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The Hydrogen Sonata (Culture #10)

3.98 of 5 stars 3.98 · rating details · 2,780 ratings · 474 reviews

The New York Times bestselling Culture novel...
The Scavenger species are circling. It is, truly, provably, the End Days for the Gzilt civilization.

An ancient people, organized on military principles and yet almost perversely peaceful, the Gzilt helped set up the Culture ten thousand years earlier and were very nearly one of its founding societies, deciding not to join onl...more

ebook, 528 pages

Published October 9th 2012 by Orbit (first published October 1st 2012)

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Mar 15, 2013 Matt rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

Banks seems content to spin out increasingly fractal world building episodes while adopting an ever more and more affected and feathery writing style filled with qualifiers and digressions and dangling clauses, becoming in each new work ever more tangled in conscious - or perhaps unconscious – imitation of the complicated, ever qualified, speech of his most famous creations, the great ship Minds, whose all-too self-aware multi-layered and consciously ornate dialogue forms the greater part of th...more Banks seems content to spin out increasingly fractal world building episodes while adopting an ever more and more affected and feathery writing style filled with qualifiers and digressions and dangling clauses, becoming in each new work ever more tangled in conscious - or perhaps unconscious – imitation of the complicated, ever qualified, speech of his most famous creations, the great ship Minds, whose all-too self-aware multi-layered and consciously ornate dialogue forms the greater part of this novel when it is not devoted to the task of trying to prove that a thousand words will perhaps, if selected carefully and arranged artfully, serve to make a visual effect. Unfortunately, he does not seem to have a lot new to say, though he does indeed succeed in painting some pretty pictures.

At this point, there is relatively little difference between the Minds and your average comic book super-hero in terms of intellectual experience. If you want vicarious joy ride alongside kilometer long cocksure cock shaped high tech super-weapons, then this book delivers perhaps as good as Banks has ever delivered and it's just as good for an adrenalin buzz as watching say the Avengers. Given the extraordinary number of penises in this book, the extraordinary number of penis shaped weapons, and the occasional penis shaped weapon used as a penis, I can’t help but suspect that our author was perhaps lamp-shading his own inadvertent or perhaps altogether calculated even from the beginning Freudian metaphors – or at least, I sincerely hope that he is and he’s not instead poisoned himself with his own rampant testosterone filled fantasies of god-like power always used, as of course it is, in the service of ‘right’ or at least right as certain classes of intellectual see it and that indeed, additionally, he was perhaps poking fun of himself by equating greater and greater intelligence with an ever surer moral compass. I really hope so, or sooner or later I’m going to have to start bringing in the inevitable in depth comparison to Jenny Sparks and her gang and brand of ‘justice’. It’s all in good fun but it does at times seem a real waste of a mind – or Minds.

The closest Banks comes to exploring new turf in his now past middle aged writing years is the character of the ever aged QiRia, who is written with a certain rawness about growing old that suggests that either Banks is putting something of himself into the character, or else, doing a passably convincing immitation of same. From his ennui, I’m not sure anyone with the remotest modern, post-modern, or post-post-modern academic education will learn much new. And once again, I note without elaborate comment, the seemingly compulsive need of a certain class of aging writers of science fiction to write of technological Raptures.

I do hope though that he is building to something more interesting. Some bit of deconstruction or self-criticism would do the Culture, books, and maybe author some good. For example, he’s passed far enough down the progression of ‘Humans and Robots as Peers’ to ‘Humans as the Pets of Robots’ to ‘Humans occupying a relation to Robots rather akin to your relationship with those little monstrous looking mites that live in your eyebrows, where, if you think about them at all, you think, well, as long as they aren’t harming me then I might as well feel a little sense of possession toward them as fellow travellers and indirect though it may be sharers in my life experience’, that I for one would like to see if that’s deliberate and if he’s really comfortable with this progression. It’s at least something worth thinking about, I would think.

Anyway, if you are familiar with Banks, all the tropes are on grand display. High magic turned technology, god-like Minds with charming names scoffing at mere matter, religion as farce, science as True Religion, and a massive galactic canvas used as a background for commentary about the banal ways people hurt each other again and again; also, with bittersweet coda. He’s done it all better before, but at least here it doesn’t drift into boredom as he’s done several times in the past.
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Oct 02, 2012 Nick Merrill rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

“Is it true your body was covered in over a hundred penises?”
“No. I think the most I ever had was about sixty, but that was slightly too many. I settled on fifty-three as the maximum. Even then it was very difficult maintaining an erection in all of them at the same time, even with four hearts.”

Iain M. Banks’s latest Culture novel is representative of almost everything that has made the series so great. There’s enlightened interference, hedonism, spectacular setpieces, diversely characterized Mi...more “Is it true your body was covered in over a hundred penises?”
“No. I think the most I ever had was about sixty, but that was slightly too many. I settled on fifty-three as the maximum. Even then it was very difficult maintaining an erection in all of them at the same time, even with four hearts.”

Iain M. Banks’s latest Culture novel is representative of almost everything that has made the series so great. There’s enlightened interference, hedonism, spectacular setpieces, diversely characterized Minds, space battle, black humor, and outlandish foolishness (see the above quote). The book, like Surface Detail and Matter, is packed with detail from Banks’s imagination, yet avoids the pacing and bloat issues that those two books suffered from.

The Culture, for those who don’t know, is a post-scarcity civilization which features in many of Banks’s sci-fi novels. One of its most notable features are its Minds, wildly powerful AIs with colorful names such as Smile, Tolerantly and Pressure Drop.

Similar to Excession, it’s the Minds who take center stage. The Gzilt, an advanced humanoid civilization which almost joined the Culture way back when, are about to sublime. To sublime is to enter a sort of transcendent existence in another dimension, where the scope of your understanding and enjoyment can expand to levels unthinkable in the ‘Real.” 23 days before the Gzilt’s big day, an alien ship arrives bearing a somewhat controversial secret. The ship is destroyed, and ever curious Culture Minds opt to tackle the crisis. Vyr Cossont, a somewhat irreverent and obsessive artist on a ‘life-task’ to master the nearly unplayable ‘Hydrogen Sonata,’ finds herself on a mission to meet up with QiRia, the Oldest Man in the Culture, who may be able to shed some light on the aforementioned secret.

