The Hydrogen Sonata
Just finished. Overwhelming impression is one of a deep and abiding sorrow, a keening lamentation for the vicissitudes of real life. Banks started the Culture in a dark place, but one which held, in the form of the Culture, the prospect of a better greater future.Now, 10 books later, the mood is instead a bitter, exasperated nihilism. The Culture retains its stature, but the rest of the Galaxy remains a nasty vicious mire, with different gauzy decorations.
 - Iain M. Banks)