Book report: The Hydrogen Sonata, by Iain M. Banks
Literature
is people, so they say, but Iain M. Banks isn’t aware of this. Most of the
characters in The Hydrogen Sonata are NOT people, but Ships, which is Banks’s
shorthand for the massively smart and capable artificial intelligence units of
spaceships belonging to the Culture. The Culture, in turn, is a collective of
advanced (to us) civilizations that range throughout our galaxy. The civs in
the Culture are post-scarcity societies, which is nice. Everybody has enough
food, a place to live, and so forth. Machines do most of the work, so people
are free to do pretty much whatever they want.
Sounds
pretty cushy, right? But even with people who have everything, there are still problems.
Take the Gzilt, for example. They are an advanced civilization, on the same
level as the Culture, but not a member of the Culture. They’ve all been there
and done that, and now they are taking the Next Big Step: they are going to
Sublime, which means that pretty much all of them are going to enter this
transcendent, other-dimensional state, leaving their bodies – and all their
stuff – behind. But before they go, they have to decide who of the
less-advanced civilizations has dibs on scavenging their stuff: the Ronte
(insect-y folks) or the Liseiden (eel-y folks). Oh, and the Zihdren have a bon
voyage message for them.
It’s
these last two situations that create the plot for The Hydrogen Sonata. That
bon voyage message is not at all what the Gzilt want to hear – it being some uncomfortable
truth about their supposed glorious past – so some leaders of the Gzilt kill the Zihdren
messenger, as well as a bunch of Gzilts who might have heard the message, and
try to cover it all up. Well, you know how things like that work out. They then
try to pin the deaths on the Ronte, and stir up war between them and the
Liseiden.
Drawn
into all this is Vyr Cossont, a young musician and reserve soldier, who only wants
to spend her last days before Sublime Day learning a very complex piece of
music, The Hydrogen Sonata. In fact, she’s acquired two new arms just to allow
her to play the fiendishly difficult musical instrument the piece was written for.
She’s sent off to find a former acquaintance, a VERY old guy who might have
been around when the Gzilt’s glorious past got started. She spends most of the
book dodging various factions of the Gzilt military, aided by various Ships of
the Culture.
These
Ships, each one with its own distinct personality and set of interests, are all
earnestly trying to figure out just what is going on, and hopefully prevent a
large-scale war from breaking out involving the Ronte, the Liseiden, and the
Gzilt. Their names are a hoot, and include “Passing By And Thought I'd Drop
In”, “Beats Working”, “Contents May Differ”, “Warm, Considering”, “A Fine
Disregard for Awkward Facts”, “Smile Tolerantly”, “You Call This Clean?”, and,
my own personal favorite, “Just the Washing Instruction Chip in Life's Rich
Tapestry”. They talk with each other like old friends who know each other just
a little too well, and they’re a lot of fun.
The
Ships possess formidable powers, including lightning-fast thought and
communication, and the ability to create avatars that look like people and can
travel to the various planets involved and help Vyr sort things out. They are
pretty close to being god-like in their powers, which comes in handy when the
death rays start blasting.
It
all gets sorted out in the end, with Vyr providing the humanoid touch that the
Ships can’t really muster. But does she really want to Sublime with the rest of
the Gzilt, or stay on with her new Ship buddies? Hmmm.
Recommendation:
Definitely recommended if you like scifi on the large civilizational scale, and
if you appreciate humor in your stories.
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