Matter (Culture #8)

The Culture book series by Iain M. Banks is set in a far-future utopian society called “The Culture,” where advanced AI and post-scarcity technology allow citizens to live without material needs and pursue their desires freely. Matter is book 8 in the series, but each book is a standalone story - so you can read them in whatever order you prefer.

In Matter, a prince of a feudal-like (non Culture) world seeks to avenge his father’s murder, unaware of the broader interstellar complexities at play. His sister, who has joined the Culture’s Special Circumstances, returns home to help, revealing the clash between her advanced society and her homeworld’s primitive struggles.

It initially took me a lot of effort to get into the story, and I might have skimmed over a few of the earlier world-building paragraphs. 🙊 That’s not uncommon for me in the Culture books, but somehow the richness of the universe and the plot of the story always ropes me back in in the end.

This was the sixth book I read of the Culture series, and it’s getting hard to find more, as at least one of the remaining books is not available as an e-book in English. :-/