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The Player of Games (Culture #2)

4.21 of 5 stars 4.21 · rating details · 16,416 ratings · 669 reviews

Curgeh is the best, the champion. In the ancient, all-embracing Culture in which there is no disease or disaster, only the endless games, he has beaten them all. But an empire's challenge will teach him what the Game is really all about."Striking for its breadth of vision, its ability to suggest the sprawling facets of an old, far-flung culture." -- "Publishers Weekly"

"A g...more

Paperback, 288 pages

Published February 1st 1997 by HarperPrism (first published 1988)

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Mar 28, 2013 Manny rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, too-sexy-for-maiden-aunts, games, pooh-dante

In 1938, Yasunari Kawabata, a future Nobel Prize winner, was assigned by the Mainichi newspaper to cover a Go match between Honinbo Shusai, the top player, and his challenger Kitani Minoru. Go has an importance in Japanese culture that is hard for a Westerner to understand, and was one of the four traditional arts that a Samurai had to excel in. The match was very even until Kitani played an unexpected move just before an adjournment; its only purpose was to force a response, giving him extra ti...more

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Apr 17, 2013 mark monday rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: z-iain-banks, futuristik

an often brilliant allegory. it is interesting to compare the rather spare quality of this novel with the more luxurious expansiveness of the rest of the Culture novels... almost as if it is Iain without-the-M Banks writing about the Culture this time. and the themes are very much in line with banks' non-science fiction suspense novels. banks' wit and imagination are still in play. as are the wonderful drones! well, one drone in particular.

mea culpa: so i have been recommending that folks start...more

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Feb 25, 2012 Stephen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1980-1989, science-fiction, cyber-punk-prep-and-post, galactic-civilizations, spy-stuff, metal-men

Tis Official...Iain Banks can write his flesh cushion off. Okay, so for many of you that is not exactly breaking-news scrolling across the ticker, but I still thought it was worth repeating.

I had previously read and loved The Wasp Factory, Banks' classic first novel which was a fascinating glimpse into the psychology of a very disturbed young man in serious need of a hug. I also really enjoyed Consider Phlebas, which is the first of the Culture novels. With Banks having two big wins under his b...more

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Jun 11, 2011 Joel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club, 2011, sci-fi-fantasy, series, culture, kindle, wssfbc, 30-day-book-challenge, vote-getters

This was my first book in Iain M. Banks sprawling Culture series. I have been reading a lot of sci-fi and fantasy lately, because for some reason that's all that sounds interesting to me, but I have to admit it is very annoying knowing that every book I pick up is the first in a _______. Usually that blank is "trilogy," except when it isn't (or it really isn't). And while there may be lots and lots of Culture books, they are all standalone stories with a beginning and an end. You can read one pu...more

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Jul 14, 2010 notgettingenough rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: games, science-fiction

You are playing a game. In adjournment you are offered a cast iron safe opportunity to cheat. It won’t affect the outcome of the game, you are going to win anyway. But it may change how you win. So what do you do?

The world is divided into two. Game players. Those who are not. If you are the latter, you won’t have a clue, not the least understanding of what it is to be the former. I mean, huh? You are going to win anyway, so what the fuck? Cheat? Weird.

This book is a fabulous depiction of a playe...more You are playing a game. In adjournment you are offered a cast iron safe opportunity to cheat. It won’t affect the outcome of the game, you are going to win anyway. But it may change how you win. So what do you do?

The world is divided into two. Game players. Those who are not. If you are the latter, you won’t have a clue, not the least understanding of what it is to be the former. I mean, huh? You are going to win anyway, so what the fuck? Cheat? Weird.

This book is a fabulous depiction of a player of games. We start off with the ennui of having no challenge, of being the best. See, right there, something which might surprise you is revealed. Is it good being best, something you wake up to with a buzz every day? Not in the least. You have nothing more to do, you can’t even get better. It is why so many top sportsmen have a goal which is always out of reach, just one, while all the others might have been conquered a thousand times. But the one that always eludes them, it is that which keeps their psyche intact.

