The Hydrogen Sonata [Hardcover]

Iain M. Banks (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 9, 2012

The New York Times bestselling Culture novel...

The Scavenger species are circling. It is, truly, provably, the End Days for the Gzilt civilization.

An ancient people, organized on military principles and yet almost perversely peaceful, the Gzilt helped set up the Culture ten thousand years earlier and were very nearly one of its founding societies, deciding not to join only at the last moment. Now they've made the collective decision to follow the well-trodden path of millions of other civilizations; they are going to Sublime, elevating themselves to a new and almost infinitely more rich and complex existence.

Amid preparations though, the Regimental High Command is destroyed. Lieutenant Commander (reserve) Vyr Cossont appears to have been involved, and she is now wanted - dead, not alive. Aided only by an ancient, reconditioned android and a suspicious Culture avatar, Cossont must complete her last mission given to her by the High Command. She must find the oldest person in the Culture, a man over nine thousand years old, who might have some idea what really happened all that time ago.

It seems that the final days of the Gzilt civilization are likely to prove its most perilous.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Incomparable entertainment, with fascinating and highly original characters, challenging ideas and extrapolations, and dazzling action... sheer delight"
(Kirkus Reviews )

"This rich, sweeping panorama of heroism and folly celebrates the 25th anniversary of the Culture, Banks's far-future semi-utopian society.... The action tumbles along at a dizzying pace, bouncing among a fascinating array of characters and locales. It's easy to see why Banks's fertile, cheerfully nihilistic imagination and vivid prose have made the Culture space operas bestsellers and award favorites." (Publishers Weekly )

"One of Banks' best Culture novels to date." (Booklist on The Hydrogen Sonata )

"It's fantastically good fun that throws in some big ideas about life, the universe and everything, and like the unabashed leftie that he is, Banks manages to get in there a few sizable shots at unthinking, dogmatic religiosity for good measure." (SciFi Now )

"It's fantastically good fun that throws in some big ideas about life, the universe and everything." (SFX )

About the Author

Iain Banks came to controversial public notice with the publication of his first novel, The Wasp Factory, in 1984. Consider Phlebas, his first science fiction novel, was published under the name Iain M. Banks in 1987. He is now widely acclaimed as one of the most powerful, innovative and exciting writers of his generation. Iain M. Banks lives in Edinburgh, Scotland. Find out more about Iain M. Banks at www.iainbanks.net.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 528 pages
• Publisher: Orbit; 1 edition (October 9, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9780316212373
• ISBN-13: 978-0316212373
• ASIN: 0316212377
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 1.8 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (212 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #27,077 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Iain Banks came to widespread and controversial public notice with the publication of his first novel, The Wasp Factory, in 1984. Consider Phlebas, his first science fiction novel, was published under the name Iain M. Banks in 1987. He is now acclaimed as one of the most powerful, innovative, and exciting writers of his generation. Iain Banks lives in Fife, Scotland. Find out more about him at www.iainbanks.net.

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#48 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction

#67 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Science Fiction

#48 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction

#67 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Science Fiction

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 40 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Channeling Douglas Adams, but mostly serious September 30, 2012

By Baslim the Beggar

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I do love the "Culture" novels. They represent interesting ways of looking at interactions of alien civilizations. And, of course, they feature the Minds... those AIs who make up the real power of the Culture. I have had many a good snicker or outright laugh at Banks names for the Minds (check Wikipedia for a list). The keen intellects have a taste for whimsy, but a very, very serious side as enforcers for the Culture, especially those associated with Special Circumstances. I am pleased that Banks spends more time now with the Minds. His earlier stories are quite good, but he really has been taking off in the last few books.

My title refers to the fact that when I read some of the text, I hear the narrator from "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy," especially when Banks capitalizes words in sentences. For example I might write that the story revolves around A Really Big Secret, but when Banks writes something like that, you grin. (Well, I do.) Probably also has to do with Brit phrases creeping in now and then. All good with me. There is definitely a lot of humor in the book. Remember, Luke, Leia & Han in the garbage compartment? Banks goes one better (or should I say worse?) here, and it is perfectly plausible.

The truth about composer's intent for the piece of music called "The Hydrogen Sonata" has such irony as to be both sad and terribly funny. Banks has a lot of nice touches in the book. But the book is, as my title indicates, mostly serious. The humor is secondary or tertiary.

