Matter by Iain M. Banks

We'll start off with a quick quiz today; one question, with no right or wrong answer.

Q: Does this sound like a "space opera" to you?

In a roughly medieval (but modernizing) society with more developed neighbors, a smart, well-liked, and forward-thinking king has died on the battlefield. The official story is that he died of his wounds after fighting valiantly, but two men witnessed the king's closest advisor kill him with his own hands, and then monologue about how evil he (the advisor) is and how he will take control of the kingdom. One of those two witnesses is the king's eldest surviving son, who flees with a trusted servant to a neighboring country. He's trying to find his sister, who was sent to a more advanced society and is now working with their government. Meanwhile, the youngest prince -- the figurehead for the advisor's regency -- is coming to realize that he is in mortal danger.

OK, pencils down. Space opera or not?

Would you change your answers if I told you that there's really nothing metaphorical in that description? It's a realio-trulio feudal kingdom, with nobles and pageantry and swords and all that, and the True Heir heads off (into space, I'll admit, but not at high speed nor with anyone armed with more than swords chasing him) to find someone to help him depose his father's murderer. There are mile-wide starships -- this is a Banks novel, after all -- but a dismaying lack of coruscating beams of force, or of any conflict not involving either the aforementioned swords or very high-level diplomacy. All in all, Matter has a disconcerting lack of exploding Orbitals, high-speed chases, and games for the fate of empires.

There is an important Ancient Enigmatic Alien Artifact, but the AEAA doesn't show up until quite late in the proceedings. And, actually, the plot I outlined above is completely abandoned once the AEAA appears; its conflicts and issues quickly solved or shoved aside.

Don't get me wrong: Matter is a fine science fiction novel, with well-defined characters, a compelling storyline, and excellent writing. But if it's "space opera" based on the last fifty pages (which take place entirely within a planet, and in which the major death-ray-style combat is kept off-page), then there's hardly any SF novel every written that isn't "space opera." Matter is just SF, and there's nothing wrong with that.

If you're still trying to decide whether to read Matter, some possible tie-breakers:

• it's mostly set within a "Shellworld," comprised of over a dozen concentric shells, each of which is individually habitable (and most are inhabited)
• there are no major Mind characters, though a drone-turned-knife-missile does play a supporting role
• and it has a typically Banksian cheerful and upbeat ending.

I liked Matter, but it also took me more than a week to read; it's overlong and just meanders along for most of its length. (Much like Banks's last SF novel, The Algebraist, in fact. Matter's ending, though, is less abrupt than The Algebraist's.) Those with smaller to-be-read piles than I do won't mind this as much, of course. But with that plot and that cover, I doubt Matter will be the long-hoped-for breakout book by Banks in the US market; it's for those of us who already know and enjoy his writing.