It’s good to win, bad to lose, right? Well, no. that’s not necessarily so. Gurgeh finds himself in this position. A physical challenge is offered during a game, which he must accept. The sexual parts of the loser will be removed. For his opponent this will be devastating, permanent mutilation. His, on the other hand, will grow back again. It’s not necessarily good to win. How many times have I experienced this. You play a friend, a lover, a sibling. You know what it means to them. You know how losing hurts. That should make you more inclined to win and yet.

Game over, you’ve won, that’s good. The victory was easy, even better. But it is the journey. Gurgeh is gutted more than once when his opponent capitulates. The journey is everything, the arrival is neither here nor there. To have it easy is to be robbed.

And yet…losing is pain. Winning is not pain. Playing is a paradox, both winning and losing can be hard to take.

There are two types of people in the world. The game players who give all of themselves and the ones who do not. For the former the game is real life, and real life the game. Life is nothing but a facilitator of the playing of the game. It has no instrinsic separate purpose. Anything Gurgeh does or does not do is to better his playing. When it becomes necessary it is this that permits him to win the game that means his opponent will have his sexual organs removed. Real life takes what was the angst away from his decision.

I ask you again, do you cheat? And if so when and why? I know players who would not dream of cheating in the game, but in real life? What’s real life? I’ve played often enough with thieves to understand what is the difference for them. But not for a moment would I expect to be robbed.

Gurgeh cheats. The ethic not to is strongly ingrained, but a drone offers him something even more important than winning: to win in a perfect way that has never been done before. And the ethic of the aesthetic is strong indeed. In the real world we have the story of Alekhine faking a famously beautiful game. Gurgeh is the master playing a young girl. He is going to win for sure. It is this very fact that makes it possible in the end for him to countenance the drone’s corruption of him. He accepts information and acts on it. He wins, but the perfect-never-done-before-way eludes him. And thus he experiences the sour, so very bitter taste that victory can have.

I think long and hard about cheating. How close have I come, how often? You are playing chess, as you touch a piece you are going to move, you realise it is wrong. Swiftly the words ‘j’adoube’ come out of your mouth. You are playing bridge and it is impossible not to face different sorts of cheating all the time. Do you succumb? How? In the bottom of your heart do you think that if you do moral things this neutralises the things you do that are not? Have you made this decision and then locked it away so that your psyche has no qualms? You genuinely believe that you aren’t cheating when you are?

But, then, the book is this. It is an adventure story which fails at no hurdle. It is utterly believable, wildly exciting, entertaining. I’m dying to see the movie. Honestly, you won’t even notice it’s about games unless you want to. I forced myself to read it more slowly than I wanted to. For me that’s the ultimate compliment.
(less)

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Jul 18, 2007 Cindy C rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: readin2007

Use of Weapons was far superior, in plot and characterization. Player of Games offered no surprises especially if you have read other Culture novels. The plot twist is reminiscent of Ender's Game, and is alluded to in the very first sentence. The central game is never described, and therefore too vague of a concept to care about. Any exposition about the human condition, racism, and sexism were poorly entwined into the book, and did not fit naturally into the plot.

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May 16, 2012 Apatt rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, sf-top-20

My third Culture book, a series of epic space opera about a post-scarcity human society in the far future. If you are not familiar with this series you may want to read this Wikipedia entry first and come back (or not, as you prefer). I love Consider Phlebas but I followed that up with fan favorite Use of Weapons and it nearly put me off the entire series. I don't want to go into why I do not like that book, if you are curious you can always find my review. Still, I love Consider Phlebas so much...more My third Culture book, a series of epic space opera about a post-scarcity human society in the far future. If you are not familiar with this series you may want to read this Wikipedia entry first and come back (or not, as you prefer). I love Consider Phlebas but I followed that up with fan favorite Use of Weapons and it nearly put me off the entire series. I don't want to go into why I do not like that book, if you are curious you can always find my review. Still, I love Consider Phlebas so much Use of Weapons could not completely eradicate the goodwill I still have for Mr. Banks and the Culture series. The Player of Games then is the book that will make or break the rest of series for me.

Make it is.

