The Culture novels are full of intriguing details that hint
at a vast, under-explored universe beyond what little we’ve been permitted to
see. In The Hydrogen Sonata, the
latest novel in the series, Banks finally explores something that has existed
on the fringes of the Culture universe since the very first book, 1987’s Consider Phlebas: the Sublimed.
For a long while now Banks has released a trickle of
information regarding the Sublimed, those civilisations and Minds that have
reached such a level of development as to take the next step in their evolution,
and have left the material plane altogether. Tenuously linked to the material universe
and still able to influence it in some ways, the Sublimed are distantly removed
and remain the one great enigma of the Culture universe. This novel doesn’t
tell us much about the physical realities of Subliming, the truth, inevitably,
being beyond what our pitiful mortal minds can understand. Instead, Banks takes
the more interesting track of exploring how, when and why a civilisation would
consider upping sticks to another plane of reality (something the Culture
themselves have resisted for their long history).
The results are characteristically cynical. The Gzilt, a
semi-reptilian humanoid species, have reached the stage in their history at
which Sublimation is the next logical step, and have seemingly decided upon it
as a ‘now-or-never’ opportunity. Counting down their final twenty-four days of
material existence, the Gzilt wallow in their petty politics, their martially organised
culture breaking apart under the strain, after millennia of determined peace. A
violent incident against a Culture ship kicks off a sequence of events that
threaten to destabilise the whole process. Gzilt politicians manipulate their alien
allies to cover their backs for long enough to reach the big day, after which,
nothing will matter ever again.
Into this mess step the Culture, primarily in the form of a
group on concerned Ship Minds (the Ships, as ever, proving to be the most
entertaining characters). The whole galaxy-spanning fracas revolves around one
man, Ngaroe QiRia, who claims to be as old as the Culture itself. Banks lets us
have a glimpse at the Culture’s beginnings, at which QiRia was present and
involved. QiRia may hold memories concerning these early days, which concern
the Gzilt – set to be one of the Culture’s founding members, before the backed
out at the eleventh hour. The Gzilt, you see, are unique in the Galaxy for
having a religious dogma that is demonstrably true, and when it turns out that
some old Culture guy might have something to say to the contrary, from firsthand
experience, no less, people start to worry about the effect on the upcoming
moves to Sublimation.
Ideas have never been in short supply in science fiction. What
sets the Culture novels apart is Banks’s prose, characterisation and wicked
sense of humour. Our main viewpoint character is Vyr Cossont, a Gzilt woman who
has dedicated her recent years to learning to play an insanely complex musical
piece, the Hydrogen Sonata of the title, for which she has had to grow an extra
pair of arms. Cossont hung out with QiRia a few years ago, on a sort of
galactic gap year, and her link to him gets her in trouble with the more unsavoury
parts of her own society, including some killer androids (in a Culture novel,
sophisticated androids seem almost quaint). Thankfully, there’s a charming
Culture ship on her side, who protects her and takes her across the Galaxy
searching for a boxfull of memories that QiRia once left to her.
Cue an adventure across space with more than a hint of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to it. The largest
party ever thrown, an obscenely inventive alien orgy, a sentient massage mat, a
person with a bowl of soup for a face, insects in dancing spaceships; all make
an appearance in the course of the book. It’s an episodic novel, linking
various unlikely characters from across the Galaxy together in the search for
one old bastard and some sensitive information. We learn very little about the history
of the Culture or the mysteries of the Sublime, but the sheer entertainment of
the journey leaves the reader feeling he’s come out it enriched. As with the
most recent Culture novels, Matter and
Surface Detail, there’s the sense
that the Culture is just one of a number of frighteningly powerful
civilisations in the universe, some of whom a bigger and badder than the
Culture and less inclined to party. Finally, the Culture no longer feels
invincible, and their engagements with the Gzilt, although still one sided,
lead to casualties and consequences. The Sublimed remain an unknown quantity, a
glaring gap in the Culture’s otherwise omniscient purview, and one that has a
lot more to do with the everyday universe than they’re comfortable with.
While Banks riffs happily on various aspects of his
fictional universe, it’s the flawed, human character of Cossont, the
self-involved old sod QiRia, wily politician Banstegeyn and others living on
the fringes of the mighty Culture who carry the novel. The Ships are supremely
entertaining and drive events, but the great gods of space travel are bored
with their utopia and go out looking for trouble. The Culture books have always
been at their best dealing with those living just outside the great
civilisation, and when the Culture face up to unforeseen consequences to their manipulation
of their ‘inferiors.’ The Hydrogen Sonata
is supremely entertaining and intelligent science fiction, but it’s about
time the Culture were taken down a peg or two.
Read the first chapter of the novel here.
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