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The Player of Games, by Iain M. Banks
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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 Empure 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.
- Sales Rank: #1860286 in Books
- Published on: 1990-11
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 7.09" h x 1.18" w x 4.21" l,
- Binding: Mass Market Paperback
- 399 pages
Amazon.com Review
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
From Library Journal
The Culture's greatest game player travels to the Empire of Azad to participate in a complex competition that could settle the fates of two civilizations. Theauthor of Consider Phlebas vividlyportrays an empire ruled by arcane conventions and sophisticated brutality in an ambitious novel of gamesmanship and intrigue. Supple prose and subtle manipulations of plot produce a thought-provoking story which is highly recommended.-- JC
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
Few of us have been exposed to a talent so manifest and of such extraordinary breadth THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF SCIENCE FICTION Poetic, humorous, baffling, terrifying, sexy - the books of Iain M. Banks are all these things and more NME Banks is an incredibly talented writer. All his books are lively and entertaining. They are laced with a wry humour, fascinating characters and inspired plots. THE PLAYER OF GAMES, I am pleased to say is no exception... Go on, treat yourself, you won't be disappointed. STARBURST 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 Brooks Peck, AMAZON.CO.UK
Most helpful customer reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful.
The Place To Start Your Culture Journey
By G-Dexter
About six months ago I decided to finally dip my toes into the big pond that is "The Culture," a series of ten books set in a vast galactic civilization. I started with Banks' first book in the series, "Consider Phlebas" - an entertaining if somewhat improbable adventure in which the main character is actually an enemy of The Culture. While I enjoyed that book, I never really got a very thorough understanding of what the Culture itself was all about, who they were, how they were structured, or reasons behind the war in which they were engaged.
After a short interval to reflect, I've now read the second book in the series: "The Player Of Games," in which Banks has done a great job of laying out the basic precepts of his universe. I now have a much better understanding and appreciation for the complexity and scale of his vision. Indeed, I can now grasp some of the actions taken by various characters in "Consider Phlebas" and the story makes better sense to me in reflection. While the first book had autonomous "Minds" and petulant "Drones," they all seemed fanciful and somewhat nonsensical. Now I more clearly understand their actions and motives.
As for the actual story, "Player Of Games" is a tightly structured examination of one individual, the ultimate strategist and grand wizard of gaming in the galaxy. This is his story as he is inserted into a barbaric and backward empire whose social structures, religions and politics all center around a complex series of games (or one large game) from which all wealth, privilege and power is derived. Is he there as an ambassador, a subversive spy for The Culture, or just to play the game? Even he doesn't know for sure. The characters are great, the story is complex yet very fast paced and highly entertaining. There are no slow spots - just taught story telling of the highest caliber.
As with all great science fiction, there are plenty of corollaries and allusions to our real world issues, which ultimately makes the book worth reading; more than just a ripping good yarn. If you're like me, a relative newcomer to The Culture books, I cannot imagine there is a better place to start than with "The Player Of Games." I wish I had read it first, as it has given me a greater appreciation for Phlebas. I'm well an truly hooked now, and will plow on through the rest of the series with great anticipation.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
The second Culture novel
By TChris
Iain M. Banks began his series of novels about the Culture in Consider Phlebas. I enjoyed that novel but thought it had a number of flaws. To my mind, Banks hit his stride as a science fiction writer with his second Culture novel, A Player of Games. It is an impressive examination of how social, political, and cultural structures are used to control individuals, as seen primarily from the standpoint of a gamer.
Jernau Gurgeh is a famed game player. He has mastered pretty much every popular game, no mean trick for someone who does not specialize in any particular game. He has devoted his life to game scholarship which, in Banks’ utopian future, is as good a way of using up your life as any other.
The Contact section of Culture has been interacting with a galactic empire that acquires power over other planets by the ruthless use of force. Leadership in the empire is determined through a series of games. The ultimate winner becomes the Emperor, while a good showing assures political or military appointments. None of that would bother the Culture except for the empire’s cruelty toward pretty much everyone who isn’t in power, including residents of the planets it conquers.
The Culture manipulates Gurgeh into playing the empire’s game after manipulating the empire into inviting Gurgeh to play. Having accepted the challenge, Gurgeh experiences a series of emotional highs and lows as he confronts his feelings about the game, the empire, the Culture, and his life as a game player.
The novel has some funny moments, mostly involving Gurgeh’s interaction with the prissy machine that the Culture has assigned to assist him, but the novel isn’t humor-based, as are some of Banks’ later Culture novels. Banks includes a nice mix of action scenes, but The Player of Games isn’t really an action novel. It’s more of a psychological thriller in a science fiction setting. Playing the games takes a toll on Gurgeh, as do his discoveries about the nature of the empire and the consequences of the game he has chosen to play. His turmoil and the evolution of his character is the novel’s strongest feature.
The Player of Games has something to say about the nature of empires and of any political or social system that relies on subjugation or that denies freedom. None of its insights on those subjects are fresh or surprising but that doesn’t lessen their importance. A stronger and subtler theme, I think, is that games are not a model for governance. Banks makes the reader understand that competition, while fun in a harmless game in which honorable players do not cheat, leads to war and corruption when it becomes the basis for acquiring political power.
The Player of Games is fun, smart, exciting, and meaningful. I think it’s one of Banks’ best science fiction novels, and one of his best novels overall.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
A good story about alien societies
By James F. Mcenanly
This book is different from others along similar lines in that both societies are radically different from ours. The featured civilization, the Culture, uses neural networks for biological people, like our protagonist Gurgeh, to communicate directly with cybernetic people. The other society is the Empire of Azad, which is trisexual society, ruled by the Apices, who are bisexual, taking advantage of both the males and females, who they basically treat as slaves. The Empire takes its name from their game of A sad, which is to chess what chess is to rock, paper scissors.
There was a mention of a labyrinth prison, which I took to be a Chekhov's gun, something that the protagonist would have to deal with later on. It is, instead, a metaphor for Azadian society, which is a dictatorship, where even the highest members of the ruling class can be summarily tortured and executed. Sometimes the torture and execution are the same act.
The author shows us great detail of the Empire, from Imperial palaces to red light districts to slums. The climax is set on a world with an ever raging fire which sweeps around the planet. The author shows great imagination in constructing and describing these places.
I hadn't read the first book at the time of this writing, but I was able to grasp much of the workings of the Culture. I will have to read the first book as soon as possible.
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