The Hydrogen Sonata Audiobook

The New York Times bestselling Culture novel. . .

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 ten thousand 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.

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"Iain M Banks newest book was a return to the Culture universe, which is a pleasure to visit. Banks creation of the Culture is a different take on how to write a series of books in a shared universe. He writes his stories based on the galaxy spanning civilization he calls the Culture but his twist on the idea is that the books are at best loosely related stories. He uses very few reoccurring characters and he tells new stories each time. You can read any of the Culture books as stand alone stories though at times you may feel that you are missing an allusion or two but they are not germane to the main story you are reading. If you read more than two or three Culture books you get a deeper understanding of the Culture universe and ethos which gives you a finer understanding of the motivations in a given story or some anticipation of what an outcome might be. All of this appeals to me as a reader as well as gives you fodder for rereads as you will definitely miss stuff on the first run through most of the time, especially his last 4 or 5 novels. This leads me to Banks as a writer and the type of scifi he writes. Banks writes what I call big idea scifi but the ideas aren't just science based like say Arthur C Clarke has written and the early years of scifi popularized. Banks big ideas are about human evolution and the nature of sentience as well as the what constitutes civilization. He also takes the ideas of a star trek type galaxy wide governing body and ups it several levels in complexity and impact. While at the same time he doesn't make you read the books in any order or with the need to follow a complex plot spun out over many novels. The Hydrogen Sonata itself is a excellent addition to the Culture universe and I enjoyed the story itself. The quick synopsis is that the Gzilt civilization is getting ready to Sublime and the Culture shows up to dealing with some of the issues that always seem to arise around this type of event. Events then do occur which necessitates the Culture takes an active involvement in dealing with things before the Gzilt Sublime. The elements that always appeal to me in these stories are in this one with the Culture ships and their Minds that run them, a human character that leads you thru the action and is the emotional focus of the story. There is also cloak and dagger and some cool tech around weapons and people as well as some fun dialogue. If you have read Banks Culture books before this is more of the same goodness if you haven't I would recommend this as a place to jump on and see if it appeals to you as this is a very readable introduction to this universe."

— Kris (4 out of 5 stars)