen is a studious youth , who having expected his role as 3rd son ( King Hausks oldest son was killed during the unification of the 8th) graciously accepts Tyl Loesp as his regent and mentor, having no idea of the truth behind his warlike fathers death nor Loesps true motives.

This basically Sets up the premise of the book

One part revenge and betrayal novel
One part technological tour de force
One part intergalactic travel brochure

All the great traits of a cultural novel are there, we have the amusing ship names, the quirky ship AI's , the one man army Culture suits of doom , the condescending drone and all the other fluff that comes with a Culture novel , but the books suffers massive pacing issues , and spends a large portion of the book on a sort of intergalactic travel brochure , and while it was nice to be introduced to new species within the greater universe it has little to no bearing on the main storyline and in large parts was boring . The parts of the book set on Sursamen and involving Oramen are overall enjoyable, and play out like a tradition fantasy novel ( big bad regent out to steal the boy who would be kings throne, with overtones of something sinister pulling the strings in the background)
The scenes set on the 9th level in and around the Nameless City are where the book really starts to pick up pace and really hit its stride, this final third of Matter when Holse , Ferbin and his Special Circumstances agent sister Anaplian return to the shellworld kitted out in Nano suits with arsenals equivalent to that of a medium sized nation , and accompanied by ship who may or may not be a special forces vessel with some rather neat ricks of its own. The book reaches a typically Banksian ending that will appeal to all Culture fans and to fans of space opera at large.

Overall it was fun to read a book set again in the world of the culture, the book did having pacing issues however and at some points nearly ground to a halt , once into the final third the book flew along and was everything fans love about banks and his world.

3/5* would have been an 4 if the tedious section in the middle was better paced

I would agree with those who have said that this one's slow (by Banks' standards) until the last couple of hundred pages (when it focuses more fully on the Culture's involvement in the plot) in which it absolutely zips by. In the first section of the book, detailing the goings on on the Eighth level of the Shellworld, we have to make do with short interludes and the descriptions of the Shellworlds themselves for our dose of Hard Sci-Fi - the rest of it is all a bit 'swords and chainmail'.

Don't get me wrong, it's still a decent read, but Banks' Sci-Fi will always, for me, be marked against his very best Culture work, and against those standards it falls a bit short, hence only three stars.

Aaarrrggghhh! You wait all that time for another Banks/Culture masterpiece, you finally get it in your sweaty little paws and what happens? Well, not much actually.
Sure the elements are all there (though in somewhat strange - and often diminutive - proportions) but somehow he doesn't seem to have knitted them all together to deliver the highly satisfying experience that was "Excession" or "Look to Windward".
Having found his last three novels all excellent (Dead Air/Algebraist/Garbedale) I suppose my expecations may have been impossibly high and destined for an anti-climax, but then I suppose I had developed a strange belief that Mr Banks had reached a point in his art where he could defy such earthbound phenomena as human fallibility.
Nevertheless, it was still a decent read, it just lacked some of the expected potency - where was the usual visionary display of technology in combat? The space-opera set pieces that tax your ability to visualise? The trademark unguessable twists that force you to pause your fevered reading to absorb what he has just revealed?
Perhaps the inclusion of a glossary gives a clue to one piece of the problem. Part of the Banks magic (in my opinion) was that he induced you to involve yourself in the story by introducing some elements without explanation, though with enough context that you could extrapolate and fill the gaps with a good guess. You then later had the reward of Mr Banks nonchalantly confirming you were largely correct in your extrapolation just in time for him to take matters off in a delightfully breathtaking direction.
This time round though, it seems he has opted for visible complexity. Sure there are a lot of elements species/locations/characters etc on display but they seem to add substance but little depth. Everything is a little too clearly defined and part of the journey is travelled for you. However, despite this slight disappointment, my faith in Mr Banks' skill remains undiminished - it may have not been the helter-skelter I was expecting but I'll still be waiting eagerly to buy my hardback-ticket for his next ride.