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The Player of Games (Culture, #2)

Iain M. Banks

Start date: September 1, 2018

Finish date: September 26, 2018

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Why we're reading this: Group classic novel discussion September 2018
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Oct 02, 2022 Brandon rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: scifi

The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks is a science fiction novel set in the Culture series. Each novel is standalone and does not depend on the previous novel. The Culture is a far future advanced civilization that has spread across the galaxy. It is a utopian society featuring massive artificial structures such as ringworlds, orbital plates, and massive starships known as GSVs. It also has sentient bots and AI’s called Minds that help steer governmental policies of the Culture. In this society p The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks is a science fiction novel set in the Culture series. Each novel is standalone and does not depend on the previous novel. The Culture is a far future advanced civilization that has spread across the galaxy. It is a utopian society featuring massive artificial structures such as ringworlds, orbital plates, and massive starships known as GSVs. It also has sentient bots and AI’s called Minds that help steer governmental policies of the Culture. In this society people live in excess and without fear or need, everyone has everything they could ever need or want.

Jernau Gurgeh is a player of games, board games, card games, computer games, any game you can imagine he has played and mastered. He is one of the best players in all of Culture society. Bored with mastery he seeks help from the Culture Minds, and a game is found for him. A game played by a distant empire called Azad where the game is what structures their empire and way of life. The winner of the game becomes the emperor. Gurgeh accepts the challenge of the game for the Empire of Azad, and is shunted away to their home planet. Joining him is a Culture drone named Flere Imsaho, a sentient bot.

Despite the plot focusing on the playing of games, even if you are not interested in board games yourself, this story is still fascinating. The worldbuilding in The Player of Games is fantastic and is one of the strengths of the novel. Not only do we get a taste of what it is like to live in the utopian Culture, we get a full view of Azad and its alien ways and alien people. This book is a constant exploration of the distant future that Banks has created, and it is a wonder to behold. The story’s plot was enough to keep me interested and excited in what was going to happen next, from one board of play to the next. Gurgeh, not so much of a likable character, but I found myself rooting for him all the same.

The Player of Games is a vast improvement over Consider Phlebas, which I did not enjoy. It is a good thing I decided to continue with the Culture series because The Players of Games did not disappoint in the least, and made me excited to read the next book in the series. ...more

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