The Hydrogen Sonata is a science fiction novel by Scottish author Iain M. Banks, set in his techno-utopian Culture universe. The hardcover edition was released on 4 October 2012 in the United Kingdom, and on 9 October in the United States. The book's release marked 25 years since the publication of Banks' first Culture novel. A paperback edition of the book was released on 5 September 2013 in the United Kingdom, and on 10 September in the United States. The Hydrogen Sonata was Banks' last science fiction novel, as he died of gall bladder cancer in June 2013.The Hydrogen Sonata of the title is a fictional work of music which is woven into the plot.
It's an extended meditation on death and the possibility of closure.
The Mind that went to the other side and came back, as a guest in another Mind, but had nothing useful to say about the experience, then after years abruptly disappeared. And the hosting Mind realizing their guest was really gone, purging any trace of the other Mind from their Mind. Maybe it would be a good power to erase people from my mind who are really gone.
When the guy who has plotting and scheming the entire book causing interstellar war, causing the destruction of a military base, and other shenanigans gets to the end, it's just him and a few others from his civilization having an awkward conversations that has nothing to do with all the mayhem he caused.
Maybe one of the morals of the story is any conversation with someone might be the last conversation you ever have with them.
The last of the Culture novels. Much the same formula, which means complex, several sub-plots, philosophy both explicit and implicit and galactic in scale.
J’ai commencé à lire le cycle de la Culture début décembre. Nous approchons de la fin du mois de janvier et je viens de terminer le dernier roman du cycle. Un peu de moins de deux mois d’un voyage littéraire dont je garderai à jamais un souvenir fort. Mais avant de revenir sur le cycle complet, parlons d’abord du roman que je viens de terminer.
« The Hydrogen Sonata » est le dixième et dernier roman du cycle de Iain M. Banks. Il s’intéresse principalement à une civilisation qui a failli figurer parmi les fondateurs de la Culture, avant de renoncer au dernier moment. Des millénaires plus tard, cette civilisation s’apprête à atteindre son stade ultime : la Sublimation, le passage du monde réel à une autre dimension, laissant ainsi la place aux civilisations plus jeunes. A cette occasion, la tradition veut qu’une autre civilisation lui livre un secret avant …
J’ai commencé à lire le cycle de la Culture début décembre. Nous approchons de la fin du mois de janvier et je viens de terminer le dernier roman du cycle. Un peu de moins de deux mois d’un voyage littéraire dont je garderai à jamais un souvenir fort. Mais avant de revenir sur le cycle complet, parlons d’abord du roman que je viens de terminer.
« The Hydrogen Sonata » est le dixième et dernier roman du cycle de Iain M. Banks. Il s’intéresse principalement à une civilisation qui a failli figurer parmi les fondateurs de la Culture, avant de renoncer au dernier moment. Des millénaires plus tard, cette civilisation s’apprête à atteindre son stade ultime : la Sublimation, le passage du monde réel à une autre dimension, laissant ainsi la place aux civilisations plus jeunes. A cette occasion, la tradition veut qu’une autre civilisation lui livre un secret avant le « grand départ ». Malheureusement, rien ne se passe comme prévu, et plusieurs parties en présence se lancent dans une course-poursuite pour découvrir ou enterrer ce secret qui pourrait remettre en cause les plans pour la Sublimation.
Le récit alterne des scènes d’action haletantes - même si ce n’est vraiment ma tasse de thé - et des moments plus philosophiques sur la vie, la mort, et l’au-delà. C’est un équilibre que Iain M. Banks a souvent réussi à doser tout au long du cycle, ce dernier roman ne fait pas exception.
Même si ce roman n’est pas mon préféré du cycle, sa place à la fin du cycle lui donne une saveur particulière, renforcée par sa thématique qui sonne comme un adieu. Je ne sais pas si l’auteur avait prévu d’écrire d’autres romans dans l’univers de la Culture avant de disparaître lui-même, mais ce dixième roman propose quoi qu’il en soit une très belle conclusion.
J’ai donc passé près de deux mois en compagnie de la Culture et de cette oeuvre magistrale Iain M. Banks. Cela faisait un moment que je voulais lire ce cycle et je ne regrette pas de l’avoir enfin fait. Mon seul regret serait de ne pas l’avoir fait plus tôt. Ce cycle rejoint clairement le panthéon de mes oeuvres de science-fiction préférées, avec Dune et Hyperion, sans que je sois capable de les départager. Je ne peux qu’encourager tout amateur de science-fiction à plonger dans cet univers si ce n’est pas déjà fait. C’est un voyage parfois difficile mais dont on ressort avec la tête pleine d’images et de souvenirs inoubliables.
I love the Culture Novels. This is my favorite of the four I've read so far. Really cool story about a piece of the universe I'd wondered about. Seriously some of the best sci Fi out there
Entertaining read with a fair amount of balanced characters and plotlines.
It's time for the Gzilt to sublime, leave this paradise of 3d space to the next party in 5d or beyond. What if their civ is based on a lie? What if it came out right before? Governments trying to protect the knowledge, counter agencies trying to find it, races that want access to the tech and worlds the sublimed leave behind, and of course--Culture minds that are just piqued by this information. A cast of characters, exotic people and techs, a quick romp around the galaxy to find out...
Excellent Culture yarn that now feels more like a swan song than I think Banks could have intended, because it deals mostly with what happens when a civilisation feels it can't progress any more. Lots of intersecting subplots hinging around who knows what and the limits to even the god-like Culture Ships' ability to cross space and time... subplots that by the end get woven together coherently.