The book is a minor travelogue. Some very interesting places are visited. Imagine a race like McDevitt's Monument Builders, but building on a planetary scale. We visit an Orbital (a Ringworld type object), where in a remote desert section, an AI is building an analog to a waterworks... A place where some race drilled holes through mountains to turn them into giant organ pipes played by the wind... A repository of a race's artifacts, including... no, you'll have to read that part...

But there is this background of a race opting out of "The Real" to the "Sublime." This is, in some ways like the transcendence in "Fire in the Deep," but different. It is literally making a jump, as a race, to another dimension, where, to use the expression from another book, the individual minds (biological or AI) are "vastened." Banks has mentioned the Sublimed before, but we get a little closer look this time around, just as in "Surface Detail" we got a look at "life" in a Virtual Reality.

It's mostly a one-way trip. Supposedly everything is better... but is it? Communications with the Sublimed tend to be scarce. It's a definite "leap of faith" and our story takes place in the last 24 days before a race of humanoids (Gzilt) who helped found the "The Culture" (but who never joined it) takes the plunge to Sublime. By the way, Banks' choice of the the word Sublime is sublime!

That's when a ship from the inheritors of a race who had left some of their technology to the Gzilt, shows up. And their message is that the main text that help guide the Gzilt in building their civilization was a fraud. Murder happens, and a cover-up is attempted... But those snoopy Culture Minds get wind, and want to know the truth... and off we go!

Did I forget to mention that a very old humanoid, alive when the Culture was founded, is a key to the truth? Banks tries to address the question of how and more particularly why, someone would want to live that long (over 9000 years at the time of this book). There is some philosophical meat in the book, including the usual questions arising from making duplicates of one's self, and can one distinguish a simulation from reality.

There is plenty of action and many more interesting ideas than I have yet mentioned. Readers of Banks earlier Culture books know how different the Minds can be from each other. It appears that not only can the Minds become eccentrics, but that they can "go native" with non-Culture civilizations.

So many ideas! Banks reminds me why I fell in love with science fiction so long ago.

66 of 80 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Banks back on form in the Culture September 26, 2012

By Keris Nine TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

The Culture series can always be counted on for showing Iain Banks' writing at its best and the Hydrogen Sonata proves to be no exception to the rule. If we haven't really had the full-on science-fiction ideas combined with explosive action experience since Excession, the series thereafter has shown a certain maturity, slowing down the pace to consider philosophical and metaphysical questions brought up in that book relating to the Other Side, on questions of Life, Death, Oblivion and the nature of what lies beyond the material world. Those questions are to the fore again in The Hydrogen Sonata, thoughtfully considered and brilliantly interweaved into the whole culture of the Culture, but happily Banks' writing and the plot surrounding the story is once again at a dazzling level of wit and brilliance that we haven't seen from this author for a long time indeed.

You might not expect that from the initial premise, where yet another civilisation, the Gzilt, have reached that stage in their evolution where, tired of existing with the mundane realm of matter and energy, they've made the collective decision to Sublime, crossing over to that indefinable place (between the seventh and eleventh dimensions we discover here) where all advanced cultures and civilisations eventually accede and effectively retire. Some are surprised that the Gzilt have decided to make the big jump at this stage in their development, but with only 23 days left until the Instigation, many have already crossed over, leaving only a small remainder of their people to take care of the final ceremonies and housekeeping formalities, fending off Scavenger races and generally dealing with any last minute business that might crop up. Inevitably, one ship turns up with a big surprise for the Gzilt, and suddenly chaos erupts. The ship Minds of the Culture, and undoubtedly Special Circumstances, are of course very interested in the rumours that abound around the incident and send ships in to observe the final frenetic days of the Gzilt.

Well, "observe" is of course a vague and rather passive term for the inquisitive intervention of the Culture, and of course it involves them gathering intelligence, searching for certain artifacts, transporting and in some cases reanimating stored individuals who might be able to satisfy their curiosity. If I'm totally honest, there's nothing new in this - there's a lot of running around and a lot of confusion where you aren't quite sure what's going on sometimes, the usual conspiracies, bad guys and big secrets which may or may not prove to be anything more than a red herring (I hate it when he does that), and some usual gung-ho intervention - sorry, observation - from the Culture ships and SC operatives (presumably, but who knows?), with an innocent - usually female - figure caught up in it all. It doesn't matter in the slightest when Banks has a concept as good as that of the Culture to play around with (if you haven't read a Culture book before, it won't matter either, because the author sums up the ideas concisely very early on, before getting straight on to business with little formality) and when his writing is as polished and witty as it is here, principally in all forms of interaction between the characters and, as you would expect, between the ship Minds.