The Player of Games is complex, intelligent yet easy enough to follow, none of that mucking about with multiple timelines or switching to and fro between "the present" and flashbacks in some weird reverse order sequence. The story simply revolves around a single protagonist Jernau Gurgeh, possibly The Culture's greatest games players. That is saying something given how important games are to the indolent citizens of The Culture who are supplied with every material thing they can possibly want. Gurgeh is approached by the "Special Circumstances", the Culture's secret service / black ops type organisation to take part in an "Azad" game tournament at The Azad Empire, a rival civilization just a few light years away. This game is so important that it is the cornerstone of The Azad Empire. The winner is elevated to the Emperor status. As to why the Special Circumstances want Gurgeh to take part in this tournament you will have to find out for yourself by reading the book. You can thank me later.

The most fascinating feature of this book for me is the Azad game, it seems like a hyper-chess game with various card games and philosophy thrown in. Its is so complex it makes Quidditch look like Snakes & Ladders. Though the author does not describe the game in so much detail that it would be playable if you had the mega-board, the pieces, the cards and other things to hand, the description is done so well that you can imagine such a game existing. As with the other Culture books I have read Banks has populated the novel with quite a few well developed characters, though most of them tend to be AI or wee robots ("droids"). The central character Jernau Gurgeh is complex and interesting though not particularly likable, a typical trait of Banks' protagonists it seems. Still, at least he is not a tough-as-nails anti-hero, which is getting a bit old for me, his extreme focus and obsession makes him quite vivid. I also love the humorous moments interspersed throughout the book, these are mainly based around an indignant droid in a clunky disguise. The grand finale which takes place on a planet regularly burned by a perpetual wave of fire is wonderfully exciting though little plot twist at the end is not particularly surprising. Iain Banks' prose style is as literary as ever and is a pleasure to read.

This book has made me re-commit myself to reading The Culture series, I look forward to reading many more volumes.(less)

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Oct 16, 2012 Toby rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. A mediocre novel by a good writer. I would give it 2.5 stars if I
could.

The Player of Games is about a man who has devoted his life to playing
games. He plays games, studies games, writes articles about games, and
... well, that's about it. It's all about games for him.

Alas, the Player is not a very interesting character to write a novel
around. His monomania is dull, and the games are never described
except in the vaguest terms.

The Player's competitive spirit, cunning, and intelligence seems to be
wo...more

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Apr 23, 2012 Kim rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Not only was 'The Player of Games' my first taste of Iain M Bank's Culture, it was also the first adult science fiction story that I ever read. Because of this, I feel that this novel influenced my life profoundly and it is always the first to come to mind if I'm asked to recommend a good book.

The wit makes this book very easy to ease in to. The Utopian society of the Culture is beautiful and diverse, seeming both alien and familiar to us in equal measure. The opening sections introduce us to th...more

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Jul 08, 2012 James rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, culture-the, i-own-a-copy, read-in-2012, read-in-teenties, 5-stars, 1001-books, reviewed, waterstones-sffh-list, out-on-loan

I'd been putting off reading this next book in the Culture series. I remembered starting it at University, not getting on with it, and giving up. But, as part of my decision to read the series from the start, in the correct order, it was something I couldn't put off forever. Turns out this was a stupid delay, having read the book straight though I had no recollection of every having read any of it before. Not only that, but it was awesome. Better-than-the-previous-book awesome - and I already ga...more

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May 10, 2008 Kristen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

I have wanted to read one of the Culture novels by Iain M. Banks for quite a while and one that sounded particularly interesting to me was The Player of Games. Unfortunately, that particular title was difficult to find in the U.S. -- until it was reprinted here a couple of months ago. I am very glad it was since this is definitely one of the better novels I have read this year, containing layers and depth without ever becoming too dry or a chore to read.

Complete Review:
http://fantasycafe.blogspo ...more

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Jan 17, 2013 Andrey rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was the first novel by Banks that I have read so I came to it knowing next to nothing about the Culture and nothing about this particular book other than it is often cited as one of the best in the series.

The book had a very strong start and I really enjoyed the first half or so as I was learning more about the setting and the characters. Somewhere around halfway through though there was a sudden change- many of the characters just disappeared from the story to pretty much never appear aga...more

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May 20, 2013 Ric rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A tale of two civilizations: one, the hegemony known as the Culture, the other, a repressive social order, the Azad.

...more

A tale of two civilizations: one, the hegemony known as the Culture, the other, a repressive social order, the Azad.