There's also a strong theme here about whether knowing the truth about things matters. If I didn't know it had been written a few years ago, I could easily have taken it as deliberate commentary on today's society and politics, but I suppose that's just a mark of great fiction: however much it's set in escapist sci-fi utopia it's of course also about people and how people interact.
Excellent Culture yarn that now feels more like a swan song than I think Banks could have intended, because it deals mostly with what happens when a civilisation feels it can't progress any more. Lots of intersecting subplots hinging around who knows what and the limits to even the god-like Culture Ships' ability to cross space and time... subplots that by the end get woven together coherently.
There's also a strong theme here about whether knowing the truth about things matters. If I didn't know it had been written a few years ago, I could easily have taken it as deliberate commentary on today's society and politics, but I suppose that's just a mark of great fiction: however much it's set in escapist sci-fi utopia it's of course also about people and how people interact.
Excellent Culture yarn that now feels more like a swan song than I think Banks could have intended, because it deals mostly with what happens when a civilisation feels it can't progress any more. Lots of intersecting subplots hinging around who knows what and the limits to even the god-like Culture Ships' ability to cross space and time... subplots that by the end get woven together coherently.
There's also a strong theme here about whether knowing the truth about things matters. If I didn't know it had been written a few years ago, I could easily have taken it as deliberate commentary on today's society and politics, but I suppose that's just a mark of great fiction: however much it's set in escapist sci-fi utopia it's of course also about people and how people interact.
I think that this is the best 'Culture' book of them all.
It is well populated with ship minds expressing their quirky and logical ideas while achieving a somewhat utopian consensus society providing the backdrop to the 'subliming' of a similar society (the Gazilt) where 'human' intrigue threatens to derail the whole process.
Meanwhile the story follows on character Vyr Cossont a four armed Gazilt, who has made it her ambition to play T. C. Vilabier’s 26th String-Specific Sonata For An Instrument Yet To Be Invented, MW 1211 - the Hydrogen Sonata on her bodily acoustic Antagonistic Undecagonstring prior to subliming. But due to her acquaintance with the universe's oldest man, she becomes involved in a search to determine if the Gazilt 'holy book' was in fact a hoax or an experiment perpetrated many years earlier.
This leads to a story of political intrigue, morals and science that is as …
I think that this is the best 'Culture' book of them all.
It is well populated with ship minds expressing their quirky and logical ideas while achieving a somewhat utopian consensus society providing the backdrop to the 'subliming' of a similar society (the Gazilt) where 'human' intrigue threatens to derail the whole process.
Meanwhile the story follows on character Vyr Cossont a four armed Gazilt, who has made it her ambition to play T. C. Vilabier’s 26th String-Specific Sonata For An Instrument Yet To Be Invented, MW 1211 - the Hydrogen Sonata on her bodily acoustic Antagonistic Undecagonstring prior to subliming. But due to her acquaintance with the universe's oldest man, she becomes involved in a search to determine if the Gazilt 'holy book' was in fact a hoax or an experiment perpetrated many years earlier.
This leads to a story of political intrigue, morals and science that is as humorous as it is entertaining and engaging.
Perhaps this is unkind, but I wonder if he knew about his impending death by the time he was writing this and so decided to throw every random idea or character he'd ever had somewhere into this story just to get it on the page. Little else seems to justify this exercise, and the reveal of how Subliming works is Midichlorian-like in the way it sucks all mystery and aura out of the process. It nevertheless seems strange that the people about to sublime are so...unenlightened. Are they going to be squabbling and scheming like this in the Great Hereafter? RIP Mr. Banks.
It could just be where my head is at this dreary February, or I spent too much time comparing it to other Culture novels, but...I liked this book. Which surprised me because I expected to love it. I've gotten pretty good at spotting which Culture novels are going to click with me and which will fall flat and I was just sure, sure this was going to be fabulous.
Don't get me wrong - I enjoyed some bits quite a lot! Overall though my review from midpoint went down by a star at the end. Most of the Culture books have a circuitous route to the point and a certain 'fade into silence' quality at the end, but for some reason Hydrogen Sonata was less impressive while doing it than, say, Look To Windward. And it was certainly no Player of Games.
That said it was not as …
It could just be where my head is at this dreary February, or I spent too much time comparing it to other Culture novels, but...I liked this book. Which surprised me because I expected to love it. I've gotten pretty good at spotting which Culture novels are going to click with me and which will fall flat and I was just sure, sure this was going to be fabulous.
Don't get me wrong - I enjoyed some bits quite a lot! Overall though my review from midpoint went down by a star at the end. Most of the Culture books have a circuitous route to the point and a certain 'fade into silence' quality at the end, but for some reason Hydrogen Sonata was less impressive while doing it than, say, Look To Windward. And it was certainly no Player of Games.
That said it was not as nihilistically depressing as Consider Phlebas, and had more likable characters than Surface Detail, so it ranks about mid-point in the matrix of Culture books I've liked/not liked, been moved by/not been moved by and I am left with an overall 'well that was nice'.
As always from the Culture novels, this is lots of fun. There's another crisis in the offing, and a bunch of ship-Minds gathers to work out what to do.
At its core, this is a mystery novel: where is the oldest guy in the Culture, and what does he know? Along the way, we're treated to some of the most spectacular battle sequences.
I most certainly did enjoy this a lot. The tiniest criticism is that, for the first time, it all felt a little familiar: somehow, Iain M Banks has always managed to make every previous novel seem like a journey into unfamiliar territory, despite the familiar backdrop of the Culture. That he has managed to keep that going across the previous (nine?) Culture novels is amazing.
Don't let this put you off - it's still a thumping good read.
