**edited 12/30/13 
 SPACE. 
 The final frontier. 
 These are the voyages of the starship "Mistake Not"--um, and some others, to boldly go where...well, where lots of people have gone before. 
 Welcome to the future, where most cultures have evolved past want and need, where AI is so advanced that the nonbiological minds have left the humanoids in the dust, where it is possible to take a trip to the afterlife and return--if you wish. The Gzilt, an advanced group of humanoids, are about to take the next step in their cultural evolution: within a few weeks, they plan to Sublime. 
 Note that "subliming" does not precisely match my initial mental image-- 
 --rather than referencing the process in which solids are converted to gases without an intermediate liquid step, "Subliming" refers to entering the Sublime, a higher state of being similar in spirit to the Taoist concept of the afterlife. The Gzilt have been preparing for this final step for years, guided by their surprisingly accurate holy text. Now, as the date of the ceremony approaches, other societies have come to pay their respects and, if need be, settle any misunderstandings. These visiting societies, of course, include The Culture, the extremely advanced, machine-aided civilization where even the ships have independent consciousness. On its way to Gzilt territory, one Culture ship is taken aback to observe a Gzilt ship torpedo another ship into space dust. As it turns out, the destroyed ship was carrying some rather significant information about the Gzilt holy text--information that might cause the Gzilt to put their subliming plans on hold. Vyr Cossant is trying to prepare for the Subliming by mastering the impossibly intricate Hydrogen Sonata on the impossibly finicky 11-string instrument when she is pulled into a web of conspiracy that forces her to partner up with a Culture vessel onto a quest for knowledge from an ancient mind. 
 ... 
 Due to my disapproval of GR's new and rather subjective review deletion policy, the rest of this review can be found on Booklikes.