Matter

by Iain M Banks

The 8th book in Iain M Banks' series of Culture novels. It took me 2 and half months to slog through this book. Somehow I could not get into it eventhough the idea behind the Shellworlds is quite incredible. What I do like about the Culture novels is that even if the plot is not your thing, each book reveals a little more about the galaxy within which the Culture civilisation operates.

The story itself is OK in this book, perhaps not one of the better culture series storylines, but stil enjoyable. However it was not always captivating enough to keep me going. So I ended up putting it down for weeks at a time. I seemed to read it in spurts, including the last 100 pages on a Friday afternoon when work was slow.

The best summary of this book I've seen is "Matter lacked substance".