Matter is the latest book by Iain Banks, one of my favorite authors. It's set in his "Culture" universe, which sort of parallels the U.S. cultural/military hegemony, only about 10,000 years in the future.
What I enjoyed the most about this book was his descriptions of very alien (yet
understandable) societies that interact with the human-dominated “Culture.”
Particularly cool were the 10 trillion critters that lived in an orbiting swarm
of braided tubes.
On the other hand, I think that Banks got so carried away in his societies that he dropped the ball on the plot. After investing hundreds of pages into building our interest in the main characters, the ending seemed rushed and unsatisfying.
Still, I really like his imagination and give Matter four out of five stars.
The Accidental Time Machine, the latest book by sci fi veteran Joe Haldeman, is a faster read and more fun, overall, than Matter. The plot makes perfect sense, once you accept that some young MIT physics post-doc actually can accidentally construct a time machine. I liked the way that Haldeman’s hero grows and matures by the end of the novel. Five out of five stars!
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