In Excession, an elite group of Culture Minds collaborated to deal with a potentially galaxy threatening event. Here, the Minds are amusingly aware that their mission could end up completely pointless, yet they interfere anyway. The word ‘matter’ is somewhat of a buzzword in this novel (ironically, it’s probably used more than in Matter). Does the Culture’s interference matter? Does the Truth matter? Does it matter whether or not we’re in a simulation? Do civilizations matter? Does anything matter? Different characters, from a previously sublimed Mind to QiRia himself, offer interesting perspectives. The result is that Banks provides some thought provoking commentary on the nature of meaning in an ancient galaxy populated by thousands of civilizations only minor blips in the scale of history.

But it’s not all philosophy. This is a very fun book, from the setpieces to the humor. The Minds are as funny and witty as ever. I don’t want to describe any of the more remarkable settings, as to do so would lessen the impact of reading about them for the first time. Banks’s imagination is in full force here, and once again he delivers on a satisfying climax which takes place against a wonderfully weird background.

The characters are satisfying, even if none are as great as Zakalwe in Use of Weapons. It’s the Minds, notably Caconym and Mistake Not…, as well as QiRia, who stand out as great creations. Cossont is an interesting figure with a compelling backstory, but her role as a protagonist becomes less important when the Culture Minds really start to drive the action. Banstegeyn, an antagonist, doesn’t achieve the heights of villainry that Veppers of Surface Detail does, but in some ways he’s a more compelling, if less cool, character, more prone to guilt and self-doubt. There’s also an android whose continued delusion that they’re in a simulation provides some funny moments.

The plot wraps up nicely, reflecting many of the book's themes. The Hydrogen Sonata really delivered on what I want in a Culture novel; a compelling story, richly written Minds, sense of wonder settings, big idea themes, and some laugh out loud moments. (less)

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Sep 22, 2012 Liviu rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012_release_read, genre-sf, read_2012, review_fbc, top_25_2012_novels

on its way here; yes, it's here today (Sept 18); now to find the time/energy that this huge asap deserves...

started the book tonight (Sept 18) and here is the first paragraph of the novel per se after a prologue chapter with talking ships (as you can see it is vintage IM Banks and awesome):

"At sunset above the plains of Kwaalon, on a dark high terrace balanced on a glittering black swirl of architecture forming a relatively microscopic part of the equatorial Girdlecity of Xown, Vyr Cossont - Lie...more on its way here; yes, it's here today (Sept 18); now to find the time/energy that this huge asap deserves...

started the book tonight (Sept 18) and here is the first paragraph of the novel per se after a prologue chapter with talking ships (as you can see it is vintage IM Banks and awesome):

"At sunset above the plains of Kwaalon, on a dark high terrace balanced on a glittering black swirl of architecture forming a relatively microscopic part of the equatorial Girdlecity of Xown, Vyr Cossont - Lieutenant Commander (reserve) Vyr Cossont to give her full title - sat, performing part of T.C. Vilabier's 26th String-Specific Sonata For An Instrument Yet To Be Invented, catalog number MW1211, on one of the few surviving examples of the instrument developed specifically to play the piece, the notorious difficult, temperamental and tonally challenged Antagonistic Undecagonstring - or elevenstring, as it was commonly known.
T.C. Vilabier's 26th String-Specific Sonata For An Instrument Yet To Be Invented, MW1211, was more usually known as "The Hydrogen Sonata".

Finished first read of the novel and just few impressions for now, more later: it was excellent though maybe not the best Banks or the best of 2012; still need a reread and time, but it's very Excession like (with Excession itself mentioned a few times and its ITG - interesting times gang - a sort of model for the current group of "concerned" Minds), a sort of upgrade of that with the world building of Surface Detail, so it lacks a little the strong human(oid) characters from Transition or Surface Detail.

The best characters are Minds (their names beat anything in the Banksian ouevre to date, true) and avatars and maybe the uber bad guy, though even there, the bad guy in Surface Detail was badder and cooler in many ways...

Still sense of wonder galore and the book just stands far out in the sf of 2012 by that alone - maybe not since Consider Phlebas there was so much sense of wonder in a Culture novel though Surface Detail I think came close and Matter a little farther, but again the larger than life characters of CP (Horza, the SC agent, Krayklin etc are missing here)

Hydrogen Sonata has so many cool little things that is hard to even enumerate them - some highlights are a guy with 4 heart and 52 penises in a continual orgy, someone else who retreats into sound so he takes out his eyes and replaces them with ears inside the eyeglobe, the special instrument to play the title sonata on and so on, so on...

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Nov 01, 2012 Seamus Thompson rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

One my favorite in the Culture series which means I rank it with The Player of Games, Look to Windward, and Excession. Below are a couple quotations that struck me as I read them. Below that is my little paean to the series as a whole, written before I started the book. I'm not up to the task of writing a lengthy review at the moment but I will say that this, like Excession, is probably *not* the best introduction to the series. As I read the final 100 pages I felt that delightfully bittersweet...more

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Dec 17, 2012 Alexander Popov rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

(The review was originally published at http://mybiochemicalsky.wordpress.com...)

“I told you before: I have a perverse delight in watching species fuck up,” says one of Mr. Banks’ characters, purportedly the oldest human being remaining in existence. Which in the universe of the Culture means that he is thousands upon thousands of years old. That statement applies well enough to the novel itself: it delights in spectacular cosmic-scale fuck-ups.

I admit I am a latecomer to Ian Banks’ body of work...more

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Oct 16, 2012 Frank is currently reading it · review of another edition

I'm getting an erection just thinking about reading this.

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May 17, 2013 Edward Keller rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I simply can't understand how today's endless dreary fantasy sagas are lapped up and claimed to be 'epic'. 'Mind numbing' yes, I'd agree with that. 'Repetitive crud' - sure, no argument there. But 'epic'? No.

Contemporary space opera is epic. Plots that take place over thousands of light years is epic. Technology which makes magic cower dejectedly sucking at a crumpled cigarette is epic.The Hydrogen Sonata is epic.

The thing with today's British epic space opera is, that unlike most other types o...more

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Mar 28, 2013 Andrew Neil rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

More Culture fun from Iain M. Banks, but ultimately a bit disappointing. I've enjoyed his Culture books over the years, starting back with Consider Phlebas and The Player of Games, but have noticed that he's kind of going through the paces with the last few. In particular in this one, there never really seemed to be much at stake - the Culture is too powerful, too wise and too clever to be taken in by anyone, really, so in the end, there's not much sense of danger for the main characters.

People...more

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Mar 14, 2013 Daniel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

As Banks expands on the Culture universe, he mentions things in passing that seem worthy of a whole book, just by themselves. One of those things is that advanced civilization "sublime", which was never explained but seemed to be some way of using sufficiently advanced technology to leave the visible universe and live forever.

So this book is about a civilization which is about to go to technological heaven, and the weird stuff that might happen when a whole civilization is about to vanish.

