The Hydrogen Sonata

By: Iain M. Banks

Narrated by: Peter Kenny

Length: 17 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

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 10,000 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.

©2012 Iain M. Banks (P)2012 Hachette Audio

great typical Banks

apparently a review requires 15 words, so here are some more words, and a few more.

Very Enjoyable and Quite Poignant

I have been listening to a run of "Culture" books by Iain M. Banks lately. I read Hydrogen Sonata several years ago but found this audiobook even more enjoyable. The characters and plot are quite interesting, Mr. Bank's writing is at its usual high level. Peter Kenny did a superb job on the narration.

The remarkable thing I noticed is how poignant some passages in this book now seem since Mr. Banks has passed away. These sections concern the meaning of life and the nature of civilization and progress. It felt to me that the author was speaking on two levels, both directly in the telling of this story and indirectly to the reader. It is a real loss that Iain M. Banks has left this world. I wish he could have had time to write more Culture novels but I am very grateful for what he did give us.

Seemed like a rehash of other Culture novels

Peter Kenny is a great reader for Banks's books, but using the same reader for all the Culture audiobooks really emphasizes how many of the characters in Hydrogen Sonata were borrowed from previous books. The Mistake Not ... seems like a saner (and therefore not as entertaining) version of the Falling Outside the Normal Moral Constraints. Septame Banstergain is very similar to Veppers. Cossant, like Yay, is just not that compelling of a character, even with her high-tech body manipulation, but unfortunately, unlike Player of Games, she's a major character in this book. The book also just seems kind of light -- it touches on government coverups and conspiracies, but has none of the psychological weight of Player of Games, Use of Weapons or even the Hells in Surface Detail.
Having said all that, it was still fun to listen to, and had the usual Banks build up to a crazy epic confrontation at the end.

Fantastic, and Peter Kenny as well

I think of the Culture every time I look at the sky. And a tragedy that Banks is no longer with us.

Good reading story (probably), hard to listen to.

Would you consider the audio edition of The Hydrogen Sonata to be better than the print version?

Having not read the print version, I can't say, but there were some characteristics of the book that made listening to it more demanding. I think the narrator was quite good and I'm impressed by how smoothly he delivered it all. The long ship names were a distraction which I felt detracted from my ability to pay attention to the story. (Was that a ship name or was that part of a sentence that I just breezed past without paying attention?)I'm not a good listener anyway. Being a visual person, I prefer to read text, but I spend so much time in the car that it's the only way to do it. I suspect a second listen will fill in any gaps.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Hydrogen Sonata?

No particular moment stands out, but the antagonistic undecagon string was a memborable object.

Have you listened to any of Peter Kenny’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have not heard Peter Kenny before.

Solid

Solid culture book with a Fantastic delivery. Probably a bit much for someone's first culture book.

Banks at his finest

Space Opera.

Frankly, The Culture series is so much better than so many of the others, that it honestly makes the entire genre seem poorer by comparison.

The Minds are like benevolent and occasionally mischievous God's of the deep future.

They're awesome. This book is awesome. This Series is Awesome.

Another excellent chapter in the Culture series

I am always thrilled to see the next Culture book drive, and this one did not disappoint.

While somewhat slighter in scope than his previous instalment, "Surface Detail," "The Hydrogen Sonata" hearkens back to "Players of Games" in its relatively straight-forward narrative. There were several side story lines, but one character's story takes centre stage.

Banks has often written his newer culture books to echo events or characters from previous books in the series: "Look to Windward" is the follow up to "Consider Phlebas,"Surface Detail" completed a character arc that started in "Use of Weapons." "The Hydrogen Sonata" does not seem to be particularly closely linked to any of the other books. Perhaps, there are similarities with "Excession" as Minds play a somewhat larger role than usual, but that's a tenuous link at best.

This book has everything you'd expect from Banks: crazy tech battles, smarmy Minds, political intrigue, wacky aliens, up/down-loaded consciousnesses, utopic societies, hilarious ship names (my favourite being: The Washing Instructions Chip in Life's Rich Tapestry) and amazing landscapes (cities that wrap around whole planets, sand "water"-falls).

If you've read the Culture series so far, be prepared to enjoy another excellent novel in this addition to the series.
If you're new to Iain Banks, you might want to go back to the beginning and read them in order, though this is not necessary. Seeing that only four of the Culture novels are available on Audible (at least where I live), "The Hydrogen Sonata" is probably the best one to start with; "Matter" is not the strongest book in the series, and "Use of Weapons" and "Surface Detail" are best read as a pair. Unfortunately for first time readers, "Use of Weapons" is the most dense, difficult but ultimately rewarding of the series. It can be a little off-putting in that the new reader has to get their head around the fragmented narrative and the Culture universe.

The narration was very excellent as always. Bravo Mr Kenny!

This books gets a strong recommendation. Give it a try!

Bittersweet, amazing

Read this in paperback, listened to audiobook I the car. Really fantastic writing, as good as Iain M. Banks gets.

I need all of these books

The Culture books are always complex and you have to pay attention to them. But the engaging story is just irresistible and the author introduces so much detail the listener can't help but feel part of the events.

Give these a try. But start with consider phlebas (the first in the series)