Book Summary
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One should never mistake pattern for meaning.
The Hydrogen Sonata
The Gzilt, an ancient tribe structured on military principles but almost perversely benign, helped establish the Culture ten thousand years ago and were almost one of its founding societies, only electing not to join at the last moment. They've decided to take the well-worn road of millions of previous civilizations and travel to Sublime, raising themselves to a new and nearly immeasurably more rich and complicated existence.
However, the Regimental High Command is destroyed during the preparations. Vyr Cossont, a Lieutenant Commander (reserve), appears to have been implicated, and she is now sought - dead, not alive. Cossont must execute the last task handed to her by the High Command with the help of an ancient, reconditioned android and a dubious Culture avatar. She has to track down the Culture's oldest resident, a guy over 9,000 years old who could know something about what occurred all those years ago.
The closing days of the Gzilt civilization appear to be the most dangerous.
One should never mistake pattern for meaning.
