Hydrogen Sonata by Iain M. Banks

The Hydrogen Sonata by Iain M. Banks

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Jacket Blurb:  They are, truly, provably, End Days for the Gzilt civilization.  An ancient people, they helped set up the Culture ten thousand years earlier & 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 & almost infinitely more rich & complex existence.

Amidst preparations though, the Regimental High Command is destroyed. Lieutenant Commander (reserve) Vyr Cossont appears to have been involved, & she is now wanted--dead, not alive. Aided only by an ancient, reconditioned android & a suspicious Culture avatar, Cossont must complete her last mission given to her by the High Command--find the oldest person in the Culture, a man over 9000 years old, who might have some idea what really happened all that time ago. Cossont must discover the truth before she's exiled from her people & her civilization forever--or just plain killed.



June's Bookgoup book, selected after the announcement that Mr. Banks had terminal brain cancer.  Finished in the month he passed.

This Culture book had me at page one and I had a very hard time putting it down.  The story spans an incredible history of the Culture - predates the Culture even - while focusing on a civilization that is moving into the future via the Sublime - an act of moving one's consciousness into a collective wholeness that part of an even greater wholeness, but doesn't reside in this plane of existence.

The plot has planetary and galactic intrigue, a missing person's hunt, ships running hither and tither, and more eccentric humanoids and Minds than one can throw an asteroid at.  It it wonderfully woven, the humor is both subtle and in your face, and the sarcasm witty. 

The book is aptly named, tho to describe why would take far more time than I care to type and probably more than you want to read as a review. 

Best to say to say, go read it!  By far my favorite Culture book.



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