The Player of Games

The Player of Games
by Iain M. Banks

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Book Summary Information

Author: Iain M. Banks
Edition: Paperback
Published: 2008-03-26
ISBN: 0316005401
Number of pages: 416
Publisher: Orbit

Book Reviews of The Player of Games

Book Review: Today's crew of game obsessed YA is going to relate to this book!
Summary: 5 Stars

I've always liked books from a series that "stand alone." The Player of Games, by Iain M. Banks, is the second book written in the "Culture" series. You'd never know it, and you don't need book one. However, this one is intriguing enough to make you want to read more of them.

Culture is the future culmination of humanity and artificial intelligences (and probably a number of other sentient species; not the real focus of this volume). Jernau Gurgeh, a Culture-wide game player of significant renown, finds himself "volunteering" to serve the Culture as a member of Contact, an element of Culture that interacts with new beings, cultures, and empires. He's invited to a game tournament in the Empire of Azad, a game played every six years that determines one's place in Azad society, even the Emperor (as long as you are not a male or a female).

Gurgeh finds himself surrounded by a race that considers games of greater importance than even he does.

Culture finds Azad society troublesome.

Gurgeh cannot win. He should not win. Yet he must win.

It is, after all, THE Game.

Banks writes well. The characters are interesting, the various cultures are imaginative, and the story is engaging.

What more can you want from a sci-fi novel about life in a distant human universe? Except for the other books in this series, of course!

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Summary of The Player of Games

In The Player of Games, Iain M. Banks presents a distant future that could almost be called the end of history. Humanity has filled the galaxy, and thanks to ultra-high technology everyone has everything they want, no one gets sick, and no one dies. It's a playground society of sports, stellar cruises, parties, and festivals. Jernau Gurgeh, a famed master game player, is looking for something more and finds it when he's invited to a game tournament at a small alien empire. Abruptly Banks veers into different territory. The Empire of Azad is exotic, sensual, and vibrant. It has space battle cruisers, a glowing court--all the stuff of good old science fiction--which appears old-fashioned in contrast to Gurgeh's home. At first it's a relief, but further exploration reveals the empire to be depraved and terrifically unjust. Its defects are gross exaggerations of our own, yet they indict us all the same. Clearly Banks is interested in the idea of a future where everyone can be mature and happy. Yet it's interesting to note that in order to give us this compelling adventure story, he has to return to a more traditional setting. Thoughtful science fiction readers will appreciate the cultural comparisons, and fans of big ideas and action will also be rewarded. --Brooks Peck

The Culture - a human/machine symbiotic society - has thrown up many great Game Players, and one of the greatest is Gurgeh. Jernau Morat Gurgeh. The Player of Games. Master of every board, computer and strategy. Bored with success, Gurgeh travels to the Empire of Azad, cruel and incredibly wealthy, to try their fabulous game...a game so complex, so like life itself, that the winner becomes emperor. Mocked, blackmailed, almost murdered, Gurgeh accepts the game, and with it the challenge of his life - and very possibly his death.

Praise for Iain M. Banks:

"Poetic, humorous, baffling, terrifying, sexy -- the books of Iain M. Banks are all these things and more" -- NME

"An exquisitely riotous tour de force of the imagination which writes its own rules simply for the pleasure of breaking them." -- Time Out

Contemporary Books

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