Matter by Iain M. Banks

Matter by Iain M. Banks
Matter by Iain M. Banks

The novel “Matter” by Iain M. Banks was published for the first time in 2008. It’s part of the Culture series.

Prince Ferbin was almost killed during a battle. When he finds his father, King Hausk, he discovers that he’s injured but, even worse, he realizes that Mertis tyl Loesp, the man who is supposed to be the King’s best friend and his most trusted adviser, is taking advantage of the situation to kill him. Ferbin can get away without being noticed and flees, leaving everyone to presume that he died during the battle. Not knowing who is involved in the betrayal his only hope of defeating the traitor and save his brother Oramen is to get away from Sursamen and seek help in the Culture.

Djan Seriy Anaplian is working for the Culture’s intelligence services but when she discovers that her father is dead and her brother Ferbin is missing and therefore presumably dead too she decides to go back to Sursamen. To do so, she must give up many of the enhancements given to her but while traveling she starts receiving information that suggest that something strange is going on on Sursamen with various species involved. What’s apparently a war between pre-industrial civilizations seems more and more a really complex matter with agendas to be discovered.

After a few years, Iain M. Banks wrote a new novel set in the universe of the Culture. The vastness of this fictional universe is such that each novel explores a small part of it and can be read independently. “Matter” is focused on one of the Shellworlds, very ancient artificial planets built for an unknown purpose by a now extinct species, consisting of 14 concentric spheres lit by small pseudo-stars.

The Shellworld of Sursamen is inhabited by various civilizations including the humanoids Sarl, who have reached a pre-industrial level. King Hausk is expanding his territories on the eighth and ninth level of Sursamen but is killed by the usurper Mertis tyl Loesp. Prince Ferbin manages to escape the conspiracy and seeks help in the Culture, where his sister had somehow been adopted years earlier.

The search for justice, but to some extent also for revenge, by Ferbin against those who betrayed his family usurping power, start the most complex part of “Matter”. The story of Ferbin and his sister is a means for Iain M. Banks to explore ethical and moral issues concerning the relationships among different civilizations, especially when their technological level is different.

The concentric spheres of the Shellworlds can be seen in a sense a metaphor of the complex relationships the various civilizations have with other ones with quite similar technological levels forming different layers of relationships. The Culture, being among the most advanced civilizations, generally has no direct relationship with civilization such as the Sarl but there are some exceptions.

It’s because of one of those contacts that Djan Seriy Anaplian ended up in the Culture. In the Sarl civilization she was a princess but her power was only a reflection of her father’s power because she is a woman while in the Culture she suffers no discriminations because of her gender. Nevertheless, she’s still tied to the family she hasn’t seen for years.

The Culture is an attempt to build a utopia but it has its ambiguity. It has an intelligence service that does the dirty work interfering in other civilizations. Djan Seriy Anaplian works for this organization but when she discovers that her father is dead and presumably her brother Ferbin died too she decides to go back to Sursamen.

The various subplots concerning the King Hausk’s children often seem an excuse for Iain
M. Banks to develop moral and ethical issues around the complex relationships among the various civilizations of Sursamen and the Culture. In addition there’s a subplot connected to the ancient mysteries of Sursamen, which are also used to telle more stories of the various civilizations of this Shellworld with their various agendas.

Because of this type of development, in most of the novel the pace is slow because action, although present, is part of the build-up of a really complex plot. Very often there are characters who talk about the ethical and moral issues that eventually form the most important part of “Matter”

It’s only in the last part of the novel that the pace gets faster to come to an end which is really abrupt. It’s as if Iain M. Banks had completed the development of the ideas he was interested in putting into the novel and at that point he wanted to finish the story almost in a hurry.

Let’s be clear, the great complexity enriches “Matter” making it very interesting from various points of view but it’s clear that at some point it makes the novel heavy and such a different final part makes the novel quite uneven. Nevertheless, the overall result seems good to me so in my opinion most Iain M. Banks’ fans can like it and also people who are interested in a novel that is intellectually stimulating.

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