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.Īmid preparations though, the Regimental High Command is destroyed. An ancient people, organized on military principles and yet almost perversely peaceful, the Gzilt helped set up the Culture 10,000 years earlier and were very nearly one of its founding societies, deciding not to join only at the last moment. It is, truly, the End Days for the Gzilt civilization. “‘Such is fate,’ as they say.” He gazed out to sea for a moment, then added, “One should never mistake pattern for meaning.The Scavenger species are circling. Now the piece he’s most remembered for.” He shrugged again. He was basically taking the piss, showing how easy it was to write … how difficult to listen to. “But the point is the Hydrogen Sonata is an elaborate, contrived attack on the sort of composition it represents. “I have no idea,” the old man said, smiling. In this scene we learn something about the composer of a famous piece of music (long pauses represented by ellipses removed by me): I did come across a scene that struck a chord with me, especially in light of the discussions sparked by one of my recent posts ‘ Worrisome trends in architecture education‘. I understand things need to have a name and you cannot really get around this when writing a story set in a galaxy densely populated with alien civilisations, but it adds a thin patina of ridiculousness to the whole endeavour in my opinion. Too many humanoid aliens, intragalactic travel far too easy, and lots of silly names like Gzilt, Eshri, Briper Drodj and Banstegeyn. I haven’t gotten very far into The Hydrogen Sonata yet and I realise I may be missing large parts of the story as it is the tenth book in something called ‘The Culture Series’, but so far it’s -again- not my kind of story. I’ve read two of his books ( Transition and Stonemouth) before and although he is clearly a gifted author it’s not the sort of (science) fiction I enjoy reading. Banks in the local Barnes & Noble and decided to give Mr. My last week in Seattle at McNeel headquarters and I ran out of stuff to read.

The hydrogen sonata by iain m banks