The ma...more

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Mar 05, 2013 Tim Hicks rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

If I knew more about writing I might give this five.

Is it a book about the Ship Minds and how they interact? About how they are coming to examine their purpose, their direction?

Or is it a rollicking space opera?

Or is it a broad speculation on the meaning of anything and the difficulty of knowing whether or when to act?

Or a demonstration of how to write the hardest of hard SF so effortlessly that other authors pale in comparison? I just read the latest from Benford and Niven, who are not exac...more

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Feb 19, 2013 Brandon rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I know it's hard to pull off, but I'm a sucker for communication that works on multiple levels. I always enjoyed those classes that were accessible to both the novice and expert. I get a kick out of films that both those with no background and those who virtually live in the particular universe can appreciate. And I thoroughly enjoy books that can achieve the same multifaceted audience.

For those new or recent to the Culture universe, this book provides an interesting yarn about the end times of...more I know it's hard to pull off, but I'm a sucker for communication that works on multiple levels. I always enjoyed those classes that were accessible to both the novice and expert. I get a kick out of films that both those with no background and those who virtually live in the particular universe can appreciate. And I thoroughly enjoy books that can achieve the same multifaceted audience.

For those new or recent to the Culture universe, this book provides an interesting yarn about the end times of the Gzilt civilization. There's a number of dramatic elements that Banks pulls out: the call to adventure, the flight from danger, the search for meaning, etc etc. He's a skilled writer, and even if all of the elements and stylistic flourishes hit dead center, it's still magnificent to see something on the scope of this book.

However, there's still a tantalizing feel of "so what?" for those new to the series. Like the CIA agents in Burn After Reading, the reader may sit and ask "so, what did we learn?" on turning the last page. All that storm and fury and things were not really changed from their predetermined groove. This story can seem to be as functional as running on a treadmill; you're doing something, but you're going nowhere.

And that's the beauty of it, especially for those familiar with the Culture from Banks' other works. This story is a perfect exposition of aspects of the Culture that have been defining, albeit minor, features of the civilization since The Player of Games. The Culture is profoundly fascinated and yet disturbed by the Sublime. It's the kid that managed to climb to the top of the high dive, go out on the ledge with toes hanging off, and then is unable to actually jump off. And the Culture is, despite their absolute freedom, repressed in many ways.

This first theme has been hinted at before. It has been remarked that the Culture has been "determinedly in play" as an Involved civilization for a long time and that it seems characteristically unwilling to take the plunge itself. Despite having links to the Sublime, an almost morbid interest in this higher plane of reality, and an understanding of the limits of the Real, the Culture still refuses to move on. Their need to meddle and improve other civilizations is really the only thing that holds them to the real. The discussion in recent books of the limits that are imposed on this drive suggests that even this tie to material reality is fraying. What comes across from the Minds in Hydrogen Sonata is not only a drive to do right, but an almost compulsive need to understand what comes next (i.e. the Sublime). Hydrogen Sonata was the logical next step following Matter and Surface Detail because, more and more, the interest and focus on the Sublime is coming to define the Culture. In the words of B5's Shadows, "what do you want?"

The self imposed limitations have also been a defining feature of the Culture as well. While it would be so easy to just raze the Affront or to read Chelgrian minds, their ethical standards prevent such actions. However, in this book we get to see a bit more of the psychology underlying this repression. In Excession, we saw the fascination and yet disgust leveled at the Grey Area/Meatfucker for the use of mind reading. The final exposition of Mistake Not's... full name is both fitting and perfect. It's the standard Culture inanity and yet truth. It suggests that the face that everyone sees of the Culture, the do-gooding and reciprocatingly friendly civilization, is not the entire truth. There's a depth here to the characters that we haven't seen as fully before. How much of the patient benevolence is patronizing? How much of the calmness is rage held in check? Sporadically Banks has hinted at this, but I found Hydrogen Sonata gave a tantalizing window into the psychological underside of the Culture.

I loved it. If you love large scale space opera types, I think you will too. If you've followed the Culture, I think you'll enjoy some of the implications and I'd love to hear your thoughts.(less)

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Pacyfa I liked your review, I am fascinated by the Culture universe as an (what people describe) anarchist utopia.

Did you read Surface Details? Would love t...more
Feb 19, 2013 06:31pm

Brandon Actually, I read Surface Detail right before Hydrogen Sonata. Before I say anything else, I did like it. I had to keep reading, always turning to the...more Actually, I read Surface Detail right before Hydrogen Sonata. Before I say anything else, I did like it. I had to keep reading, always turning to the next page; Banks is an excellent writer and it really shows in Surface Detail. Some of those small flourishes and descriptions are amazing and the world is vivid. But I didn't like it in the same way or to the same extent as Sonata.

Your question made me spend longer than I'd like to admit thinking about why that's the full extent of my charity on the subject.

I actually think the larger question asked in Surface Detail is more compelling than HS. That question of what happens when we can make our own Heavens and whether we will invariably construct our own hells (or if we should) is cool. However, for a Culture novel, it kind of surprised me in that the question rather than the exploration was the interesting part.

The plot of HS didn't really DO much, but in its run, we got to see all sorts of glimpses and meditations on some serious topics (the so what now? questions). In fact, the whole book can be summed up in terms of the titular music and the absurd instrument it spawned. In Detail, there is a lot of action and motion and development but without that sort of conceptual exploration. A variety of characters were running around to little effect, plotwise or expositionwise.

The increasing universe complexity didn't add much to my understanding of the Culture or the issues such a society it would face. The limitations of actions due to agreements and equitech civilizations was a major point of Matter and has been touched on in every other SC linked story. The devious nature of Special Circumstances is part and parcel of the series. That lower civilizations can benefit by playing the game (or not) was also part of Matter.

I thought some things were played kind of weird too. The fragmenting of Contact into bureaucratic agencies with backbiting and contentiousness seemed kind of anathema to the "land of do as you please" nature I'm used to. The prominence of a favorite character of the past seemed a bit fan service-y.

The aliens were some of the coolest in this one. The exploration of the nature of Hells with that one species. The upstart GFCF (I might have gotten that wrong). The Nauptre social divide between machine and biological.

It fits well within the Culture universe and I enjoyed it, but I didn't feel personally it added as much as I might have liked. It seems kind of like an add on to a couple of other stories. It complements Matter and Consider Phlebias in different ways. The big themes seemed to be already a part of Matter-the role of civilizations in the galactic community, the space allowed to the less developed, conflict in highest tech societies, the role of simulation and material worlds in war. For Phlebias, it explores a conflict where the Culture is interesting, involved, and cares and yet the conflict does not touch on the fundamental purpose/need at the Culture's heart like the Idiran war did.

