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|title=The Hydrogen Sonata

|sort=Hydrogen Sonata, The

|publisher=Orbit

|date=September 2012

|website=http://www.iain-banks.net/

|summary=The sentient ''Culture'' ships feature more heavily than in many of this series of space operas, with the usual wit and sarcasm. Highly entertaining although not the best in the series by some distance.

}}

It's 25 years since Iain M Banks introduced us to the utopian ''Culture'' series of sci fi adventure books and ''The Hydrogen Sonata'' is the 13th in the series. One thing Banks does particularly well is to make his books completely accessible as stand alones, explaining the concept afresh each time without going over old ground for long time fans, of which there are many. In many ways, this is a good introduction for those who have yet to discover the joys of this excellent series because it's far more linear than some. He sometimes leaves even hardened ''Culture'' addicts struggling to work out what's going on with alternative realities before bringing them together, but there's little of that here.