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the above should read: the hollow hills, matter and revelation ... quite a lot of relaxing so at least I might get some reading done. Consider Phlebas is now top of the pile. I picked up Matter in an airport bookshop a while ago and despite reading lots of his "normal" fiction and usually being a sci-fi fan I'd never read any before. So now I have to start ... ... (Not a serious look at the topic!). Iain Banks keeps on doing BDOs in almost all of his culture books, most recently in Matter, but also in Look to Windward, and the ubiquitous Orbitals. And Stephen Baxter does a lot of stuff on a vast scale too - especially in Ring ... too), although I did read it a long long time ago.
I think I prefer his earlier work to his later stuff, I still have Matter on my TBR and I just cannot bring myself to wade through it. ... a discussion for another day...
Good sf novels published since 1999:
The Yiddish Policemen's Union, Michael Chabon
Matter, Iain M Banks
The Prefect, Alastair Reynolds
Life, Gwyneth Jones (stupid touchstone doesn't work)
The Night Sessions, Ken MacLeod
Black Man, Richard Morgan
... Doesn't Matter by Iain M. Banks sort of fit in here? ... I would say he is the exemplar of long (maybe over-long) novels.
Iain Banks doesn't write all that short books either - Matter 656 pages, Consider Phlebas 467 pages, Excession 451 pages, Use Of Weapons 434 pages etc, etc.
Blindsight is 384 pages so still not short but not long ... ... wanted to get more into science fiction, I've been looking more and more in the SF section of my local bookstore. The book Matter really spoke to me. I found out it was part of a series, so I first picked up the first part, which was this book (the series is The Culture).
Although various LT ... ... something like Phlebus or Player of Games though, just to familirise yourself with The Culture. A novel like Excession or Matter might be harder to grasp if you don't know about Banks's world. I'm currently reading Matter by Iain M Banks with Desolation Road by Iain McDonald lined up next. ... Council and The Scar).
Another Culture novel from Iain M Banks would be very welcome (and I haven't even read Matter yet!).
Alas, we will be forever waiting for Jack Aubrey's final 21st voyage to be completed, as Patrick O'Brien died before finishing it (though the partial ... ... .
Planning to read one/combo of these--
Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi
Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card
Matter by Iain M. Banks
Eyes of the Calculor by Sean McMullen
Olympos by Dan Simmons
--then I'll probably give SF a rest and wander into some other ... ... Victorian America which was second in my unsuggestions but you've got to live a little.
Consider Phlebas I just read Matter having never read any of Iain M. Banks SciFi before and loved it so thought I should start closer to the beginning.
The Children of Hurin I never fancied this ... >57
That's pretty much what he says in the interview in the back of Matter:
"That's one reason for me not making the Culture part of our own future (in its very, very early versions it was - I'm talking about early to mid-seventies here, well before anything got published - but that ... Haha. Matter has apparently been shortlisted for the Prometheus Award, given by the Libertarian Futurist Society. An interesting idea in Matter was that each AI individual wrote their OS, they were not then susceptible to viral attacks. ... to liking all Banks' books including The Algebraist and which I liked somewhat better than Feersum Endjinn. I thought Matter was very readable and didn't take that long to get through even though I'm no a fan of doorstoppers. It was certainly more readable than Asher's Brass Man which was ... ... Or something. I really enjoyed The Algebraist, and was happy to stay on the journey wherever it wandered. With Matter, less so -- it seemed to take an awful long time to get to the escalation of events that you were waiting for. I think there just weren't as many wild ideas to ... I don't recall Matter feeling bloated - although I certainly had that sense when reading The Algebraist. How it compares to earlier Culture novels... Not sure. some of them I've not read for several years. I really should reread them one of these days. Matter more bloated than The Algebraist? Hardly. ... ws.
If you're reading all, publication order is fine, and seems to track internal chronology fairly closely. Haven't read Matter yet. ... with The Player of Games, which I thought was great, both as a novel and as an introduction to the Culture. I've read Matter, but I can't say for sure if familiarity with the Culture would be best. It probably is. As iansales said they can all stand alone, but sometimes the familiarity ... Good to know, thanks! (I recently picked up Matter at a book sale without realizing it was part of a set.) Just finished Matter. The female character has a AI droid disguised as a dildo. Doesn't say if she ever used it as such, though. ... ★★★★
Joe Abercrombie - Last Argument of Kings★★★★
April:
Ian M. Banks - Matter★★★
Terry Goodkind - Wizards First Rule★★
May:
Conn Iggulden - Lords of the Bow★★★★
Patrick Rot ... ... the Culture books this is one of the better ones I think, although I might just be thinking in light of the disappointing Matter. ... Children (entertaining, but not Hugo-caliber);
Little Brother (not really Hugo-caliber either);
I'm working on Matter (I've read enough to consider it Hugo-worthy);
and I've read just a few pages of
Anathem (which has not yet grabbed me...).
I usually wait for the Hugo ... You didn't like Matter? I didn't think it was Banks' best novel, but it was much better than The Algebraist.
I found House of Suns disappointing. I've not read Rolling Thunder yet, but I very much doubt it's award-winning material. Same for Going Under. ... -- Thirteen Black Man.