Disclaimer: I need to think on it and, at a later day, possibly read it again to see if I'm doing it a disservice.

Pacyfa wrote: "I liked your review, I am fascinated by the Culture universe as an (what people describe) anarchist utopia.

Did you read Surface Details? Would love to read your view on it."(less)
Feb 20, 2013 07:00am

Pacyfa Each Culture book stands on its own feet as an independent story telling. SD had for me a much more involved plot, I was more engaged with the charact...more
updated Feb 21, 2013 01:57am

Feb 09, 2013 Brian Santo1 rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A thoroughly entertaining bit of speculative fiction, imagining what the universe might be like millennia from now, when people can take just about any form (and change back as it suits them), machine intelligence has advanced so far that it is possible that humans have been reduced to being only bit players in the universe, and an Afterlife has been demonstrated to exist.

Into this setting, Banks posits a branch of humanity that has a holy book that has accurately predicted that race's entire se...more

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Jan 17, 2013 Elf M. rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

So, it took a week, but I finally finished Banks' new Culture novel, The Hydrogen Sonata. It was a better novel that Matter, Transitions, or Surface Detail, but Banks is turning into a one-trick pony here.

The Hydrogen Sonata (also known as T. C. Vilabiers 26th String-Specific Sonata For An Instrument Yet To Be Invented, catalogue number MW 1211) is a fiendishly difficult piece of music to master, yet Lt. Cmdr. (reserve) Vyr Cossant is determined to master it. She's close, very close-- but in les...more

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Dec 27, 2012 Laurent rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction-fantasy

I love Iain M. Banks, and I while I really enjoyed the chance to revisit the Culture again, and it's a fun story, I just felt that by the end, there were a bunch of big, loose ends flopping around that he never got around to tying up. It's that whole "Chekhov's gun" thing -- Banks trots out several big plot threads over the course of the novel, but most of them don't really come to fruition by the time everything's over. (More detail below.)

(view spoiler)...more I love Iain M. Banks, and I while I really enjoyed the chance to revisit the Culture again, and it's a fun story, I just felt that by the end, there were a bunch of big, loose ends flopping around that he never got around to tying up. It's that whole "Chekhov's gun" thing -- Banks trots out several big plot threads over the course of the novel, but most of them don't really come to fruition by the time everything's over. (More detail below.)

(view spoiler)[The biggest one, for me, was the Banstegeyn / Chekwri plotline. We spend a good deal of time with them, and they certainly play a role in the plot along the way, but B's underlying motives for assassinating the President, betraying the Ronte, etc. were never really clear (to me, at least). The most likely -- but still unconfirmed -- explanation was that he had spent so much of his life obsessed with seizing power that he couldn't bear to have everyone Sublime first, and so he put a grand plan into motion to stop the whole process, and give himself the chance at power he craved.

I was willing to hold off on clearly understanding what made him tick, because I assumed that it would all be revealed by the end in some kind of storyline that brought him and Chekwri into more direct conflict with Vyr, etc. Instead, after his proxy Agansu (predictably) fails, Banstegeyn basically just shrugs and says "Meh...I guess I'll just Sublime." That was one of the rare moments in a Banks book where I really just kind of lost my suspension of disbelief, and felt "That makes no sense for him to do at all."

Not to nitpick, but as long as I'm trying to substantiate my point, here are some of the other plot points that just seemed to hang out there for me:
- The android, and especially the whole thing about believing that he was still in a simulation. Aside from some random comments, his delusional state never really mattered in the plot. Even as a character, he just kind of follows Vyr and Berdle, and then ends up at the bottom of an elevator shaft, never to appear (or matter) again.
- The Caconym / Zoologist plotline. There's this whole set-up with the interior world created, and the Zoologist's potential connection to the Sublime, etc...and then at the end, the Caconym goes to look for the Z, the Z's gone, and the C just goes "Meh...oh, well." and shuts it down.
- The whole plot line around Vyr's extra arms, and playing the Sonata, etc. It's a perfectly nice character detail, but the fact that she has the extra limbs, and finally plays the Sonata don't really matter.
- The Ronte-Liseiden conflict provides a couple of extra battle scenes, but again...they're all sidelined by the end of the book, with no real roles in the outcome.
- Finally, for a book that's got a bunch of Culture ships front-and-center, there's very little of the detailed battle scenarios that you see in the other books, where the ships' intricate targeting systems, ability to slip into different timescales, etc. all play a big, gripping part in the excitement. Here, the one battle you totally want to see takes place off-stage -- the Mistake Not... basically says something along the lines of "Now you're gonna get it", and then the chapter ends.
(hide spoiler)]

So, again, I totally enjoyed it, but it didn't really come together for me like some of Banks' better books do.(less)

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Daniel My read on the B plotline was his "We Sublime at all costs," so while his actions are unsuccessful, his goal is still achieved. That doesn't seem very...more
Jan 02, 2013 10:26pm

Matt I generally agree but I think you missed the point of the Android being in sim the whole time and yet that doesn't matter to the Android or to the plo...more
Mar 13, 2013 08:14pm

Laurent Matt wrote: "I generally agree but I think you missed the point of the Android being in sim the whole time and yet that doesn't matter to the Android...more
updated Mar 14, 2013 12:11pm

Nov 27, 2012 Karlo rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ebook, scifi, own

I worry that I'm starting to lose my admiration for Banks' Culture books. Although I enjoyed this one, I feel like this book continues my downward trend of enjoyment of the series in the last few books. I still love the banter between Culture Minds (probably my favourite part of this book), and Banks' ability to describe alien places in such vibrant language. The interaction between the Minds and the two Scrounger races was very lively (albeit a little ST:TNG at times).

So where does the colour...more

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Nov 20, 2012 Aram rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: worth_re-reading

It is clear that Iain Banks is one of our generations' greatest science fiction authors, a peer of Asimov for the new century, and one of last keepers of Asimov-style SF (that being both high concept and soft science). It's too bad that (failing an unlikely pop adaptation into another format like film) the soft-ish nature of the SF (mostly abandoned for hard SF, like Karl Schroeder or outright Sci-Fi Fantasy of the Star Wars variety), the extensive length of most works and the regular slower-tha...more It is clear that Iain Banks is one of our generations' greatest science fiction authors, a peer of Asimov for the new century, and one of last keepers of Asimov-style SF (that being both high concept and soft science). It's too bad that (failing an unlikely pop adaptation into another format like film) the soft-ish nature of the SF (mostly abandoned for hard SF, like Karl Schroeder or outright Sci-Fi Fantasy of the Star Wars variety), the extensive length of most works and the regular slower-than-average start to his narrative arcs will keep his work from gaining the mainstream acceptance it deserves.

