A good price for Matter

[Rane Longfox]

Originally Posted by Lord Soth

I'm about half way through Matter now, and I must admit i'm not overly impressed.

Its been a long time since I have a read a culture novel, and I suppose I was expecting more 'sci-fi' and less quasi-fantasy. I'm also not too enamoured by (probably petty I know) the silly names character names the linguistic background depth of said names - even some of the prose started to annoy me

/sighs

Ahh well - perhaps my tastes have changed since I last read Culture novels, I think I'll dig out some of the old ones from my loft and see if mt current expectations were not overly 'rose tinted'

On a different note I just finished Gridlinked which i mostly enjoyed, not sure about the ending and the reasoning behing the second plotline though - needed fleshing out a little. However I am very happy that I can look forward to another 6+ books in the same universe. Already have The Line of Polity on my shelf (next to the Dragon Master Omnibus by Chris Bunch - that any good?).

For me I hope Matter improves in the second half!

That's a shame. Banks does sometimes get a bit too immersed in his worlds without keeping notice of the fact he's writing sci-fi, that's true. Inversions comes to mind.

Glad you're enjoying Asher. I think he's Banks' natural heir In The Skinner and Brass Man, he's got two of the best sci-fi novels I've ever read

[iansales]

But wasn't Inversions deliberately written to not resemble a sf novel? Why else would Banks include clues that point to it being a Culture novel?

[Lord Soth]

Originally Posted by Rane Longfox

That's a shame. Banks does sometimes get a bit too immersed in his worlds without keeping notice of the fact he's writing sci-fi, that's true. Inversions comes to mind.

Glad you're enjoying Asher. I think he's Banks' natural heir In The Skinner and Brass Man, he's got two of the best sci-fi novels I've ever read

Yeah thanks to that other thread im looking forward to the (mostly) undiscovered Polity universe

So, what does everyone else think of Matter? Am I alone?

[iansales]

I've not picked up a copy yet, although I've heard a lot of good things about it.

[gully_foyle]

Is it available over there already? Second week in Feb is all I could get from Minotaur in Melbourne. Should I interpret that as between the 4th & 8th (when I will be in Melbourne). Or the 11th and 15th (when I won't).

p.s. apologies for the edits, trying to get used to the peesy little keyboard on my new stinkpad.

[Rane Longfox]

Waterstones in Manchester have got about a bazillion copies scattered around the store. Excellent bargain Now I just need to find time to read it!

[gully_foyle]

1 bazillion = 10baz

Bugger, that meant to read 10 to the power of Baz.

[Rich_SP]

I've heard that Matter starts a bit more fantasy but then in the second half goes more into space. i'm yet to pick up a copy yet, i can either wait 3 weeks and get it for about £2/3 (although that aint a definate) or get it now for £9.50....
and quite humourously today is actually the day it was meant to come out... its been in Waterstones since friday lol

I'm hoping this book features the usual amount of Minds and Drones, they are my favourite charaters, always hilarious.

[Lord Soth]

Originally Posted by Rich_SP

I've heard that Matter starts a bit more fantasy but then in the second half goes more into space. i'm yet to pick up a copy yet, i can either wait 3 weeks and get it for about £2/3 (although that aint a definate) or get it now for £9.50....
and quite humourously today is actually the day it was meant to come out... its been in Waterstones since friday lol

I'm hoping this book features the usual amount of Minds and Drones, they are my favourite charaters, always hilarious.

Errr - sorry im not going to say anything. If you want to know what I thought (and perhaps answer your question) see my other thread "Matter: What did you think?".

I dont want to pre-dispose you either way that would be unfair