Iain M. Banks poursuit son cycle de la Culture. 'The Hydrogen Sonata' est son nouveau roman dans cet univers.

Il est en interview ici en anglais.

Extrait :
You gave a rich and thorough introduction to this series in your essay, “A Few Notes on The Culture.” Is The Hydrogen Sonata a fair jumping-on point for new readers?

I'd like to think the answer is yes—that each of The Culture series novels makes sense as an individual work—but I'm too close to each, and all, to be able to be truly objective. I usually suggest people start with Consider Phlebas or The Player of Games, especially if they haven't read much science fiction before.

In the new book, we find the Gzilt, one of The Culture’s founding civilizations, on the verge leaving the material world. What makes this process difficult for them?

As steps go, they don't really come much bigger; this is a whole civilization about to edit itself forever out of the Real, out of the standard, matter-based universe, so it's not something to be done lightly, or that is going to appeal to everybody. And with a sudden disappearance on this scale, there are shock-waves, basically. Those civs left behind can't help but react and be affected—plenty of potential conflict.