Indeed, "the energy put out by the sun in 2 or 3 seconds" - sounds like a Culture handgun ;-)
> sounds like a Culture handgun
Which springs from memory matter disguised as a false tooth!
In 'consider phlebas' it mentions the Culture use "CAM" or collapsed antimatter, as a weapon. It's a ship-to-ship rather than handgun-sized deal though- probably a good thing, since 200% of the mass gets converted to energy when it hits regular matter, not a measly 0.08%...