The Culture, an AI-ruled Utopia, is cold and sterile, echoes of Isaac Asimov's Foundation. The citizens flutter about in a pointless daze, seeking the next entertainment or distraction of their bohemian lives. Death is rare and written laws are unnecessary as the AIs provide for a society free of conflict and crime. Drop into this imagined Shangrila, Gurgeh, the Player of Games. He is a biologically boosted master of all things gaming. If the social structures themselves have not done it, Gurgeh's monomaniacal pursuit of winning strips him of all but the basic elements of humanity. He has fleeting relationships, cheats, is bored.

In pursuit of something more meaningful in his life, Gurgeh journeys to a remote empire to play a massive game. Both the game and the empire are called Azad. I imagine Azad as the social order Solzhenitsyn described in
The Gulag Archipelago Abridged , a people ruled by the rule of force and repression. But in a novel simplification that can only happen in SF books, the civic discourse of Azad, the society, is centered on Azad, the game. In a continuing tournament that pervades the life of every citizen, the game's champion is crowned emperor(think Bobby Fischer as world chess champion and president), in a cultural framework that is not unlike March Madness. Gurgeh enters this milieu as an outsider given little chance to go beyond the first round. But, of course, he beats the odds. Isn't that what happens in gaming stories? Check out Ready Player One or Ender's Game.

Despite all the stylistic flourishes that Iain Banks is able to imbue the text, the novel left me cold. First, utopias are inherently uninteresting, where, devoid of human suffering, the social order is so dissociated from me as a person, making it extremely difficult to relate. Second, repressive societies leave me cold. The author resorted to graphical depictions of torture that I felt were gratuitous. Maybe if this was more true to life as in Solzhenitsyn's account. Or he could have tried the appraoch to depicting repression in Frank Herbert's God Emperor of Dune. Third, though Banks tries hard to make the character of Gurgeh interesting, he is not a likeable fellow. His emotions lie too far below the surface to really tug at my heart. Finally, games are cold, and the game of Azad even colder. To feel the passion, I need to know the game and experience the challenge first-hand. But Gurgeh's internal struggles were not mine, and neither were his chosen actions.

Well-written but with unlikeable characters and backstory. I give this an ambivalent 3 stars.

(less)

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Apr 26, 2008 Andrew rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I don't know how true this is for his more mainstream fiction as Iain Banks, but the science fiction novels Iain M. Banks writes always function on multiple levels. As a result, they can often be a bit daunting; in particular, I remember taking two weeks, during which I had to put it down multiple times, to finish "Excession". I loved it every bit as much as I usually love Banks's sci-fi work, but there was just so much information to absorb that I sometimes felt too overloaded to continue. "Pla...more I don't know how true this is for his more mainstream fiction as Iain Banks, but the science fiction novels Iain M. Banks writes always function on multiple levels. As a result, they can often be a bit daunting; in particular, I remember taking two weeks, during which I had to put it down multiple times, to finish "Excession". I loved it every bit as much as I usually love Banks's sci-fi work, but there was just so much information to absorb that I sometimes felt too overloaded to continue. "Player Of Games" is probably the first of Banks's science fiction novels where I didn't feel that way. That may be due to the fact that I did end up taking short breaks in my reading to read other, shorter books ("Master Of Reality" and "Signal To Noise"), thereby giving me the respite I needed to avoid getting overwhelmed, but I don't even think that's true. It's my honest impression that "Player Of Games" works better than any of the other Banks science fiction novels I've read, and as much as I hate to slight "Excession" and "Use Of Weapons", it's nonetheless true as far as I can see it. I wouldn't say I love it more than those other two, but nonetheless I'm pretty sure it's a slightly better book.

As is often the case with Banks's science fiction novels, "Player Of Games" is character driven, and focuses heavily on the growth and changes a man named Jernau Gurgeh goes through in the course of taking on a years-long epic quest across the galaxy to play an extremely important board game. Gurgeh is a citizen of the Culture, a society that many of Banks's science fiction novels revolve around, in which artificial intelligence has long been more advanced than is possible for the human brain to achieve. Therefore, the Culture is controlled by the sentient, artificially intelligent supercomputers that operate their enormous, planet-like starships. The humans (and artificial intelligences, which are considered the same as people where citizenship is concerned) that live within this far-reaching society live in a near-utopia, in which there are almost no laws, but in order to do so they must accept the fact that all of the truly important decisions for the Culture are made by artificial intelligences. The citizens of the Culture are, in the vast majority, content with this arrangement, but many of the societies that the Culture encounter in their explorations of the galaxy find this entire concept abhorrent in the extreme. One such society that regards the Culture this way is that of the Azadian Empire, which is structured entirely around an epic, sprawling board game, the playing of which determines social and political standing in the Empire. It is this game that Gurgeh travels across the galaxy to play.

