The Hydrogen Sonata
is the final SF novel by Iain M Banks, who died in 2013. It is therefore also
the final novel set in the Culture, the utopian galactic civilisation which
formed the basis of nine novels published over a span of twenty-five years,
commencing with Consider Phlebas in
1987. Reviews of three of these have already appeared on this blog, and this is
what I said in them about the Culture:
"…a galactic
humanoid utopia in which almost inconceivably advanced technology provides
everything that is needed, immensely capable Artificial Intelligences sort out
the mundane business of running civilisation (the most powerful, known as
Minds, usually being established in vast spacecraft or space habitats with
quirky names), and citizens are mostly free to do whatever they like – live
forever, change gender or even species, travel the galaxy. There are various
alien civilisations in close contact with the Culture and a lot of others that
are not, plus human planetary settlements that don't enjoy the same benefits.
Relationships with such peripheral groups are handled by an organisation called
Contact, and they apply less diplomatic means when required by means of Special
Circumstances, whose agents are kind of blend of James Bond and Jason Bourne with
comprehensive bio-electronic enhancements."
The Hydrogen Sonata
follows the story of Vyr Cossont, a young woman who belongs to the ancient
Gzilt civilisation - which although not part of the Culture is almost as
advanced. The population consists of what
appears to be standard humanoids; although Cossont is different in that she has
had two extra arms grafted on, to enable her to play a complex musical instrument
made for one almost unplayable piece of music called The Hydrogen Sonata.
The background to the story is that the Gzilt are shortly to
Sublime - to leave the material universe
en masse for an eternal existence in a kind of virtual afterlife. However, the
Gzilt's plans are in danger of being disrupted by a threatened revelation that
their Holy Book – which unlike all other such, contains predictions which have
all come true, thereby giving the Gzilt the firm belief that they are superior
to everyone else – was actually the result of meddling by a superior
civilisation which sublimed long before this story began. This prompts a
division in the Gzilt between those who are trying to discover the truth (aided
by a bunch of interested spaceborne Culture Minds with the usual outlandish
names and personalities) and those who are determined, at any cost, to stop the
truth from emerging.
There are various side-plots including the contest between a
couple of minor civilisations for the right to inherit everything that the
Gzilt would be leaving behind, and the hunt to find the oldest known being who
might even remember exactly what had happened concerning the Holy Book.
Like most of Banks's novels this is not easy to get into. It
is difficult to understand what is happening at first (and for some time
thereafter), but connections between several sub-plots slowly emerge like a
drowned village from a draining reservoir. The number of Culture Minds is also
confusing as it is initially hard to recall who's who – this is one book where
it might be helpful to write down every name as it appears, together with a note
about their place in the story. The author does include a list of characters
right at the end of the book which might have reduced the need for this if only
I had discovered it before I finished. As is usual in a Culture novel, the
generally slow pace accelerates as it approaches the end, which features some
spectacular combat scenes.
This is not the best of the Culture novels – for instance,
it lacks the baroque inventiveness of Surface
Detail or the fascinating shell-world of Matter – but it is very typical of the meandering but engaging Banks
style, which enables readers to explore all sorts of odd details of his world.
It is sad that the author died at such a young age, but in these novels he has
left behind a magnificent contribution to modern SF.
******************************************
Darwin's Radio, by
Greg Bear, was published in 1999 but I've only just got
around to reading it. It is about the
next stage of human evolution, although that does not become apparent until
well into the story (not a great spoiler, you can gather that from the book
cover).
At the beginning, two separate near-future plot threads are
started: one follows a disgraced scientist (paleontologist Mitch Rafelson) who
is shown a recently uncovered ice cave in Austria containing the mummified
bodies of a couple of Neanderthals, plus their baby. The second follows another
scientist (biologist Kaye Lang) in Georgia (the country, not the US state), who
is called to investigate some strange bodies found in a mass grave. The
viewpoint mostly alternates between these two throughout the book, but sometimes
switches to Christopher Dicken, a US Government scientist concerned with
tracking viruses.
The story focuses on a newly-discovered virus (an endogenous
retrovirus, to be more precise) called SHEVA, which has the effect of causing
pregnant women to miscarry a strange foetus, before an immediate second
pregnancy which results in children being born dead. As this "plague"
sweeps around the world, causing rising panic and threatening human
civilisation, doubts begin to be raised about the nature of the virus and its
implications for the future of humanity.
This story is extremely science-heavy. I try to keep up with
scientific developments, but frequently reached the MEGO stage with this tale
(My Eyes Glazed Over) and I skim-read a lot of the pages of detailed technical
explanation concerning viruses and genetics. I also found that I had a problem
recalling various secondary characters who, after being introduced to the
reader, occasionally popped up again later without any help being provided in
the way of reminders about who they were or what their significance was. As
with the Banks story above, readers are advised to make notes of each character
as they appear, it will be a big help later.
This may all sound negative, but buried in there is a story
which was intriguing enough to keep me reading to the end; in fact I finished
the last quarter of this rather long book in one session. I note that there is
a sequel, Darwin's Children, and I
might get around to reading it, sometime…
