The Hydrogen Sonata
by Iain Banks · first published 2012
38% recommend46% neutral15% critical
Why HN recommends it
Late Culture novel praised as a return to form, with a poignant, fitting ending and useful backstory on the Culture and the Sublime; suits existing Culture fans more than newcomers.
Common criticism: Several find it slight or thin compared with other Culture novels.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Suspected of involvement after the Regimental High Command is destroyed as they prepared to go to a new level of existence called Sublime, Lieutenant Commander Vyr Cossont must find a nine-thousand-year-old man to clear her name.
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…point. Mediocre: Consider Phlebas, Use of Weapons, a lot of others. Nothing to really tie them together, but enough interesting moments that you don't absolutely hate them. God-tier: Excession, Matter, Hydrogen Sonata. Books that have few if any bad qualities, and are massively thought provoking to boot.
on “Nancy Pearl’s Rule of 50 for dropping a bad book” ↗No-one seems to have mentioned Iain Banks's Hydrogen Sonata so I will. It's not first rate but it's something of a return to form over his last few (at least for me).
on “Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012” ↗…fascinating look into the world and science of psychedelic drugs. "Rendezvous with Rama" by Arthur C. Clarke. One of, if not Clarke's best. It's short for a sci-fi book and almost impossible not to like. "The Hydrogen Sonata" By Iain M. Banks. It certainly wasn't my favorite culture entry, but it's worth a read none the less. If you haven't read the others in the series I wouldn't suggest starting with it. "Children of Time"…
on “Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?” ↗…along for the ride, and largely spending their time in leisure and idleness. The stories (great stories!) explore the worlds as they collide with the Culture, and in some books (probably most in The Hydrogen Sonata and to a degree in Excession) the exploration of what it means to make art as a human vs as machine intelligence. In Iain stories, advanced Minds are far superior to humans in everything and they can…
on “The Expanding Dark Forest and Generative AI” ↗I had this sad realisation with the last Iain M Banks book I read - Hydrogen Sonata. It was a good book, but I felt like I'd seen its skeleton at least three or four times before.
on “Why Some People Become Lifelong Readers” ↗…keep it dark), but then is never drawn to its conclusion, and that fails to make it as solemn. There are of course other "nearly but not quite the end" stories. Iain M Banks last Culture novel - The Hydrogen Sonata - has a similar theme, but set on an alien planet where the civilization has decided to ascend. It's a great book, but it too doesn't feel as dark, I guess, because it isn't the end of humanity. The…
on “The Day the Moon Blew Up” ↗I can understand your feelings, but i suspect you'll find The Hydrogen Sonata a fitting book to cap the series. There's a neat demonstration of what fairness really is worth at the end that's just ... I don't know, poetical. There's a sense of finality and closing that fits nicely.…
on “A Few Questions About the Culture: An Interview with Iain Banks” ↗I still can't decide which book to tell people to start with. Excession was my favorite, since it features the hilariously snarky interactions between the Minds so much more than the other books. Hydrogen Sonata was also really good for all the backstory about the Culture and the Sublime, which was only hinted at in other stories. And then there's Use of Weapons, since Zakalwe is arguable the most interesting…
Minor spoilers, don't read below if you care: I'm biased by my love for 'The Hydrogen Sonata,' but my favorite will always go to the Mistake Not... Which is short for Mistake Not My Current State Of Joshing Gentle Peevishness For The Awesome And Terrible Majesty Of The Towering Seas Of Ire That…
on “SpaceX's Falcon Heavy center booster lacked ignition fluid to re-light engines” ↗Matter and The Hydrogen Sonata are very good, more action-packed stories that I thoroughly enjoyed. Surface Detail is also extremely good, but has some pretty dark setting and themes involving virtual afterlifes. If you’re looking…
on “A Few Notes on the Culture by Iain M Banks (1994)” ↗Actually there is a bit at the end of The Hydrogen Sonata that does make me tear up a bit - where the Minds are being a bit self-congratulatory and it mentions about all of the adventures that they will go on to have.... Of course its not the content of the…
on “The Day the Moon Blew Up” ↗…comment on this, so it is entirely cannon.) The Culture fought a war against the Idirans, who eschew the use of intelligent machines. The Idirans lost. Similarly, the Gzilt civilisation in the novel The Hydrogen Sonata prefer to run their ships with a quorum of uploaded humanoid mind states running at highly accelerated speeds.
on “Butlerian Jihad” ↗That's cool, I've never seen anyone recommend The Hydrogen Sonata so left it to last, along with Inversions. For all the fixation on his comment about American Libertarianism, Banks's politics seem fairly standard post-Thatcher Scottish to me. After what that PM did…
on “A Few Questions About the Culture: An Interview with Iain Banks” ↗…plots painfully transparent. Another favourite author of mine, Iain M. Banks, has a few books that, if you think about them, follow a similar pattern: The Player of Games, Against a Dark Background, The Hydrogen Sonata, and Consider Phlebas all have the main character trapped in a trajectory where they're effectively secondary to large-scale background machinations and all-powerful AIs. (Against a Dark Background is…
on “How William Gibson Keeps His Science Fiction Real” ↗…bad. I read Consider Phlebas first, and liked it. (Kind of a gritty Hitchhikers Guide) Player of Games was okay. I found the ending of Use of Weapons to be obnoxious in the extreme. And after I read Hydrogen Sonata I resolved to never read another Banks novel. Side note: basically every novel takes place on the edges of the Culture. (A story requires conflict, and there can't be conflict in utopia) If you want…
on “The Culture War: Iain M. Banks’s Billionaire Fans” ↗