A review by sashkello
The Hydrogen Sonata by Iain M. Banks
4.0
A very worthy final to the series. It combines all the best things from the previous books and makes it into a very well balanced novel, high-paced yet with enough intrigue and depth. Yet again, you'll see ships getting into all sorts of witty shenanigans, eccentric drones, people with body augmentations, space battles, political intrigue, everything of course with morally ambiguous undertone.
It is more action packed than most other novels in the series (probably only barring Consider Phlebas), yet manages to maintain a very intriguing plot with lots of twists. Relatable characters faced with tough decisions are well crafted and each navigate through their own well developed arch, while exhibiting deep internal changes.
I highly recommend this novel as one of the best in the series. It is hard to rate them in any reasonable way as most of them are so damn good, but I'll give it a shot:
1. Use Of Weapons
2. Consider Phlebas
3. The Player Of Games
4. Hydrogen Sonata
5. Surface Detail
6. Matter
7. Look To Windward
8. Inversions
9. Excession
10. The State of the Art
But you know what, this is the first series of these proportions I've ever finished, and I'd say it is well worth going through all of it. Top 5 places in this list are all equally good and my ranking is absolutely not set in stone. 6-7 are very close by and would certainly stand out in any other series. 8-9 are still quite good books, don't get me wrong. 10 is the collection of short stories most of which sound like unfinished ideas, so you might just as well skip it... But overall this series is absolutely brilliant and I feel like there is no other author who managed to keep it interesting over such a long period of time and so many books. I will certainly keep going through Banks' bibliography and would be very interested to see what he was able to do outside of Culture world and in non-sci-fi setting as well.
It is more action packed than most other novels in the series (probably only barring Consider Phlebas), yet manages to maintain a very intriguing plot with lots of twists. Relatable characters faced with tough decisions are well crafted and each navigate through their own well developed arch, while exhibiting deep internal changes.
I highly recommend this novel as one of the best in the series. It is hard to rate them in any reasonable way as most of them are so damn good, but I'll give it a shot:
1. Use Of Weapons
2. Consider Phlebas
3. The Player Of Games
4. Hydrogen Sonata
5. Surface Detail
6. Matter
7. Look To Windward
8. Inversions
9. Excession
10. The State of the Art
But you know what, this is the first series of these proportions I've ever finished, and I'd say it is well worth going through all of it. Top 5 places in this list are all equally good and my ranking is absolutely not set in stone. 6-7 are very close by and would certainly stand out in any other series. 8-9 are still quite good books, don't get me wrong. 10 is the collection of short stories most of which sound like unfinished ideas, so you might just as well skip it... But overall this series is absolutely brilliant and I feel like there is no other author who managed to keep it interesting over such a long period of time and so many books. I will certainly keep going through Banks' bibliography and would be very interested to see what he was able to do outside of Culture world and in non-sci-fi setting as well.