Matter cover art

Matter

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Matter

By: Iain M. Banks
Narrated by: Toby Longworth
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About this listen

 In a world renowned, even within a galaxy full of wonders, a crime occurs within a war. For one man it means a desperate flight and a search for the one, maybe two, people who could clear his name. For his brother it means a life lived under constant threat of treachery and murder. And for their sister, even without knowing the full truth, it means returning to a place she'd thought abandoned forever.

Only the sister is not what she once was. Djan Seriy Anaplian has changed almost beyond recognition to become an agent of the Culture's Special Circumstances section, charged with high-level interference in civilisations throughout the greater galaxy. Concealing her new identity, and her particular set of abilities, might be a dangerous strategy, however. In the world to which Anaplian returns, nothing is quite as it seems; and determining the appropriate level of interference in someone else's war is never a simple matter.

©2008 Iain M. Banks (P)2008 Hachette Audio Science Fiction Fiction Crime Interstellar War

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The audiobook cuts out significant portions of the book, stripping it down to almost a different type of novel (an adventure novel). The paper book contains a substantial amount of material dedicated to backstory and world building. For me, it’s the backstory and world build that makes the book interesting.

The audiobook cuts out significant portions of the book

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I have not read any of this authors books previously, so I approached with caution. It starts slowly and for about the first 20 minutes I was unsure if I would complete it, however once you have the characters placed in the correct "worlds" it becomes one of those stories that you just have to get to the end of. The character names are not always easy to remember and some of them are very similar, concentrate! Not a bedtime book but a very good tale.

multiple world saga

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A terrible book!! Just getting started when it finished!! Is this what 'abridged' means ?

unfinished

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Avoid. Abysmal abridging. Removes all context. No idea what drove these decisions, but they ruin it.

Love this book. Hate this version.

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Very disappointed to find this was a (badly) abridged version. I read the book years ago and got this to listen to while running. It is not improved in any way by being shortened. Good narration though

Didn’t realise it was abridged

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Claims to be unabridged (image says so clearly) but was the abridged version with lots of content removed and a sudden, incomplete ending. Returning.

Mistakenly listed as unabridged version

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Can't believe they sold an abridged version and didn't have the decency to let you know up front...

raging.

Abridged!!!!!!!

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No where does it say this in the details and I didn't know this till the end 'titles' which mentioned this.
In fact the word murdered or obliterated fits what has happened here better!
I have loved the 2 Culture books I read before this and Matter felt very different, hurried and like I was missing parts of the story. I was, I was missing 12 hours of the story.
Avoid this version, get the full version!

An abridged version

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i wanted to love this but it was so long and rambling that I didn't need to pause it when I left the room

long and waffling

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