Just finished "Matter". Have read a number of Bank's previous works including other "Culture" novels.

Never before had I felt like I was wading through 500 pages of styrofoam packing peanuts only as a precursor to the storyline turning into a cartoon.

Sure, Science Fiction gives you almost limitless ability to invent the fantastic but I have always felt that the art lies in making those inventions believable. It seemed quite evident that this book was written under the duress of meeting a publisher's contract and the inventions were a tool to get to the page count quota...or Iain's drinking got the best of him here.

Bottom line...old and new Banks readers need to avoid this one as the former will be greatly disappointed and the latter will probably never go on to read some of his good stuff.

This is far from Banks's best work. For fans it gives only a faint echo of what we've liked about the Culture. For newcomers it may put them off entirely, which would be a shame.

Two siblings, each accompanied by a sidekick, go on a long trip through the universe, both eventually arriving back at their home for an epic confrontation. They pass through many fantastic situations, showing Banks's considerable imagination of alternate worlds.

But we're left wondering why it really matters, for neither the heroes nor their enemies inspire much sympathy or have really plausible reasons for their actions. In a better book this might make them open-ended, ambiguous or mysterious but here it's just dull.

The characters are often being hauled around like interstellar luggage rather than moving themselves and this is metaphorically true too: they proceed through the book as if on a conveyor belt, past the colorful characters and situations, with little sense that they matter to either the protagonists or to us. (Even the word "protagonist" is a bit kind.)

As others have noted, The Algebraist has similar problems but in my opinion is more interesting. Canal Dreams shares exploration of people's darker motivations, and is much more interesting.

Banks has written that he keeps a notebook of interesting ideas that may someday fit into books. It seems like he's dumped that notebook into Matter with only the barest of plots or characterization, and it's not enough. It's not so much that the book is long, as that it doesn't have the backbone to support itself.