Like all of Banks's books (especially from the Culture series) Hydrogen Sonata starts off with a bang of an inciting incident, moves sort of lazily for a while with a great deal of exposition and an initial sluggish rising action while all the plans are hatched and pieces moved into place. About 20% of the way through the novel his rising action finally catches and begins immense acceleration. Past that point it takes off at great speed, with good humor, great plotting and significant pull. Once caught in the gravity well of the primary conflict, things move excitingly apace and the book becomes difficult to put down.

That first 20% is, like most of Banks's works, the greatest obstacle, especially to a new reader because it cannot easily be skipped (like say, The Lord of the Rings' ridiculous initial world-building exercise). The exposition is necessary to entry in Banks's increasingly complex universe of the Culture, especially because it allows the reader to move through the subsequent action of the narrative without ever having to slow down. Still, it's a shame because the average reader will never make it through this portion of the novel, putting it down never to pick it up again.

Don't be that reader. The Hydrogen Sonata is yet another excellent entry in the series, perhaps in the top 3 in terms of quality, and well worth the wait.

Like all Culture novels, reading previous entries is not required but will greatly enhance the experience.
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Nov 14, 2012 Jonathan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Fans of Iain Banks' Culture series of novels, and particularly those in which the Minds - those hyperintelligent entities who run the vast ships and habitats of the Culture - are major if not principal characters will, for the most part, enjoy The Hydrogen Sonata. A long-hidden secret threatens to derail the Gzilt civilization's plans to Sublime, or move on to the next stage of evolution. Various cabals in Gzilt society seek to verify the truth of the secret, to suppress it, or just to get what...more

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Nov 12, 2012 Eric rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

*Sigh* At the end of every new Culture novel these days I feel frustrated. Not because I didn't enjoy them, but because it means I'd have to wait a couple of years before the next one. :(

Anyway, I enjoyed this more than others, mostly because of the humor despite the grimness of the situations. Banks, as always, delivers incredibly astute observations on the predilections of societies, disguised in trite British humor but none the less true for it.

(view spoiler)...more

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Nov 05, 2012 John Brothers rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

While Mr Banks retains his ability to assemble brilliant imagery of the far future, I have to admit that this book was disappointing. It's a bunch of small ideas stitched together, instead of a big idea, mixed with a bunch of small ideas. For example: The Player of Games, Surface Detail, Excession, Matter and Use of Weapons all have "big ideas" that animate the central plot. And by the end of it, you understand what has happened, and why - the mystery is mostly unveiled and you enjoy the puzzle....more

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Oct 29, 2012 Big Book Little Book rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Keith for www.bigbooklittlebook.com

The Hydrogen Sonata is the latest novel in Banks’ long running Culture series, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. It centres on the preparations of the Gzilt civilisation to Sublime, leaving their physical experience behind them and attaining a new ethereal existence. However, there is a secret that could change the minds of the Gzilt people and the few that know it go to extreme lengths to keep it to themselves.

Most of the Culture novels are conc...more Keith for www.bigbooklittlebook.com

The Hydrogen Sonata is the latest novel in Banks’ long running Culture series, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. It centres on the preparations of the Gzilt civilisation to Sublime, leaving their physical experience behind them and attaining a new ethereal existence. However, there is a secret that could change the minds of the Gzilt people and the few that know it go to extreme lengths to keep it to themselves.

Most of the Culture novels are concerned with the Culture’s hyper-intelligent, benevolent Minds influencing the development of less advanced civilisations, nudging them onwards, mediating in conflicts and examining the moral and ethical dilemmas that arise from this philosophy (an earlier book notes that Earth was left alone as a “control group”!). The Hydrogen Sonata is unusual in that the Gzilt are just as advanced as the Culture – having been involved in the Culture’s formation, so rather than influencing their development, the Culture get involved simply to satisfy their own curiosity about the secret.

Most of the main characters are self-aware Culture ships, each one run by a Mind (with a capital “M” – mere biological beings such as humans only have minds). The novels which focus on the ships tend to be the funniest and this is no exception. This novel continues the tendency of the ships choosing humorous and whimsical names for themselves, including the Caconym (literally meaning “The wrong name”) and Refreshingly Unconcerned With The Vulgar Exigencies of Veracity. The passages where the ships are bickering and gossiping with each other had me chortling away.

The humorous tone continues as the early chapters explain that The Hydrogen Sonata is a piece of music written centuries earlier for an instrument that was yet to be invented. By the time the novel takes place, the instrument has finally been invented, but due to its immense complexity, the Gzilt woman Vyr Cossant has had two extra arms implanted in order to attempt to play it, much to the annoyance of her passive-aggressive and over-protective mother.

The novel’s title serves a dual purpose of course, as it is symbolic of the Subliming process itself. The more serious parts of the book feature some adept, and seemingly effortless writing by Banks as he explains the lofty concepts and processes within the book, using that same talent with some inventive and highly impressive action set pieces.

The only point where the book fails is in the ending – an unfortunately common complaint with Banks’ work. The final chapters feel quite emotionally flat and rather predictable. It’s certainly a shame after the huge bombshell dropped in the very final sentence of Surface Detail, the previous Culture novel.

Verdict: Effortlessly combining lofty SF concepts with humorous prose and adrenalin fuelled set pieces. It’s only a shame the ending is a bit of a non-event.
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Oct 27, 2012 Shawn Dvorak rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Another of Iain Banks' "Culture" story set in the far future where the galaxy is teeming with thousands of civilizations, including the meta-civilization known as "the Culture." Much like today's world of First, Second, and Third-World countries the civilizations in the galaxy are organized based on technology level, and much like our world the higher civilizations feel the need to involve themselves in other civilizations' problems. "Meddling" might be too strong of a word since they're general...more

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Oct 22, 2012 David rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

Iain Banks is back with another Culture novel, and ...it's a doosey. In fact, I can't remember enjoying Banks as much as this. For the uninitiated, "the Culture" is a sprawling Galactic civilization, originated by human species but now dominated by "Minds," the artificial intelligences that inhabit and control the massive star ships in which most Culture citizens reside. The Culture is a mass of contradictions. It is a polity with no apparent government, except that it has a very powerful and in...more

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Oct 19, 2012 Andrew rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The great and glorious Gzilt civilization is about to Sublime. To Transcend, to achieve Ascension, to cross the Singularity, to pass beyond and join the bleedin' choir invisible. It's scheduled for the end of the month. And so all the Gzilt have settled down to do exactly what you'd expect of a Culture-level civilization on such a momentous occasion: one last round of cocktail parties, hiking vacations, and orgies (as suits one's preferred level of debauchery), while receiving congratulatory mes...more The great and glorious Gzilt civilization is about to Sublime. To Transcend, to achieve Ascension, to cross the Singularity, to pass beyond and join the bleedin' choir invisible. It's scheduled for the end of the month. And so all the Gzilt have settled down to do exactly what you'd expect of a Culture-level civilization on such a momentous occasion: one last round of cocktail parties, hiking vacations, and orgies (as suits one's preferred level of debauchery), while receiving congratulatory messages and ambassadorial handshakes from various civilizational friends and neighbors. Including the Culture, of course.

