Just Finished Reading: The Hydrogen Sonata by Iain M Banks

After decades of thought, argument and planning the Gzilt civilisation has finally decided to Sublime – move everyone into a different dimension which is known to be (or at least strongly suspected to be) a much higher level of existence. As the final days approach high ranking members of the military and political office – which to the Gzilt are effectively the same thing – are confident that nothing can possibly go wrong. It is then that a small unarmed emissary ship arrives at the edge of Gzilt territory with a piece of news the leadership of the Gzilt need to know before the End of Days. As soon as the information is passed over the warship receiving it immediately opens fire destroying the emissary and killing everyone aboard. Departing the scene the warship is unaware that the brief explosion has been noted by a Culture ship on its way to the Gzilt home world to attend the final pre-Sublime ceremonies. Changing course to investigate further it starts a chain of events that will catapult a reserve Lieutenant Commander into the position of most hunted woman in that part of the Galaxy, uncover the location and mental state of the oldest man alive and call into question the foundations of Gzilt civilisation and the foundation of the Culture itself – and all in less that 24 days.

Iain M Banks is just about the only author whose work I will purchase, in hardback, the week any of his new Culture novels hit the shelves – and read them that week too. His Culture novel sequence has, almost without exception, been a sheer delight and an honest joy to read. His latest book was, on the whole, another fine example full of interesting characters, quirky plotting, artefacts on a huge scale, space battles, super intelligent ships (AKA Minds) and uniquely different and often very alien, and therefore very believable, aliens. For most of the novel it was exactly as I had expected – which was actually part of the problem I unfortunately had with this book. Although it was generally well written, reasonably plotted and often amusing or fascinating in turn it wasn’t a great deal different that anything that had gone before. Despite several prompts we never learnt much more about the Sublime Realm or about the process involved. Yes, we were repeated told that it was a great mystery but to offer no insight – no matter how small but intriguing – into the central theme of the book I found to be very disappointing. Likewise in previous books in this series the readers learnt more about the Culture itself often seen through the eyes of outsiders. In this book we learnt almost nothing new of any consequence. We heard a little about how the original Culture was set up (something that has long interested me) but nothing of substance. The majority of the book was a chase, made by several central characters, across the galaxy to pick up various bits of information or equipment, piece together a puzzle in a tight timescale and then……. Well, without ruining the ending lets just say that I found the whole end bit rather unsatisfactory. I don’t think I’m becoming much more critical in my ‘old age’. It’s not as simple as that – nowhere near. I did however get the impression that this book was, pretty much unforgivably, by the numbers and I think that the author got to the end and didn’t really know how to finish it. I’ve seen first time authors do this often enough to see the signs. But for a well known and well established author to do, or seem to do, the same is very poor. This is the first time that I’ve ever finished a Culture novel without thinking that I simply can’t wait until the next instalment comes out. Next time I think that I’ll definitely be waiting for the paperback. Regrettably disappointing.