The Player of Games (Culture, 2)

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.

Reviews

Many consider this book the best of the Culture series, possibly me too. It’s certainly the book I would recommend to a friend as the “gateway” Culture novel. Unlike many of the other Culture books, which frequently move around in time, or launch into chapters though offering no context for pages, this book is pretty much linear in structure offering the perspective of the protagonist, Gurgeh. It has focus, and a strong narrative.

Banks at his best has the ability to mix thought-provoking subject with gripping narratives and a wondrous imagination. I also feel that the books have a fantastical nature to them. By this, I refer to the portrayal of a world which the reader longs to be part of.

Anyone wanting to enter the Culture universe would do well to first read Banks’ online essay on the Culture: “A FEW NOTES ON THE CULTURE”. It’s good background to the concepts introduced by the books without in any way containing spoilers.

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