Most of the book focuses on Gurgeh's experiences with both the game and the society in which the game takes place. The Azadian Empire is the polar opposite of the Culture--sadistic power struggles and ubiquitous violence, for its own sake more often than not, is not only normal but seen is desirable by the Azadians. Gurgeh is puzzled and disturbed by this, and the Azadians react much the same way to him. They expect him to do terribly in their game, as he has not grown up in their culture (which is almost entirely based around the game), and for the sake of their society's ability to continue, they fervently hope for this result.

To tell any more of the plot would be unfair, as Banks's surprising plot twists are a great deal of the fun of "Player Of Games"; however, it is notable that plot twists exist at all in such a character driven novel. Actually, though, this is much more common for Banks than one might think, having observed how much he cares about and spends time developing his main characters. Generally, plot-driven novels cannot also be character-driven novels, but Banks manages to make many of his books both at once, perhaps nowhere more successfully as with this book. I was familiar enough with his style to expect the plot twists to eventually arrived, and I even guessed one of the more dramatic final twists, but really, I only got it half-right, and it was still handled so well that the fact that I guessed it didn't ruin my enjoyment of the moment it occurred at all.

Overall, Banks does a great job with his Culture novels of updating the old-school space opera paradigm of the science fiction genre and adding in the questioning, insightful analysis of modern cyberpunk without losing the better qualities from either approach. His constructions are bold and, thus far, always greatly successful. This helps to make him one of the best writers of science fiction currently working in the genre, and means that "Player Of Games" should appeal to a wide variety of science fiction fans, from those who love Asimov and Heinlein to those who most appreciate William Gibson or Neal Stephenson.(less)

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Oct 08, 2008 Jeffrey rated it 3 of 5 stars

Interesting story a game where the winners are awarded positions within an Empire, and the foreign man manipulated into playing it. Much of the book is dedicated to expounding on the nature of thought and society and how it shapes our perceptions of the world. Nothing too horribly deep or new here, especially if you have read much Gene Wolfe, Douglas R. Hofstadter, Plato, Thomas Hardy, or well, anybody really interested in the nature of the mind. But it was a light fast read that did get me t...more

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Apr 06, 2013 Bettie marked it as to-read

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Feb 11, 2012 Kolya Matteo rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Closest thing to a happy ending I've found in Banks, but still leaves me feeling somehow drained or dulled. Maybe because of the savagery still existing in the Empire, and leaving it in chaos - doubtless worsening the lives of many - in the complacent expectation that this will "improve" it. The slaughter at Castle Klaff means that the expression of the Culture's philosophy in Azad won't even spread out to "infect" or change the Empire through its game play (which must have been the Emperor's go...more

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Mar 13, 2011 Peter added it · review of another edition

How to like this book...: This is not a book for purists (Iain Banks or Sci Fi). This is the most Culture-d(imho) of Banks' books. All the amusing ship names and foul mouthed witty droids are here, plus excellent alien races and sly and not so sly reference to modern popular culture. There are some great themes about boredom, cheating, redemption and the glory of untamed cultures with primaeval urges and how attractive that can be. The Culture does not come out of this one unscathed; but the rat...more

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Mar 16, 2009 Alan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Minds vast, cool and sympathetic

Imagine a society in which "There were (true) stories of people falling off cliffs and the terminal relaying their scream in time for a Hub unit to switch to that terminal's camera, realize what was happening and displace a drone to catch the faller in midair; there were other stories about terminals recording the severing of their owner's head from their body in an accident, and summoning a medical drone in time to save the brain, leaving the de-bodied person with no more a problem than finding...more Imagine a society in which "There were (true) stories of people falling off cliffs and the terminal relaying their scream in time for a Hub unit to switch to that terminal's camera, realize what was happening and displace a drone to catch the faller in midair; there were other stories about terminals recording the severing of their owner's head from their body in an accident, and summoning a medical drone in time to save the brain, leaving the de-bodied person with no more a problem than finding ways to pass the months it took to grow a new body."