After the rather serious and grim tone of more recent Culture books - fine though most of them have been - and great as it is to see Banks' writing at his funniest, it's the intelligence of the ideas underpinning the work and the deeper questions that they raise that make this science-fiction writing of the highest order. Since Look to Windward, the author has spent a great deal of time exploring these concepts relating to the non-material world beyond the Culture universe and offered tantalising glimpses of another reality, and he takes that another step further here in The Hydrogen Sonata, leaving just enough in reserve for further expansion. I'm not sure how long he can continue to draw this theme out, and indeed the latest book is somewhat repetitive of a formula established in all his recent SF books, but the richness and intelligence of the Culture concept still seems to inspire the author's best writing and The Hydrogen Sonata is the most entertaining work we've had from Mr Banks in a long time.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A spectacular entry. Banks hasn't lost it. October 2, 2012

By Earle M. Butler

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

"Is it true your body was covered in over a hundred penises?"
"No. I think the most I ever had was about sixty, but that was slightly too many. I settled on fifty-three as the maximum. Even then it was very difficult maintaining an erection in all of them at the same time, even with four hearts."

Iain M. Banks's latest Culture novel is representative of almost everything that has made the series so great. There's enlightened interference, hedonism, spectacular setpieces, diversely characterized Minds, space battle, black humor, and outlandish foolishness (see the above quote). The book, like Surface Detail and Matter, is packed with detail from Banks's imagination, yet avoids the pacing and bloat issues that those two books suffered from.

The Culture, for those who don't know, is a post-scarcity civilization which features in many of Banks's sci-fi novels. One of its most notable features are its Minds, wildly powerful AIs with colorful names such as Smile, Tolerantly and Pressure Drop.

Similar to Excession, it's the Minds who take center stage. The Gzilt, an advanced humanoid civilization which almost joined the Culture way back when, are about to sublime. To sublime is to enter a sort of transcendent existence in another dimension, where the scope of your understanding and enjoyment can expand to levels unthinkable in the `Real." 23 days before the Gzilt's big day, an alien ship arrives bearing a somewhat controversial secret. The ship is destroyed, and ever curious Culture Minds opt to tackle the crisis. Vyr Cossont, a somewhat irreverent and obsessive artist on a `life-task' to master the nearly unplayable `Hydrogen Sonata,' finds herself on a mission to meet up with QiRia, the Oldest Man in the Culture, who may be able to shed some light on the aforementioned secret.

In Excession, an elite group of Culture Minds collaborated to deal with a potentially galaxy threatening event. Here, the Minds are amusingly aware that their mission could end up completely pointless, yet they interfere anyway. The word `matter' is somewhat of a buzzword in this novel (ironically, it's probably used more than in Matter). Does the Culture's interference matter? Does the Truth matter? Does it matter whether or not we're in a simulation? Do civilizations matter? Does anything matter? Different characters, from a previously sublimed Mind to QiRia himself, offer interesting perspectives. The result is that Banks provides some thought provoking commentary on the nature of meaning in an ancient galaxy populated by thousands of civilizations only minor blips in the scale of history.

But it's not all philosophy. This is a very fun book, from the setpieces to the humor. The Minds are as funny and witty as ever. I don't want to describe any of the more remarkable settings, as to do so would lessen the impact of reading about them for the first time. Banks's imagination is in full force here, and once again he delivers on a satisfying climax which takes place against a wonderfully weird background.

The characters are satisfying, even if none are as great as Zakalwe in Use of Weapons. It's the Minds, notably Caconym and Mistake Not..., as well as QiRia, who stand out as great creations. Cossont is an interesting figure with a compelling backstory, but her role as a protagonist becomes less important when the Culture Minds really start to drive the action. Banstegeyn, an antagonist, doesn't achieve the heights of villainry that Veppers of Surface Detail does, but in some ways he's a more compelling, if less cool, character, more prone to guilt and self-doubt. There's also an android whose continued delusion that they're in a simulation provides some funny moments.

The plot wraps up nicely, reflecting many of the book's themes. The Hydrogen Sonata really delivered on what I want in a Culture novel: a compelling story, richly written Minds, sense of wonder settings, big idea themes, and some laugh out loud moments.