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Matter by Iain M. Banks
01/03/2008 . Source: RJ Barker 
Pub: Orbit. 593 page hardback. Price: £18.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-84149-417-3. Buy Matter in the USA - or Buy Matter in the UK  check out website: and www.iainmbanks.net
Throughout the galaxy are many civilisations at many different levels of evolution. One of them is the Anarcho-Utopia of 'The Culture'. The galaxy they exist in is one of many wonders, not least among them are the Shell Worlds, built by the long vanished Involucra and almost wiped out by the equally long vanished Iln.
Djan Seriy Anaplian is an agent of The Culture's 'Special Circumstances' and originally a princess of the Fuedal Sarl, who hail from the eighth level of the Shell World, Sursamen. On her home world, her father wages war on the ninth level but, on the eve of victory, falls to treachery that leaves Anaplian's younger brother, Oraman, in danger and her brother, Ferbin, forced on the run. The seeds of this war lie with the alien Oct who claim disputed ownership of the Shellworld and direct descendence from the Involucra. While regent tyl Loesp seeks power over his society, the Oct seek proof of their heritage and from that, power on a much grander scale.
Events on Sursamen draw Anaplian back to her home and push her brother out into a galaxy he knew existed but did not really understand the amazing forces at work. Huge events are moving around Sursamen but few expect the truth or the tragedy of what is hidden on the recently conquered ninth level.
Everyone used to talk about Iain Banks but I never got it. I read 'The Wasp Factory' and enjoyed it but didn't find the blinding insight a lot of my friends seemed to get from it. Banks' other books didn't really work for me neither. I knew they were well written but I just didn't enjoy them. A few years back a friend told me I should read Iain with the M instead.
I read 'Use Of Weapons' and it stunned me. I've devoured all (M) Banks' work since. So you can imagine the high state of dudgeon I was in when I received a review copy of Banks newest, 'Matter'.
Dipping back into 'The Culture' felt like a joyous return to a long missed and familiar place. Banks has such a clever way with words that he makes it seem effortless and you don't realise how cleverly he constructs brilliantly clear images. This '...deployed scout and secondary knife missiles, using their sensors to watch...' is an effortless image. There is no exposition in this book and no unneeded fat. Sensors conjure up an idea of something autonomous and 'knife missiles' implies an obvious lethality in form and shape. He doesn't need to tell you what they look or act like, you know just from reading a name and an action. All writers do it. Banks just does it better.
The book opens with Djan Seriy Anaplian, a Culture agent using a knife missile to cause, non-lethal, havoc to a Feudal era army. While below her all is chaos and violent confusion, she watches with the calm air of someone seeing a small part of a much, much bigger picture. That picture is The Culture itself, an enormous society with few rules, no need for money and enough technological know-how to make anyone's dreams come true. The entire civilisation is run by almost God-like AI's (off-handedly described as 'annoying' by one character.) who make sure The Culture gets on with enjoying life and also gets on with any other civilisations they may meet. Some join up, some don't. Of course, within such a freeform environment as The Culture there are always people (these being any intelligent member, organic or inorganic) who want to be exposed to real danger. There are also people who are not averse to 'helping along' the expansion or safety of The Culture. They are a tiny minority and their actions have far reaching consequences. In essence, they are pan-galactic meddlers. This is the world of Special Circumstances.
Banks doesn't shy away from the fact it's easy to see The Culture as subtle tyrants, albeit for what they see as the best of reasons. Often the things that they chose do have terrible consequences in the present, whether for populations of millions or for just a single person. The Culture is a utopia with a hard edge and Banks is clever enough to let us see that from our human moral point of view The Culture are usually right. Of course, that's only one point of view in a huge galaxy. Other civilisations, such as the Oct meddle, too, also feeling they have the moral high ground.