That's Iain M. Banks' Culture, a post-scarcity civilization with the accent on "civil," a galaxy-spanning society of intelligences both organic and metallic presided over by vast, cool and sympathetic Minds, intelligent starships and chatty levitating drones, where poverty is unheard-of, laws are unnecessary and even death is usually no more than an inconvenience. That annoying neighbor who does everything more perfectly than you do. In a word, it's a Utopia.

So how do you make something that perfect interesting?

Well, the Culture isn't the only organization in the Galaxy; there are other societies, and since the Culture practices only, well, cultural imperialism (and with a light touch at that), those other societies continue to persist even if they are not quite as enlightened and adept as the Culture (a telling name, that, in contrast to all those other nikulturniy places).

That's where Contact comes in. Most of the Culture is happy enough to be relaxed, unconcerned with external forces, even a bit... well, someone from one of those other, more uncultured societies might even call them decadent. Effete. It's Contact's job to keep an eye on the outside, just in case one of those societies gets any ideas. Maybe do a little outreach, bring another stray world - or even whole bunches of them - into the fold now and then.

And, to get back to the question, one way to make a story about a perfect society interesting is to take someone out of it and drop that person into one of those less-perfect regions. Willingly, or... unwillingly.

In this case, our patsy is one Jernau Gurgeh (he has a longer name, of course, but those are the two names Gurgeh uses most often). Gurgeh is a professional player of games - he has a high reputation, has published well-regarded analyses of various game systems, and sits, as much as it's possible to do so in the egalitarian Culture, at the apex of the pecking order. He is doing so well, in fact, that he has no reason at all to leave his comfortable position, even to check out what he's just been told in confidence about Azad, one of those fascinating other societies the Culture knows about, even though Azad seems to have built an Empire around... a game. A game itself called Azad.

Banks pulls off some complex feats in this novel. For one thing, it's surpassingly difficult to write about someone who's smarter than you are, smarter than just about anyone could be, but Banks manages to do so with the help of metaphor - the intensity of Gurgeh's game play is conveyed so well, with such inspired sleight of pen, that it's usually not at all obvious how Banks is doing it. It helps in that regard that Gurgeh's something of a naif, whose expertise at games doesn't mean he's any better at playing his own life than the rest of us.

Banks also manages to compare and contrast the Culture and Azad with our own perfect present-day culture, in such a way that we find ourselves appalled along with Gurgeh at what sounds a lot like a pretty ordinary Saturday night in the city.

How Jernau Gurgeh is persuaded to leave his comfortable estate and venture to the wilds of the Lesser Magellanic Cloud, and exactly what he found when he got there, are otherwise events best left to the unfolding of Banks' novel itself. Suffice it to say that Gurgeh finds both Azad and himself to be both more and less than he expected. It's a tale well-told, and it's no surprise at all that Banks' novels of the Culture are all pieces well played.(less)

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May 05, 2013 Eric Morand rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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May 03, 2013 Jack rated it 5 of 5 stars

I always have a hard time picking up a series in the middle, even when they're like the Culture series and each novel doesn't have an interconnected plot line. I just find that there are concepts introduced early on that build on each other as the novels progress and certain knowledge starts to be taken for granted by the author. So, I've been reading these in order, even though I'm told the first two books are the weakest and this one particularly terrible.

I'll be honest, I didn't find it terr...more

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Apr 23, 2013 Dan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I picked this up in a local bookshop as it was being offered really cheap and sounded interesting. I am so glad I did.

It's the second book about the universe of the culture but I don't think they are particularly related and t'internet says this is a better place to start than the first anyway. The Culture is a human/machine symbiotic society and Gurgeh is a human in that society who is a master at every game ever invented. Am unexpected series of events lead to him accepting to play a complicat...more

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Apr 19, 2013 Bokeshi rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: scifi-fantasy

This book introduced me to the fabulously funny, intricate and eccentric universe of Iain M. Banks, and it has remained my favorite Culture novel. Banks is quite possibly the greatest storyteller of the new generation of SF writers, and in this book he presents a distant future that could almost be called the end of history. The Culture--a human/machine symbiotic society--has filled the galaxy, and thanks to the ultra-high technology everyone has everything they want, no one gets sick, and no on...more

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Apr 15, 2013 Richard rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: audiobook, science-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I'm angry at this book. I feel cheated out of a good ending.