One such message is a letter-in-a-bottle left by the Zihdren, themselves long Sublimed. The Gzilt warship that receives it promptly blows the bottle to smithereens. Thus begins a political incident.

Banks's trick in SF -- which he does very very well -- is to convey the heft of civilization at the galactic and millennial scale, its concerns and views, by making it all immediate and personal and vernacular. Why not? A Culture Mind can recall everything that happened on a planet in the past century like you recall what you ordered for dinner -- and so a bunch of Minds working out what to do with a planet will sound like you and your friends splitting the check. The tone fits the scale.

Since it's Banks, the tone is also snark-tastically funny; or (when appropriate, in a different civilizational point of view) pompous and absurd. He's got control of it, is what I mean.

Culture books have trouble with plot -- since there are usually several might-as-well-be omnipotent beings hovering around, ready to pull off whatever ex machina is required. I think Banks got that figured out several books ago. This one is plot-*shaped*, as a spy thriller, with starships flying hither and yon searching for clues or trying to blow them up before they're found. But this is superficial; it's just to keep the momentum up.

The book is... history, I guess. History at many levels: a human (Gzilt) and her life, a military power-play, a political intrigue, a Culture Mind working group. (Seriously, the whole book is worth it just for the Minds bitching at each other.) The bits of history fall together, collide, and then fall out with gaps and holes and blatantly unpulled threads. If you try to read it as a spy thriller, it will probably be an unsatisfying disaster. What is it? Oh, right: a character novel where the characters may be humans, cities, governments, or civilizations. Each a personality, in presentation if not in literal Mind.

(Yes, my model is a little askew for the Gzilt, who are Culture-equivalent but eschew building Minds for aesthetic reasons. Not entirely clear how they make that work, by the way -- doesn't it undermine the implicit rationale of the Culture? The book doesn't go into this.)

Anyway -- thriller or history or character portrayal, it works great as a Culture novel. I loved it. There are probably classical literary models that fit better, but I'll stick with that.
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Oct 11, 2012 Dylan Harris rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Ok, I've listened to the audio once, I will go through it again, I expect: I usually do with Banks' novels. There's always a lot going on that I miss the first time around. I might, though, read it, rather than listen to it. The same words tell a different story when read than listened.

It's a Culture book, which basically means scifi Gods at play. It's a lot of fighting and searching. But, really, though, that's just the plot, and I no longer read stories for the plot: there's too few of them, &...more Ok, I've listened to the audio once, I will go through it again, I expect: I usually do with Banks' novels. There's always a lot going on that I miss the first time around. I might, though, read it, rather than listen to it. The same words tell a different story when read than listened.

It's a Culture book, which basically means scifi Gods at play. It's a lot of fighting and searching. But, really, though, that's just the plot, and I no longer read stories for the plot: there's too few of them, & they get to be oh so the same again after a while --- although a good plot does keep me reading. Fortunately, there's a lot going on here beyond the searching and the fighting and the familiar Culture setting.

His previous Culture book, Surface Detail, dealt with hell. This one deals with heaven, which we don't get to visit. Everyone goes to heaven, except those who decide to stay behind: good, bad, it makes no difference.

So, perhaps not surprisingly, it's also a morality play. A political leader lets his own fear make some foolish decisions which causes the death of many of his people. He doesn't get punished by comeuppance, as nonsense on stilts would normally have it.

But there's a lot of strangeness from the Culture setting, and the cultural setting (the bad guy belongs to a military society), which neutralises the usual comeuppance. Death is cureable. Slow death by horrible pain is a complement. So most of the usual cheap revenge stuff for comeuppance is unavailable. Banks resorts to a somewhat traditional third form of nasty fate, although admittedly it's more hint than stomp. I get the impression that part was added at the last minute to please an editor, who wanted to have something, anything, so the bad guy didn't get away with his badiness.

But, if that's the case, then the editor entirely missed the detail that Banks' heroes, the Culture, come off pretty badly too. If they had not got involved, the politicos' fear would only have killed an AI and an android. If they hadn't been quite so focus group inefficient, many more deaths could well have been caused. They drew the wrong line.

There's a couple of places where Bank's Culture universe repeats what has become its own clichés, which is a pity. I've got fed up, for example, with being told again that culture minds think faster than human ones. I guess the point has to be made, since it's central to the context of the story, but I wish Banks would find a more devious way of saying it rather than saying it, if you see what I mean.

These are more reasons why I want to go back through the novel. There's a lot more to be mined from the morality play. There's a lot of subtlety I've not grasped.(less)

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Oct 07, 2012 Russett rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Another brilliant, imaginative Culture book that hits a few new notes in its now moderately well-established formula. Which isn't to say that the fascinating characters or settings will strike anyone as formulaic. Quite the opposite. But, as another Goodreads reviewer noted, a Culture book these days means the Minds going crazy and sending each other lots of hilarious messages, with a young, almost always female humanoid and her nutty non-humanoid companion at the center of it all getting ferrie...more Another brilliant, imaginative Culture book that hits a few new notes in its now moderately well-established formula. Which isn't to say that the fascinating characters or settings will strike anyone as formulaic. Quite the opposite. But, as another Goodreads reviewer noted, a Culture book these days means the Minds going crazy and sending each other lots of hilarious messages, with a young, almost always female humanoid and her nutty non-humanoid companion at the center of it all getting ferried from plot point to plot point across the galaxy to finally end up where they started.

Which is EXACTLY what happens. (In this case, the companion is a ditzy sentient cape.)

There is undoubtedly some greater emotional nuance to the characters this time around, making things more rich and engaging than I anticipated. There's an argument to be made that the entire book is really just our protagonist getting over her massive mommy complex, and the villain, while, in true Banksian fashion, seems to be ridiculously evil, his manipulations ultimately make him seem pathetic and sad as his civilization reaches the end of days.

