The Hydrogen Sonata

Iain M. Banks

Oct 2012 · Hachette UK

About this ebook

The novels of Iain M. Banks have forever changed the face of modern science fiction. His Culture books combine breathtaking imagination with exceptional storytelling, and have secured his reputation as one of the most extraordinary and influential writers in the genre.

'Banks is a phenomenon' William Gibson

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

An ancient people, organised on military principles and yet almost perversely peaceful, the Gzilt helped set up the Culture ten thousand years earlier. Now they've made the collective decision to follow the well-trodden path of millions of other civilisations: they are going to Sublime, elevating themselves to a new and almost infinitely more rich and complex existence.

But, amid preparations, the Regimental High Command is destroyed. Vyr Cossont, a former soldier for the Gzilt, 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 a final mission; she must find the oldest person in the Culture, a man over nine thousand years old, who might just hold the key to understanding what happened . . .

The final days of the Gzilt civilisation may prove its most perilous.

Praise for the Culture series:

'Epic in scope, ambitious in its ideas and absorbing in its execution' Independent on Sunday

'Banks has created one of the most enduring and endearing visions of the future' Guardian

'Jam-packed with extraordinary invention' Scotsman

'Compulsive reading' Sunday Telegraph

The Culture series:
Consider Phlebas
The Player of Games
Use of Weapons
Excession
Inversions
Look to Windward
Matter
Surface Detail
The Hydrogen Sonata
The State of the Art

Other books by Iain M. Banks:
Against a Dark Background
Feersum Endjinn
The Algebraist

Also now available:
The Culture: The Drawings - an extraordinary collection of original illustrations faithfully reproduced from sketchbooks Banks kept in the 1970s and 80s, depicting the ships, habitats, geography, weapons and language of Banks' Culture series of novels in incredible detail.

Ratings and reviews

Having enjoyed The Quarry & The Hydrogen Sonata in quick succession, I'm definitely a bigger fan of Culture novels than Banks' non-genre novels, and it's devastating that there will be no more. Given the timing of his terminal diagnosis so soon after its publication, it's a strange coincidence that The Hydrogen Sonata focuses on Sublimation with its irrevocable connection to death and philosophy.

A culture novel that combines all the classic elements you have come to expect. Perhaps not the finest example but made all the more poignant by the untimely death of the author. The last ever culture novel to be written does the job, and may Iain Banks enfold in peace.

The book references plenty of earlier Happenings from previous culture novels, so make sure to read those first! The other ones up till now have been much more self-contained. Apart from this reliance on the reader to have previously followed the series, it's a great book. One finds themselves wanting more, which realistically is the best way to leave it. Banks avoids the cliché of overdoing it when he hit a good thing. This is a fitting end to an outstanding collection of creative literature.

About the author

Iain Banks (1954-2013) 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 and began his celebrated ten-book Culture series. He is acclaimed as one of the most powerful, innovative and exciting writers of his generation.