Content:

Drones, amendments to body and mind, many different races in various stages of social and technological development, extinct and very advanced species who could build thousands of giant artificial worlds and yet another species that seems to have only one purpose: to destroy those giant worlds.

In my eyes "Matter" is actually a pretty good mirror of our society right now. Not with the description above, however, but that is just for entertainment, right?

What I mean is that there are many novels in the history of science fiction that deal with the meeting of an advanced species with a not-so-advanced species. The interesting and "contemporary" twist in "Matter" is that all species are sort of equally aware of their current state, their past and their future, almost like our world is becoming.

The depressing thing is that it doesn't change anything. Greed, love, fear ... it all leads to the same developments portrait so often in novels and witnessed in real life.
____________________________________________