The concept was fantastic. The sci-fi ideas were interesting and subtly woven into a cool story. And the author laid the groundwork for a really great twist.

The story was building up to a great crescendo. But, instead of cannons, it ended with a fart noise.

The problem is that the author made a huge string of cool promises that never got fulfilled. The book opens with the narrator asking questions like 'when is cheating really cheating'....more

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Apr 04, 2013 T.L. Evans rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Player of Games is Iain M Banks second science fiction novel, and the second installment in his Culture series. It beautifully builds upon the Universe he constructed in Consider Phlebas, but unlike most series, you don't have to have read the previous novel to understand and thoroughly enjoy this book. Indeed, I normally recommend this as the best place to start for readers new to Banks' Culture. For one thing it is one of his shortest, and for me, his most accessible.

The story is somewhat...more

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Jan 28, 2013 Henry rated it 4 of 5 stars

Jernau Morat Gurgeh is one of the best players of strategy games in the utopian, near-omnipotent society that is the Culture. Plunged into moral crisis when he is prompted to cheat, he is recruited by Special Circumstances (the Culture's Dirty Tricks department) to go to the cruel, exotic civilization of Azad, where the winner of a board game rather like a nightmare version of Monopoly becomes Emperor. Azad is obviously read as a po-faced metaphor for our own lives and times, with Gurgeh a kind...more

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Jan 08, 2013 Dave marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: calibre, fiction

SUMMARY: 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 Bank...more

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Dec 30, 2012 Lucy_k_p rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: awesome, epic, science-fiction

It's incredible that I can get so invested in the outcome of a game that doesn't exist. It's fantastic that the outcome can be uncertain and the tension effectively communicated even though I've never been told the rules. It takes a brilliant writer to pull it off and my hat goes off to Iain M. Banks.

I read Consider Phlebas and loved it enough to immediately purchase Player of Games. I was afraid Phlebas would be a one off and Player would be a disappointment, not living up to its predecessors s...more

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Dec 21, 2012 Warwick rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, sci-fi, games

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this one. I don't normally think of myself as a huge Banks fan, but I just thought this was sheer pleasure from start to finish.

There is a rich sense of how life works under the Culture which I did not get from Consider Phlebas; and for me, the focus on a smaller number of locations made this a more satisfying book. The complex game of Azad is a great conceit, and Banks is careful to give us enough details of how it works to have some idea of what's going on...more

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Dec 20, 2012 Fran rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It's not very often that I consider giving a book full marks. But this book engaged me so much (and took me so relatively little time to read) I don't think I could give it any less.

The plot is so simple - a guy is basically a professional player of games - board games, strategy games, I guess - and he goes off to some strange Empire to play their 'national' game. Well, that's the plot on the face of it, but obviously these things get a little more complicated.

But for much of the book you are ju...more

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topics	posts	views	last activity
The Sword and Laser: May 2013 Renegade Read: Player of Games, Section1 – Culture Plate	4	143	May 20, 2013 10:25am
Contact: The Culture: Player of Games - First 30% (Up to Imperium)	1	5	Apr 28, 2013 03:02am
Iain Banks / Iain...: Games / Boardgames	3	11	Feb 14, 2013 05:25pm
Iain Banks / Iain...: The Player of Games	1	10	Aug 14, 2012 12:55am
reading for Joy: * the one (The Player of Games)	1	6	Dec 19, 2011 07:13pm

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About Iain M. Banks

Iain M. Banks is a pseudonym of Iain Banks which he uses to publish his Science Fiction.

Banks's father was an officer in the Admiralty and his mother was once a professional ice skater. Iain Banks was educated at the University of Stirling where he studied English Literature, Philosophy and Psychology. He moved to London and lived in the south of England until 1988 when he returned to Scotland, li...more Iain M. Banks is a pseudonym of Iain Banks which he uses to publish his Science Fiction.