And the ones I have already read I either disliked:
City at the End of Time, Going Under, Matter, Spook Country
or found entertaining, but trivial:
Rolling Thunder, Implied Spaces, Palmer's Tracking, Singularlty's Ring
I am almost finished with Sa ... ... Suns, Alastair Reynolds
Rolling Thunder, John Varley
The Reef, Mark Charan Newton
Debatable Space, Philip Palmer
Matter, Iain M Banks
Blood in the Fruit and Stretto, L Timmel Duchamp
Template, Matthew Hughes
I've only read so far the Reynolds (disappointing), Palmer (didn't ... The Algebraist was disappointing, as were Dead Air, The Business and Song of Stone. I quite liked Matter - it wasn't a full return to form, but it was close to the Banks we know and love. The Crow Road is excellent, and I really enjoyed Whit and Espedair Street. My favourite ... ... (EXCESSION, CONSIDER PHLEBAS) but when he's off the mark...er...
I didn't bother with ALGEBRAIST and gave up on MATTER.
Our mutual crony Mr. Sales knows Banks better than I do, so I cede the floor to him... ... And Less Than Kind By Mercedes Lackey and Roberta Gellis
The Book of the Heathen , By Robert Edric, OOP
Matter, By Iain M. Banks 2/09 TP
Midnight's Daughter , By Karen Chance, 10/08 PB
The Black Ship , By Diana Pharaoh Francis, 11/08 PB
Valor's Tria ... ... C .Clarke: I agree that an earlier work would be best. Rendevous with Rama is a classic and a provocative read.
On Ian Banks: I've read a couple of his culture novels and would agree that starting there would be best. On a selfish note I would prefer not to read Consider Phlebas as I ... I'll take your word for it on those ones, Ian. You're a good, critical reader...though how you made it all the way through MATTER...
That was a feat of endurance; you earned your medal with that one, kid. ... husband is a big Banks fan. He thought The Algebraist needed editing and thought it not his best work. He has the latest Matter in his TBR pile.
I also tend to read several books at a time, sometimes it geographic (one book upstairs, one down, one in the car...) and sometimes type (novel ... ...
Brasyl, Ian McDonald
Black Man (AKA Thirteen), Richard K. Morgan
The Execution Channel, Ken MacLeod
Matter, Iain Banks
Helix, Eric Brown
The Prefect, Alastair Reynolds
The New Space Opera, edited by Gardner Dozois & Jonathan Strahan
... they choose. If they no longer choose to live that way, if they ask for help... then we can offer it. That's the message Matter should be giving - and in some respects, it does. Ferbin asks the Culture for help, asking why it hasn't intervened already. But Banks then cheats by having the Cultu ... ... decides what is and what is not acceptable? Bush clearly thought invading Iraq was acceptable; Banks didn't. I don't think Matter answers the question - and not just because Banks has cheated the question with his hierarchy of civilisations... On reflection, I wonder if I did read Matter correctly. I take it as read (no pun intended) that Banks does not believe in interference - he did, after all, chop up his passport and send it to Downing Street in protest of the invasion of Iraq... So why would Matter seem to suggest that ... Here's what I thought of Iain Banks's Matter: http://justhastobeplausible.blogspot.com/2008/02/heart-of-matter.html ... today on the tram to work, I was reading Space Odysseys, edited by Brian Aldiss. Last week, it was Iain Banks's Matter.
Mind you, it could just as easily be Lawrence Durrell or Anthony Burgess or John Fowles. And I recently picked up the Raj Quartet by Paul Scott ... ... stuck on one planet is so primitive. Maybe that was why I was so disappointed in the medieval/Victorian setting of much of Matter. (Much as I like Alastair Reynolds, though his characters are much darker and more evil.) I like Banks because I am a fast (OK, very fast) reader. When you ... I've been keeping my eye on these MATTER reviews--Iain Banks is an author who deserves his own thread. The breadth and depth of his literary vision.
Banks can be great--but he's also prone to long digressions and (in my view) a surfeit of needless details. Not necessarily scientific ... I just started Matter this morning, and I was very disappointed by The Algebraist. #172
I'm only 250 pages in to Matter and I quite like it so far. In particular I find the characters quite a bit more sympathetic than you but I appreciate that that may change as I read on. But then again I didn't find The Algebraist as great as you did - good certainly, but not great. >121 I've posted my review of Iain M. Banks new novel, Matter. In short, wait for the paperback, or maybe the movie. And I say this as a BIG, BIG fan of Banks. I thought The Algebraist was brilliant (and I have a long diatribe somewhere where I deconstruct why it is an anti-Culture ... Cliff - as soon as I've ploughed my way through For Whom The Bell Tolls, I'll be starting Matter. Can;t say I'm enjoying the Hemingway, so I might be on the Banks by this weekend. JCG's latest? Do you mean End Of The World Blues? That's quite an old book - August 2006 I think.
I also have Matter in my reading pile but first I will read Weaver which concludes the Time's Tapestry series by Stephen Baxter. ... Swanwick, Shift by Chris Dolley, and New Amsterdam by Elizabeth Bear. Now I can finally get started on Matter by Iain M. Banks, followed by Jon Courntney Grimwood's latest. Thank you Amazon UK!
... Starting The Dragons of Babel by Michael Swanwick now, but waiting for my Amazon UK copy of Iain M. Banks' Matter to arrive. Banks's last sf (non-Culture) novel The Algebraist was disappointing. He has a new Culture novel out in a week or two - Matter. It's getting good advance reviews already.
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