The Hydrogen Sonata

By: Iain M. Banks

Narrated by: Peter Kenny

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

Intrigue at the End of Civilization

What did you like best about this story?

It was an interesting story about the whole subliming business that civilizations keep doing in Sci-Fi novels. There was a lot of intrigue about the secret past of this civilization and trying to determine if it's true, and what it could mean if this was made public. And of course, Culture minds sticking their metaphoric noses in everyone else's business.

Excellent

The best of The Culture series. like all the rest, you don't need to have consumed previous titles. I strongly recommend this story.

Fantastical

Like most of Bank's books it is out there. Science Fiction to the extreme with AI's, giant ships and far out alien races. it is fast paced. Need to pay attention

excellent introduction to the culture

I've read several other books about the culture and said in the same universe. there are oblique references to terms like subliming and indications of what shipmind intelligence is capable of. this is a great introduction to both the history of the founding of the culture as well as how it operates within the current universe. the story itself is full of action some of it predictable some of it not so much. overall I really enjoyed the story although the ending is somewhat predictable and somewhat flat. I would definitely recommend this, but with the caveat that it's more of an exploration of the culture than it is a riveting story.

Tooooo Long

Liked the world building, cool and varied characters, unfortunately for me, this story was way too verbose. It could easily have been ⅓ shorter and not have lost anything worthwhile.

Brilliant, mind-blowing, and drink-spitting funny!

What made the experience of listening to The Hydrogen Sonata the most enjoyable?

Listening to all the silly names of the ships.

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

His discussion on the morality and futility of advanced simulations was extremely interesting as I work in the field of Computer Science. Very profound.

Which character – as performed by Peter Kenny – was your favorite?

The Mistake Not

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I laughed out loud several times and even spit out my drink once.

Any additional comments?

Sad he's gone.

Compelling Story

I am a huge fan of the series. In particular with this book I appreciate how believable the ancient characters are portrayed.

Banks treading water

Banks is treading water with this entry in the Culture series, which is mildly amusing but lacks the brilliance and profundity of some of the others. It's formulaic, featuring all the usual Banks archetypes (eccentric Ships, goth heroine, cranky robots, slimy politicians, and of course a gratuitous castle just when you were starting to wonder if he'd forgotten to include one). There's an interesting theme buried somewhere about old age, memory, and what we leave behind us, but it's left unexplored amid the explosions and snarky dialogue, and the mystery that keeps the plot moving forward doesn't really add up to anything in the end. But hey, it's still a Culture novel, and it moves along at a fair old pace, and it has some fun ideas and enjoyable setpieces - just don't expect anything earth-shattering.

Peter Kenny is, as always, a god among audiobook readers.

Culture meets Hitchhiker's Guide & Da Vinca Code

I am a big Iain M. Banks fan, and any new Culture novel is a cause for celebration. If you aren't familiar with the Culture -- set in a far future post-scarcity society where AIs, humans, aliens, and impossible engineering co-mingle in interesting ways -- this may not be the ideal book to start with (Player of Games or Consider Phlebas might be better), but all of the books are pretty independent.

As a fan of the series, I wouldn't consider this to be the best offering, though it is far from bad. There is the usual mix of action, wry humor, philosophizing, and amazing flights of imagination that mark Culture novels. But the story itself, while full of great ideas and interesting sections, doesn't really connect the way the most compelling novels do. Perhaps that is because the novel is a bit of a ramble through a civilization that is about to evolve to a higher, immaterial, state. There is an overarching plot about a millennia-old religious secret, but the book is really about the picturesque locations visited in attempt to solve the ancient Da Vinci Code-style mystery. The perpetual parties, people with faces made of bowls of soup, sculpted moons, eccentric robots, and other clever details encountered seem like a slightly harder-edged version of Douglas Adams.

Because the novel veers between humor and seriousness rather suddenly, or perhaps because so many of the main characters are Minds, the super-intelligent ship-board AIs, the book is really interesting but rarely feels emotionally compelling. Since Banks is more than capable of writing at the highest level, this is a little disappointing, but the book is still very much worth listening to, and is generally both thrilling and fun, with a little serious navel-gazing thrown in for interest.

The reading is terrific, but, listener be warned, there are a few very explicit moments voice-acted in great detail. Make sure to have headphones on for, say, the visit to the party ship, or the start of the second half of the book. Overall, I don't think any fan of imaginative science fiction, and especially any fan of Banks, will be disappointing they took the time to listen to the novel.

Decent story, excellent narration

Quite a good story made even better by Peter Kenny's always excellent narration.

Spoilers below...

Not quite as goosebump-generating as some of the earlier books, specifically Player of Games and especially Use of Weapons, but I appreciated the more positive ending than some of the other, slightly depressing "everyone dies in the end" books from earlier in the series.

I like the fact that the Culture was presented here with flaws, and potentially beatable, rather than as all-powerful.