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
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Perhaps my favorite sci-fi novel of all time.
I consider “The Player of Games” to be a perfect novel. Not THE perfect novel–that would only be possible in a world populated by identical clones with identical personalities. This novel is perfect because the first page describes the entire story and suggests how it will end, but I didn’t realize that until I finished the book.
This bold …
Short, punchy, exquisitely crafted. One of the tightest and most well-formed Culture novels. Iain M. Banks at his best! (Except for The Algebraist, of course)
I’m not even a game player, but someone who is suggested I read this. What a surprise. One must enjoy a story that takes place in other worlds and times and be able to realize that even if every character is living a life totally different than our own, this book has messages, adventure, intrigue, and a whole lot more than games. It started a …
There is something both poetic & tragic about this book but as in all of “The Culture” series by Banks it is the beauty of his writing as well as the richness of his characters and themes that make his books works of art. If you are looking for an “easy breezy read” this is not it. If you are looking for a book that will make you think in …
Banks is a brilliant author and his space operas are second to none. It’s tragic that he past away as now my only enjoyment is to read and re-read his books over again.