In a world renowned even within a galaxy full of wonders, a crime within a war. For one brother it means a desperate flight, & 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 & murder. 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–& her particular set of abilities–might be a dangerous strategy, however. In the world to which Anaplian returns, nothing is quite as it seems. Determining the appropriate level of interference in someone else’s war is never a simple matter. MATTER is a novel of dazzling wit & serious purpose. An extraordinary feat of storytelling & breathtaking invention on a grand scale, it is a tour de force from a writer who has turned sf on its head.