The Inner Two Levels Of Sursamen

Sursamen is a shellworld, one of a set built by the Involucra, a galactic race now vanished. It is within the Morthenveld sphere of influence but is administered and controlled by an uneasy alliance of the Oct and the Aultridia. At what level does the Culture come in and start interfering? Find out in Matter, by Iain M. Banks www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/… . The reviewer seems to think the beginning too long and the ending a bit rushed... he should try reading Something Happened by Joseph Heller www.nytimes.com/books/98/02/15… . The book grinds on for over four hundred pages, and then nine pages before the end somebody says "Something happened!" The denoument and its aftermath unfold with terrible swiftness.