Reading Log: Matter (Iain M. Banks)
February 8, 2010
Matter, the latest novel in Iain M. Banks’s speculative fiction series (loosely defined) set in the far-future, inter-galactic world of the “Culture” is a glorious mess.
On the glorious side are all the things I’ve liked—and sometimes loved—about the other two Culture novels I’ve read: amazing, grand ideas of technology and culture set in a far future in which civilizations—human and machine–at various levels of advancement, from the primitive to the “sublimed” who essentially exist in pure information space, interact (control, manipulate, monitor, ignore)… sometimes within different levels of the same world.
On the messy side I would include: the too-leisurely pacing of the first half of the book, an on-going issue with characters who become cliches in their own stories (in this case, the central “bad guy” (Tyl Lausp) is as thin as they come), and an irritating manner of giving practically every character an irritating name. While Banks is a step above many sci-fi authors when it comes to creating fully-realized characters, it’s curious to me that his AI characters are often more entertaining than the “living” people and aliens that play such prominent roles in the story…
If you’re looking for Dostoevsky or Faulkner, the messiness might be a significant problem. But not for me. If you like speculative fiction rife with big ideas and a sprawling, complex conception of future worlds, a detailed outline of this novel would probably be more satisfying than a dozen of the run-of-the-mill sci-fi novels you’ll find browsing the shelves at your nearest bookstore.
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101010 challenge, books, reading, scifi
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February 9th, 2010 at 6:38 am
It must also be said that the Iain Banks’ Culture cycle is indeed a very interesting way to develop philosophical and political reflections on the potential role of “intelligent” machines in an advanced society: http://yannickrumpala.wordpress.com/2010/01/14/anarchy_in_a_world_of_machines/
February 9th, 2010 at 6:49 am
Absolutely… and thanks for sharing that link. It’s indeed worth reiterating that any other flaws– or disagreements with his conclusions– aside, Banks has created a sprawling conception of a culture that has clearly been thought through more deeply than any other I am aware of. I’d love to have time to sit down, read through all the Culture novels, and consider them more deeply as Yannick Rumpala starts to.
Alas, my time is otherwise consumed