All this said, I honestly don't think I can read another Culture book that doesn't significantly deviate from the formula I mentioned earlier. I like a galactic road trip as much as the next person, especially in a universe with the Culture in it, but it feels like we're going down the same highway — just with different scenery. I'd much prefer a book that follows individual Culture citizens and their lives in a post-scarcity universe, like Look to Windward, Player of Games, and (partially) Use of Weapons. It feels like the human element has been pushed out of the Culture almost entirely in favor of the Minds, and while their shenanigans are amusing, to say the least, the Banks books are starting to read like a Best of the Minds listserv. And, like any listserv, it gets old fast.

Less machines, more human beings, Banks.

2 stars. +1 star for crazily original details. +1 star for emotional nuance and sheer enjoyment.
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Egle An interesting observation about human element being pushed out in the last few Banks' books. In a recent interview for Irish Times he said that scien...more
Oct 16, 2012 05:22pm

Egle Oh, and a link to the actual interview, if you'd like to read it. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/f...
Oct 16, 2012 05:22pm

Russett OK, let me be clear: I love big idea sci-fi. I loooooove me some philosophical, abstract, let's think about the human condition/meaning of life/thalie...more OK, let me be clear: I love big idea sci-fi. I loooooove me some philosophical, abstract, let's think about the human condition/meaning of life/thalience sci-fi. And I liked The Hydrogen Sonata — I follow the Goodreads scale, and 4 stars really does mean, "I really liked it"!

BUT. But but but but. But. The Hydrogen Sonata is a Shaggy Dog story if I ever saw one. And frankly, I'm getting tired of Shaggy Dog Culture chronicles. The book says it itself, actually: it's an (view spoiler)

Which reminds me a lot of Surface Detail. Which reminds me a lot of Matter.

This is really what I mean when I say "Less machines, more human beings." I mean "less Minds swinging their digital dicks around for no good reason" and "more meaningful events in Culture history that actually change things at the end." Change is, of course, very, very gradual, given that the Culture is a flippin' utopia, and maybe the whole thing is secretly a not so insightful commentary about liberal society, but everything is feeling very reliably...static. And I just can't let that pass. It feels like Banks is relying on MINDS ZANINESS and a very particular narrative structure to pull his books through, and from a plot perspective, I just get bored.

Of course, I keep reading, because all the books have such interesting intricate little details and such amazing imagination. It's still better than 90% of the stuff out there. But I'm not about to let this increasingly irritating trend pass without comment.

(It's also very likely that this is just what happens when you read everything in the corpus of a particular author. Even the most brilliant of them tend to reuse certain vocabulary, set-ups, or other devices, and that's definitely influencing my viewpoint.)

Thanks for the interview, by the way! Banks is just a fascinating person in general, isn't he?(less)
Oct 17, 2012 09:31pm

Oct 02, 2012 Ryandake rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

there's something about a Culture novel that makes a non-geek really want to become a geek: to comb over every detail of every Culture novel, looking for connections and cross-references and overlapping treatments of themes, and have a list of Culture ship names tattooed up one's legs. one wants to go to Culture conventions dressed up as a character from the novels, and pretend very hard that one is a Culture citizen.

this novel will only add to that ever-growing desire.

so, what happens when it b...more

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Feb 19, 2013 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If you thought you had a destiny, and if you strove long and hard to realize it, and if, when you were almost there, you learned that somebody else had set you on your path for their own amusement, what would you do?

The Hydrogen Sonata is a new Culture novel from Iain M. Banks. The title refers to an extraordinarily difficult--and notoriously ugly--musical composition written for an extraordinarily difficult, balky, and strange musical instrument that requires eight arms to play with any degree...more

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Dec 31, 2012 Andrew rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The Hydrogen Sonata is a good book that (in my opinion) requires a small prior investment in the Culture novels to work. That said, it really isn't a huge deal, and being the tenth book in the shared universe makes it a fair bet that any reader will have encountered the Culture before.

Anyway.

I've spoiler-hid the review because it's hard to get into why it's a four-star book without discussing some of the book's content in a potentially spoilery way.

Banks's writing is, as ever, brilliant. Tight,...more The Hydrogen Sonata is a good book that (in my opinion) requires a small prior investment in the Culture novels to work. That said, it really isn't a huge deal, and being the tenth book in the shared universe makes it a fair bet that any reader will have encountered the Culture before.

Anyway.

I've spoiler-hid the review because it's hard to get into why it's a four-star book without discussing some of the book's content in a potentially spoilery way.

Banks's writing is, as ever, brilliant. Tight, focused, descriptive without being flowery: it's just a pleasure to read. The dialogue is witty without overdoing it, and the main players are instantly sympathetic. There's not a lot of change going on, but considering it's about people in an endgame civilisation choosing to up sticks and go straight to the universal equivalent of heaven, there's not much left for them to explore. The one place where Banks consistently loses me is during battle sequences - paricularly ground battles - as the extremities of tech in use lead to a babble of actions that take a while to process. At the climax of the novel, you get the distinct feeling that you'd be better off skipping to the end and hoping one of the protagonists explains what the hell just happened (which they helpfully do).

Where the book falls down, though, is in what happens over the course of the tale. The Gzilt civilisation are about to Sublime - go to Heaven, essentially - but before they go another (already Sublimed) civilisation tries to apologise for accidentally giving them religion millenia ago. Half joke/half fringe experiment, they infected the Gzilt with a thread of prophecy that confirmed to a technology curve - a religion that is strengthened by science.

Fearing for the integrity of the Sublimation (some people might change their minds) the Gzilt suppress the apology and anyone who knows about it. Still, it leaks out, and the Culture get involved with a low-ranked Gzilt officer in the pursuit of an ancient source who *might* be able to confirm it.

So, they go yomping off on a quest to find a dude who knows the truth. So far, so standard. There are a couple of wittery bits about the nature of the Sublime that are interesting but so vague that they could all be replaced by "it's Heaven, innit?" and it wouldn't make a blind bit of difference. There's a section about how to confirm whether the Universe is a simulation or not which has no purpose other than to fill up some space in the middle of the novel. It has literally zero value to the story (the one character who thinks they are in a sim continues to all the way through) and doesn't change anything other than page numbers. There's a discussion of how the ancient source was involved in the composition of the titular Hydrogen Sonata, a piece of music so fiendishly difficult only a handful of players have ever performed it in one sitting, including one incredibly important-feeling exchange where it is revealed that the last movement matches a series of glyphs in the language Marain - a language that is so deep it could literally describe the universe. Needless to say, this pistol remains mantelpiece-bound, forever cocked and unfired.