'Matter' is a book of levels. Both in the 'Shell World' where layers of civilisation live stacked up on top of one another, in the galaxy the Shell World exists in and in the text itself. The plot itself is almost like a lens gradually pulling focus. We start with Djan Seriy Anaplian watching from afar from her universe wide point of view. Then, as she's dragged back to the events caused by The Culture in her own society, we see it's all a matter of perspective. This perspective is echoed throughout with the idea of the Shell World and with the different technological levels of the 'Higher Involveds' in the galaxy beyond. As the intergalactic politics get larger, the point of view shifts to Anaplians brother, Ferbin, and whose interaction with the world(s) is much more personal and smaller. Then there's the last layer and perspective, ours. Seeing Anaplian calm before war and then the trouble in her society, we know she will be drawn back. As we read the book, we become the only ones who really know about everything that's going on.
As Anaplian and the Drone Terminder Xuss travel backwards in time then her Brother Ferbin and his Servant travel upwards to try and find her. Their widening of perspective mirrors Anaplian's return to more personal matters and underlines the fact that knowledge changes us. When Anaplian meets her brother there is a gulf between them. She is not the sister he once knew. Her priorities have changed.
Banks' characters are well-drawn and sympathetic, their complexity mirrors their societies and events change or bewilder them in ways the reader totally understands. They are like us.
Anaplian is the coldest and least sympathetic of the characters. Like an avatar of The Culture itself, she is beautiful, powerful, dangerous and not averse to bending the rules when she considers it for the greater good. As you read, though, you get the distinct feeling that she, too, is being manipulated by the vast, cool, and sympathetic Minds. In Banks' universe there is always someone bigger than you. The transformation of Prince Ferbins servant, Choubris Holse, is particularly well handled. As Ferbin and Holse' universe and knowledge expands the gulf between master and servant slowly evaporates. Knowledge is the great leveler.
I don't know enough hard science to comment on realism and failed my physics GCSE. However, it all feels right. There was nothing that would grab your average 'Focus' magazine reader as stupid. This is a universe of vast wonders, habitats and ringworlds of mind-boggling size. The Shell World itself is particularly complex and feels more like Banks is writing about something he's got the blueprints for rather than something he's made up.
There are some niggles. At the beginning, you are led to believe that only the ruling classes of the feudal societies in Sursamen know about the bigger picture but, by the end, it seems to be common knowledge amongst everyone. There is also a sense of not frustration just slight impatience when reading the parts of the book set within levels eight and nine of Sursamen. They are not badly written by any means but Banks' imagination is somewhat curtailed by the smaller scope. I did find myself wanting to get back to The Culture at times so Banks could let himself go with his huge and wondrous constructions. This is more a compliment to how utterly fascinating his galaxy is rather than a criticism of the writing. The scaling is necessary, it's the difference between watching one ant and the ants nest as a whole and adds to the layers within the book.
Any small quibbles are swiftly forgotten when you get to the endgame which is breathtaking. It's almost as if Banks is aware he's been holding back and decides to let go in one glorious burst of speed and violence. A lot of the action in 'Matter' takes place around a giant waterfall, towards the end this freezes and the sudden, terrible events that follow are like a dam breaking and the water being released. The clipped dialogue and sudden change from slowly evolving events to a frantic desperate action. Where the water used to fall, before it froze, in a violent torrent now the central characters fall through the Shell World itself in a desperate, violent rush.
Banks does not pull his punches. The game metaphors that appear in a lot of Banks' work appear again in 'Matter' both as metaphor and as statements and it is, of course, full of amusing ship names, 'You'll Clean That Up Before You Leave', a gangster class ship being my personal favourite. Of all Banks characters, the cheeky and mildly psychotic Drones are usually the ones I like most. In 'Matter', they are mostly replaced by Choubris Holse, the servant of Prince Ferbis, who is amusingly gruff in typical drone manner and though he lacks the startling offensive weaponry of Terminder Xuss, both have their parts to play.
As you can probably tell Iain M. Banks is one of my favourite writers and there is nothing worse than when a writer you love delivers a clinker so I am relieved that his new book delivers and does so in spades. It's a clever, funny and exciting book in a literary sense but better than that, it's a clever, funny and exciting book full stop. Whether you enjoy, SF, fantasy, historical fiction or 'serious' literature, you really should own this book. I hope he writes another Culture boo quickly.
RJ Barker
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