Andrew's Reviews > The Hydrogen Sonata

The ship, Lost Grip Of Impetus Of Story To Old Man Muttering Habit, home ship On Occasion, was more of a thought than a craft, more an expression of speed than a physical manifestation. It whirled into the Izenion system with only a moment's backward glance, and unleashed a nova of confusion amidst its plethora of barely-distinctive, weirdly-named, and definitely unrelated - in a plot-wise, relevant-notioned, cognitively-linked series of unconnectedness - characters who were always getting dragged along in the wake of an accretion of smart Minds. Well, they must get bored so easily, so exponentially fast and powerful they are, compared to even virtually-accelerated humanoids.

Another Culture book is a sexy idea in itself, and much anticipated by a devout and loyal readership (me). Subliming is the central concept about which this adventure takes place. It's not a new Banks concept, and it's a bit over-cooked in the exposition. Needless to say, Culture ships become aware of a suspicious incident, because it's interesting and morally the right thing to do. Beyond unimaginably intricate dreamscape creation, watching stars' solar flares, and generally altering their own nature, upscaling, downgrading, that sort of trick... what else is there to do?

Of course, we have the sections of repartee from the irrepressibly precocious ships - this time with some very stupid names {Washing Instruction Chip; You Call This Clean?; Beats Working}, some very smart/witty names {Caconym (a taxonomic name that is unacceptable for linguistic reasons); Refreshingly Unconcerned With The Vulgar Exigencies Of Veracity} and some forgettable boring names (Empiricist; Warm, Considering; Contents May Differ; Pressure Drop}, but the rat-tat-tat smartness is initially clogged up by a vastly over-complicated exposition and development. Then it takes off.

This is my third time of reading, and when I made this last decision, I concurrently asked myself why, even as I was pulling it off the shelf? It wasn't one of my favourite Culture novels, but there was something in it that drew me to it again. It took me a while to discover what. About half way through, after you're acclimated to all the systems, ships, competing factions and humanoid characters - and there's over 50 of all these - you find Banks on one of his 'Let me just explain about this concept a mo' intrusions - and it just falls into place. Smart, amusing, highly articulate, if a little over-done, it becomes fun. And that is what he does best, after great plots, sexy characters, novel concepts, amusing scenarios, smart integrity and wonderful ship names. Then there's the battle scene, more a skirmish, considering the vastness of tech available, but that's fun too. And so I found out why some unconscious part of me wanted to read this last Culture novel for a third time. Especially considering that I didn’t enjoy it much the first two times. (Just spoilt, by then, I guess; relativity, and all that). To get to that point of the book.

There is, also - and not unwelcome - the central figure of a female agent, this time a reluctant Gzilt reserve-military musician, and not a wanabee Culture creature (remembering with joy the introduction of the deliciously immature debutante beauty Ulver Seich in Excession), and a later insertion of a new (woken Stored) female SC aide as well. Their respective adventures are worth waiting for - it's just the build-up, and all those characters, that seems a little over-convoluted, a little too complicated, a little restated-let's-move-on-shall-we frustrating. Cossont actually isn't much fun as a character - what's fun is what happens to her.

If this last Banks Culture novel has faults, it's these: the complicated plot and series of sub-plots and all of its 50+ characters takes half the novel to come to terms with (but once there, you can start to enjoy it so much more); its main humanoid female character, Cossont, isn't particularly stimulating, not in the way Ulver Seich or Diziet Sma were (and so were very hard to follow); most of the ship names were zestless; and when he accelerates towards the finale, he has a slightly annoying insistence - to make all as credibly detailed and topographic as the ending seems to require - of inserting little paragraphs of descriptive prose between the dialogue, and it's the dialogue that drives the action at this point (else we get mired by adjusting to the changing topography instead of being rushed along the whirlwind of frenzied fighting).

The skirmish at the Dataversity is the best piece of action, and even here, angles seem all too relevant; without a map, all those left and right turns just confuse. But while it's not the most inventive portion of this rather complicated construction, it's really the most fun - and fun is what he intended as the primary factor, I'm absolutely sure, whether it be in all those mind games (the castellation of castles within a portion of one of the Minds of the Caconym), or the sheer out-wittery of the Culture ships when in action.

The Culture, which will forever seem that one-time-forever inspired creation of plausible-alternative technologically-awesome sociologically-sound civilisational SF unmatched by any contemporary, by many light-years, and that is a world as alive inside me as Narnia or Middle-Earth or Gormenghast - and that is saying something! It brightens up the sky for me, Banks's sci-fi.

This may not be his best, but perhaps it's a bit like getting used to a new wine or whisky, after your favourites. Persistence is worth it. I know. This was my third pass.