At the very end of the novel...nothing really happens. The truth is confirmed, after a fashion, but suppressed anyway. The Sublimation occurs as though it was never in doubt. All the players leave the stage, and the audience is left with their hands hanging in the air, unsure if they should applaud because it feels like there should be something more.

Maybe it's just me, but the Culture novels used to be a bit more...exciting. Stuff happened. There were Interesting Times (as it were). Here, we're treated to some more ship-to-ship witty banter and a MacGuffin hunt that spirals down to nothing. It's a nice journey, but there's no consequence to it. It's a book you can read if you want to, and you'd likely enjoy it, but I can't bring myself to say that you *must*.(less)

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Nov 17, 2012 Gerhard rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012

No disrespect to Mr. Banks, but reading a Culture novel is the literary equivalent of watching a Hollywood SF blockbuster ... only with an infinitely better script, and lots more weirdness, sex and drugs.

One of the reasons why Disney is unlikely to buy the film rights to the Culture novels is that a key character in THS is a sybarite with 60 penises grafted onto his body; he also has four hearts to sustain so much convective tissue; the most number of people he has ever had sex with at one time...more

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Dec 16, 2012 Mjhancock rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi

Hydrogen Sonata is a mystery that isn't really a mystery, about a search for something that may already be found. Or, to be slightly less cryptic, it's about the end of the Glizt civilization. Almost founders of Culture, they're preparing to Ascend into the great Sublime and leave behind the mortal coil, but there's a group more interested in preserving their place in history than allowing the truth behind their people to be revealed. So it's up to Lieutenant Commander (reserve) Vyr Cossont, and...more Hydrogen Sonata is a mystery that isn't really a mystery, about a search for something that may already be found. Or, to be slightly less cryptic, it's about the end of the Glizt civilization. Almost founders of Culture, they're preparing to Ascend into the great Sublime and leave behind the mortal coil, but there's a group more interested in preserving their place in history than allowing the truth behind their people to be revealed. So it's up to Lieutenant Commander (reserve) Vyr Cossont, and a ragtag band of curious spaceships, to figure out the truth. This is Banks' 10th Culture novel, and I'm starting to realize how much of a balancing act writing them can be. From a cultural studies perspective, Culture is a weird mix of Western imperialism and technological determinism, with the far future of humanity being shepherded by immensely powerful AI spaceships who interfere in intergalactic events largely out of curiosity. It's kind of like Asimov's Robots, only with a more acerbic wit. Anyway, it's a problematic perspective, in that the Culture often come off as smug in a 19th century British colonialist kind of way. And in that context, Banks has to make these alien minds seem sympathetic, and create a sense that something is at stake for creatures that are basically immortal. The previous novel in the series, Surface Details, did this by balancing very personal stakes of a former slave with the threat of eternal damnation for countless species. Hydrogen Sonata takes a similar tack, as the coming Ascension creates a ticking clock, and Cossont's investigation grants it a personal level. It's a novel about what it means to exist in reality, and what's worth dedicating a life to, whether it's contemplation of unique sounds, or the playing of an impossibly difficult piece of music (hence the title). Granted, the mystery is a little McGuffin oriented, but you're not really reading a Culture novel for that; you read a Culture novel for vast space opera, deep ruminations of subjects like the ethics of simulation, and the witty repartee of incredibly large space ships.(less)

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About Iain M. Banks

Iain M. Banks is a pseudonym of Iain Banks which he uses to publish his Science Fiction.

Banks's father was an officer in the Admiralty and his mother was once a professional ice skater. Iain Banks was educated at the University of Stirling where he studied English Literature, Philosophy and Psychology. He moved to London and lived in the south of England until 1988 when he returned to Scotland, li...more Iain M. Banks is a pseudonym of Iain Banks which he uses to publish his Science Fiction.

Banks's father was an officer in the Admiralty and his mother was once a professional ice skater. Iain Banks was educated at the University of Stirling where he studied English Literature, Philosophy and Psychology. He moved to London and lived in the south of England until 1988 when he returned to Scotland, living in Edinburgh and then Fife.

Banks met his wife Annie in London, before the release of his first book. They married in Hawaii in 1992. However, he announced in early 2007 that, after 25 years together, they had separated. He currently lives in North Queensferry, a town on the north side of the Firth of Forth near the Forth Bridge and the Forth Road Bridge.

As with his friend Ken MacLeod (another Scottish writer of technical and social science fiction) a strong awareness of left-wing history shows in his writings. The argument that an economy of abundance renders anarchy and adhocracy viable (or even inevitable) attracts many as an interesting potential experiment, were it ever to become testable. He was a signatory to the Declaration of Calton Hill, which calls for Scottish independence.

In late 2004, Banks was a prominent member of a group of British politicians and media figures who campaigned to have Prime Minister Tony Blair impeached following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In protest he cut up his passport and posted it to 10 Downing Street. In an interview in Socialist Review he claimed he did this after he "abandoned the idea of crashing my Land Rover through the gates of Fife dockyard, after spotting the guys armed with machine guns." He relates his concerns about the invasion of Iraq in his book Raw Spirit, and the principal protagonist (Alban McGill) in the novel The Steep Approach to Garbadale confronts another character with arguments in a similar vein.

Interviewed on Mark Lawson's BBC Four series, first broadcast in the UK on 14 November 2006, Banks explained why his novels are published under two different names. His parents wished to name him Iain Menzies Banks but his father made a mistake when registering the birth and he was officially registered as Iain Banks. Despite this he continued to use his unofficial middle name and it was as Iain M. Banks that he submitted The Wasp Factory for publication. However, his editor asked if he would mind dropping the 'M' as it appeared "too fussy". The editor was also concerned about possible confusion with Rosie M. Banks, a minor character in some of P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves novels who is a romantic novelist. After his first three mainstream novels his publishers agreed to publish his first SF novel, Consider Phlebas. To distinguish between the mainstream and SF novels, Banks suggested the return of the 'M', although at one stage he considered John B. Macallan as his SF pseudonym, the name deriving from his favourite whiskies: Johnnie Walker Black Label and The Macallan single malt.

His latest book is a science fiction (SF) novel in the Culture series, called The Hydrogen Sonata, published in 2012.

Author Iain M. Banks has revealed in April 2013 that he has late stage cancer and is unlikely to live for more than a year.

The Scottish writer posted a message on his official website saying his next novel "The Quarry", due to be published later this year, would be his last.(less)

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