Matter was published by Orbit in 2008. The novel is set on Sursamen, a Shellworld — an artificial planet consisting of multiple concentric shells, each with its own surface, atmosphere, and civilizations at varying technological levels. The Shellworld was built by a long-vanished elder civilization and is “managed” by various mentoring species in a hierarchy that stretches up to the Culture.
On the eighth level, Prince Ferbin witnesses his father King Hausk being murdered by his own chief minister, tyl Loesp, after a battle. Ferbin flees upward through the shells to seek help. His sister Djan Seriy Anaplian left Sursamen years ago and is now a Culture Special Circumstances agent — effectively a superweapon in human form. Meanwhile, deep in the Shellworld’s core, something ancient and catastrophic is awakening.
Banks uses the nested-shell structure to explore his recurring theme of civilizational hierarchy — each level looks down on those below and up at those above, and the Culture itself occupies an ambiguous position at the top of this chain.
Collecting Matter
First edition (Orbit, London, 2008): Boards with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine in jacket: $25–$60
- Signed first: $80–$160