Banks's father was an officer in the Admiralty and his mother was once a professional ice skater. Iain Banks was educated at the University of Stirling where he studied English Literature, Philosophy and Psychology. He moved to London and lived in the south of England until 1988 when he returned to Scotland, living in Edinburgh and then Fife.

Banks met his wife Annie in London, before the release of his first book. They married in Hawaii in 1992. However, he announced in early 2007 that, after 25 years together, they had separated. He currently lives in North Queensferry, a town on the north side of the Firth of Forth near the Forth Bridge and the Forth Road Bridge.

As with his friend Ken MacLeod (another Scottish writer of technical and social science fiction) a strong awareness of left-wing history shows in his writings. The argument that an economy of abundance renders anarchy and adhocracy viable (or even inevitable) attracts many as an interesting potential experiment, were it ever to become testable. He was a signatory to the Declaration of Calton Hill, which calls for Scottish independence.

In late 2004, Banks was a prominent member of a group of British politicians and media figures who campaigned to have Prime Minister Tony Blair impeached following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In protest he cut up his passport and posted it to 10 Downing Street. In an interview in Socialist Review he claimed he did this after he "abandoned the idea of crashing my Land Rover through the gates of Fife dockyard, after spotting the guys armed with machine guns." He relates his concerns about the invasion of Iraq in his book Raw Spirit, and the principal protagonist (Alban McGill) in the novel The Steep Approach to Garbadale confronts another character with arguments in a similar vein.

Interviewed on Mark Lawson's BBC Four series, first broadcast in the UK on 14 November 2006, Banks explained why his novels are published under two different names. His parents wished to name him Iain Menzies Banks but his father made a mistake when registering the birth and he was officially registered as Iain Banks. Despite this he continued to use his unofficial middle name and it was as Iain M. Banks that he submitted The Wasp Factory for publication. However, his editor asked if he would mind dropping the 'M' as it appeared "too fussy". The editor was also concerned about possible confusion with Rosie M. Banks, a minor character in some of P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves novels who is a romantic novelist. After his first three mainstream novels his publishers agreed to publish his first SF novel, Consider Phlebas. To distinguish between the mainstream and SF novels, Banks suggested the return of the 'M', although at one stage he considered John B. Macallan as his SF pseudonym, the name deriving from his favourite whiskies: Johnnie Walker Black Label and The Macallan single malt.

His latest book is a science fiction (SF) novel in the Culture series, called The Hydrogen Sonata, published in 2012.

Author Iain M. Banks has revealed in April 2013 that he has late stage cancer and is unlikely to live for more than a year.

The Scottish writer posted a message on his official website saying his next novel "The Quarry", due to be published later this year, would be his last.(less)

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Quotes from The Player of Games

“All reality is a game. Physics at its most fundamental, the very fabric of our universe, results directly from the interaction of certain fairly simple rules, and chance; the same description may be applied to the best, most elefant and both intellectually and aesthetically satisfying games. By being unknowable, by resulting from events which, at the sub-atomic level, cannot be fully predicted, the future remains makkeable, and retains the possibility of change, the hope of coming to prevail; victory, to use an unfashionable word. In this, the future is a game; time is one of the rules. Generally, all the best mechanistic games - those which can be played in any sense "perfectly", such as a grid, Prallian scope, 'nkraytle, chess, Farnic dimensions - can be traced to civilisations lacking a realistic view of the universe (let alone the reality). They are also, I might add, invariably pre-machine-sentience societies.

The very first-rank games acknowledge the element of chance, even if they rightly restrict raw luck. To attempt to construct a game on any other lines, no matter how complicated and subtle the rules are, and regardless of the scale and differentiation of the playing volume and the variety of the powers and attibutes of the pieces, is inevitably to schackle oneself to a conspectus which is not merely socially but techno-philosophically lagging several ages behind our own. As a historical exercise it might have some value, As a work of the intellect, it's just a waste of time. If you want to make something old-fashioned, why not build a wooden sailing boat, or a steam engine? They're just as complicated and demanding as a mechanistic game, and you'll keep fit at the same time.” — 20 people liked it

“My gratitude extends beyond the limits of my capacity to express it,” — 8 people liked it

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