{"id":926,"date":"2010-09-02T17:51:57","date_gmt":"2010-09-02T23:51:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/steamtrainsandghosts.wordpress.com\/?p=926"},"modified":"2010-09-02T17:51:57","modified_gmt":"2010-09-02T23:51:57","slug":"matter-by-iain-banks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/steamtrainsandghosts.com\/?p=926","title":{"rendered":"Matter, by Iain Banks"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p> $\"\"$ <\/a>A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.\n

All right, Iain Banks is not an idiot.\u00a0 You can tell by the way he writes that he\u2019s actually quite intelligent.\u00a0 Here\u2019s the deal: in the far-distant future, humans (or at least some species that looks a lot like us) have spread all over the galaxy in an anarchist utopia with easy FTL, strong AI, and near godlike technology.\u00a0 They live in a postscarcity economy and the AIs do all the work, so ordinary citizens can do pretty much whatever they want.\u00a0 One wonders why they bother to do anything at all.<\/p>\n

Against this conflict-free backdrop, a minor diplomatic intrigue slowly develops over the course of the book on the planet of Sursamen.\u00a0 Much late-night cavorting in nanotech bars and descriptions of planet-sized engineering projects ensues.\u00a0 Eventually, the intrigue gets to the point where the whole planet is threatened and Djan Seriy Anaplian, secret agent, must save the day.\u00a0 The ending is depressing all but one of the characters I like dies horrifically<\/a><\/span>.\u00a0 Even then, nothing that happens on Sursamen matters, because it is only one of literally hundreds of thousands of inhabited worlds in this universe.<\/p>\n

Why did Banks bother to spend 600+ pages to tell us this?\u00a0 Well, to show off the high-tech special effects.\u00a0 If you like intricate, high-concept scientific wordplay, this book is for you, but if you were looking for plot, look elsewhere.<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"