Matter

[Deep Black]

As this bit of the new forum is looking a bit left out I though I'd post up a link to a Matter review (not mine)

Seems quite balanced:

http://www.sffworld.com/brevoff/418.html

[phazedout]

interesting DP
I found no part of Matter pedestrian, I recently re-read it and found it as compelling as the first time.
Phaze
on the "forced to disagree with the review and do not know where the whole slow thing came from" ID

[Deep Black]

I liked all the stuff away from the Shellworld.
I liked the Shellworld itself.
I liked the interaction between the various species.
I liked the archeological stuff & that big waterfall.

I was less taken with the war between levels
& all the Medieval-esqe ruling family stuff.

Unfortunatly those last 2 bits seemed to take up more of the book than my first 4 points.

[Conscious Bob]

The Culture Universe was widened out quite a bit in this book.

The Culture no longer has the wow factor with the introduction of the Morthanveld.

I wonder if he'll use the Morthanveld again, or the Idirans, or the Chelgrians, or the Affront.

Hmm, probably not.

[Deep Black]

I hope so, I liked the Culture having peers.

Plus, being another high involved, the Morthanveld probably have more longevity & scope than the other species you mentioned.

[RedKing]

The prologue was good, the ending was good, the intermediate xty hundred pages, not so.

[rac]

I liked the Culture having peers.

Yeah- that was something I liked in it too.

At the time of reading, I didn't like the ending as it seemed to make a nonsense of the hundreds of pages that had went before- but on reflection, I think the end was great.

[Deep Black]

The prologue was good

The only trouble with that was I heard Iain read it through about 3 time & got bored with it

[tenchiten]

I enjoyed it but the medeval thing put me off a bit. Also I was expecting a bit more at the end of the book when the Iln and the Xinthian met in the machine core.

[Big Orange]

Matter was somewhat bloated (though not as bloated as Excession or The Algebraist) and not especially ground breaking, but it was a very solid read and I flew through it within two weeks.