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Paperback
Murder, betrayal, and galactic interference collide within a layered artificial world.

Matter

$25.20

  • Paperback

    608 pages

  • Release Date

    11 March 2024

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Summary

Matter: Interference and Intrigue in a Shellworld

The novels of Iain M. Banks have forever changed the face of modern science fiction. His Culture books combine breathtaking imagination with exceptional storytelling, and have secured his reputation as one of the most extraordinary and influential writers in the genre.

‘Banks is a phenomenon’ William Gibson

The intricate structure of a Shellworld - an artificial planet of spheres-within-spheres - is matched only by the machinations of its inhabitants.

On the eighth sphere of Sursamen, a man witnesses the murder of his father and flees, searching for the one - maybe two - people who could clear his name. For his brother, this means a life lived under constant threat of treachery, while for their sister, Djan Seriy Anaplian, it means returning to a place she’d thought abandoned forever.

Anaplian is not who she once was. She has become an agent of the Culture’s Special Circumstances section, charged with high-level interference in civilisations throughout the greater galaxy.

Concealing her new identity - and her particular set of abilities - might be a dangerous strategy. In the world to which she returns, nothing is quite as it seems; and determining the appropriate level of interference in someone else’s war is never a simple matter.

Praise for the Culture series:

‘Epic in scope, ambitious in its ideas and absorbing in its execution’ Independent on Sunday

‘Banks has created one of the most enduring and endearing visions of the future’ Guardian

‘Jam-packed with extraordinary invention’ Scotsman

‘Compulsive reading’ Sunday Telegraph

The Culture series:

Consider Phlebas The Player of Games Use of Weapons Excession Inversions Look to Windward Matter Surface Detail The Hydrogen Sonata The State of the Art

Other books by Iain M. Banks:

Against a Dark Background Feersum Endjinn The Algebraist

Book Details

ISBN-13:9780356521701
ISBN-10:0356521702
Series:Culture
Author:Iain M. Banks
Publisher:Little, Brown Book Group
Imprint:Orbit
Format:Paperback
Number of Pages:608
Release Date:11 March 2024
Weight:409g
Dimensions:196mm x 126mm x 42mm
What They're Saying

Critics Review

Banks is a phenomenon: the wildly successful, fearlessly creative author of brilliant and disturbing non-genre novels, he’s equally at home writing pure science fiction of a perculiarly gnarly energy and elegance * William Gibson *There is now no British SF writer to whose work I look forward with greater keenness * THE TIMES *Poetic, humourous, baffling, terrifying, sexy - the books of Iain M. Banks are all these things and more * NME *

About The Author

Iain M. Banks

Iain Banks (1954-2013) came to widespread and controversial public notice with the publication of his first novel, The Wasp Factory, in 1984. Consider Phlebas, his first science fiction novel, was published under the name Iain M. Banks in 1987 and began his celebrated ten-book Culture series. He is acclaimed as one of the most powerful, innovative and exciting writers of his generation.

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