Spheres (banks)

Sphären , in the paperback edition Die Sphären (English original title: Matter , published 2008 ) is a science fiction novel from the culture cycle by Iain M. Banks .

Emergence

From an interview by Iain M. Banks with The Guardian newspaper during the Hay Literature Festival on May 25, 2007:

“Banks tells me that he has spent the past three months writing another culture novel. It will be called Matter and is to be published next February. 'It's a real shelf-breaker,' he says enthusiastically. 'It's 204,000 words long and the last 4,000 consist of appendices and glossaries. It's so complicated that even in its complexity it's complex. I'm not sure the publishers will go for the appendices, but readers will need them. It's filled with neologisms and characters who disappear for 150 pages and come back, with lots of flashbacks and forwards. And the story involves different civilizations at different stages of technological evolution. There's even one group who have disappeared up their own fundaments into non-matter-based societies. ' ”

“Banks told me that he had spent the last three months writing another cultural novel. The title will be Matter and it should be published next February. He's a real heavyweight, 'he says enthusiastically. It contains 204,000 words and at least 4,000 of them are appendices and glossaries. It is so complex that it is complex even in its complexity. I'm not sure the editors will be enthusiastic about the appendices, but readers will need them. It's full of neologisms and characters that disappear for 150 pages and then reappear, plus many flashbacks and flashovers. And history contains different civilizations at different stages of technological evolution. There is even a group that has disappeared into its own foundations to become a non-matter civilization. ' "

- A man of culture , The Guardian , May 25, 2007

The working title of Bank's previous novel The Steep Approach to Garbadale was also Matter .

Subject

A central theme of the book is the concept of advanced civilizations that are less developed as mentors on a galactic scale. This is already hinted at in other books of the culture cycle, but worked out in detail for the first time in Spheres . In this book, the Sarl are on the threshold of an industrial era. They are mentored by a race named Oct , whose mentors are the Nariscene , who in turn are supervised by the Morthanveld , a species that is as powerful and developed as the culture . All of these relationships are subject to flexible, but still quite strict rules that are supposed to allow less advanced civilizations to develop technologically and culturally. At the same time, they are intended to prevent the less developed civilizations from becoming discouraged from further development if they realize the power of civilizations that are orders of magnitude ahead of them.

content

The book traces the experiences of three members of the royal household of the Sarl , a humanoid race that lives on the eighth level of the Sursamen shell world . The shell world is an artificial planet, which consists of fourteen spheres layered one inside the other , which are illuminated by small thermonuclear "stars" and whose individual levels are inhabited by many, sometimes very different, species. They are each protected by species at a higher level of development and accompanied in their development, which reach up to a level which the Sarl call "Optimae". The culture is also considered Optima, even if Sursamen not part of their direct sphere of influence. Ferbin , heir to the throne of Sarl , has to flee from the plane of his home civilization after witnessing the murder of his father, King Hausk , by his deputy tyl Loesp . Ferbin's educated younger brother trusts Oramen , ignorant of the betrayal, but tyl Loesp completely. After Ferbin's disappearance, tyl Loesp takes on the role of regent, allegedly only until Prince Oramen is old enough to be crowned king.

The Sarl mentors , the Oct , are at the same time preparing to take over the ninth level of Sursamen , using the Sarl as pawns. It is becoming increasingly clear that the Oct are looking for something hidden in the Nameless City , a metropolis on the ninth level buried under layers of sediment that is thousands of years old and is currently being exposed by the massive Hyeng-zhar Waterfalls.

Djan Seriy Anaplian is another child of King recent home buyers, but Sursamen has left fifteen years ago to a part of the culture and to be there an organization called Special Circumstances (Engl. Special Circumstances to join). She decides to return to her home planet - initially only to pay her final respects to her late father. On the way there she meets Ferbin , who is on the run with his devoted (but increasingly independent thinking) servant Choubris Holse . From him she learns that her father's death in battle was indeed a murder. In other ways it also learns that the Oct to Sursamen something mysterious prepare and run by the Special circumstances mandated to investigate this.

On their return to Sursamen , they realize that they are too late - although Oramen , warned by various unsuccessful assassination attempts, has started to openly rebel against tyl Loesp , none of them can stop the excavations in the Nameless City before one fateful discovery comes. A member (or possibly a machine) of a long-extinct civilization called Iln is uncovered and awakened deep beneath the city. The Iln were responsible for destroying thousands of shell worlds before they could be stopped, leaving only a few hundred of these artifacts in the galaxy. The awakened Iln intends to destroy the world of bowls Sursamen . His true identity comes as a terrible surprise to both Sarl and Oct. The Oct had assumed that they were excavating representatives of the Involucra (the so-called Veil ) who originally built the shell world and from which the Oct believed to be descended with religious conviction. The Iln kills everyone with ionizing radiation (including tyl Loesp , Oramen and several hundred thousand workers who excavated the Nameless City ) before making his way to the core of the shell world in order to completely destroy it with antimatter .

Djan , Ferbin , Holse and Hippinse , the avatar of the special circumstances spaceship Liveware Problem that brought them to the planet, also penetrate the core of the shell world. Although equipped with very sophisticated combat suits, they are superior to the Iln , who has also taken control of several combat machines placed in the core by the Morthanveld . Hippense and his ship die in battle, but can destroy the Morthanveld's machines beforehand . Nevertheless, the Iln is still too strong for the three remaining, whose possibilities have meanwhile been greatly weakened. Finally, Ferbin and Djan sacrifice themselves to destroy the Iln . Ferbin is killed instantly, but Djan is able to get closer. Despite their advanced armor it is to an extent shredded that for a people without a of special circumstances would also be fatal improved body. However, she can remain conscious long enough to detonate a tiny charge of antimatter, which, deep in her skull, serves as a source of energy for her enhanced body.

In the epilogue, Holse , the only survivor of the encounter with the Iln , returns to his family. He declares his intention to become a political leader for the Sarl with secret support from the culture . Since Holse survived and the shell world continues, it can be assumed that Djan successfully sacrificed himself in the fight against the Iln .

literature

• Iain M. Banks: Matter . Orbit, London 2008, ISBN 978-1-84149-417-3 . (English original edition)
• Iain M. Banks: Spheres . Heyne, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-453-52500-9 .

criticism

• Karsten Kruschel : The Spheres , in: The Science Fiction Year 2011 , edited by Sascha Mamczak , Wolfgang Jeschke and Sebastian Pirling, Heyne, Munich 2011, pp. 1023-1026. ISBN 978-3-453-53379-0

Individual evidence

1. ↑ according to the title page and DNB recording of the German original edition 2008. The paperback edition from 2011 is included in the DNB under the title The Spheres , which is also included in the cover design.
2. ^ Stuart Jeffries: A man of culture. The Guardian , May 25, 2007, accessed March 8, 2009 . 
3. ^ Paul Raven: Iain M. Banks Returns to the Culture. (No longer available online.) Velcro City, April 30, 2007, archived from the original on September 28, 2007 ; accessed on March 8, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ^ Iain Banks' next Culture novel, Matter. (No longer available online.) Big dumb object, April 29, 2007, archived from the original on September 27, 2007 ; accessed on March 8, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.