The Player of Games | 
| Author: Iain M. Banks
Publisher: Orbit
Category: Book
List Price: $12.99
Buy New: $7.24
You Save: $5.75 (44%)
New (29) Used (14) from $7.24
Avg. Customer Rating:  73 reviews
Sales Rank: 14815
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 416
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.4 x 1.2
ISBN: 0316005401
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780316005401
ASIN: 0316005401
Publication Date: March 26, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new item. Over 3.5 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Few left in stock - order soon. Code: H20080822210137T
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
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
Product Description
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
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 68 more reviews...
 An Absorbing, Exciting, Science Fictional Exploration of Gamesmanship from Iain M. Banks August 21, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
"The Player of Games" remains one of the best in distinguished British author Iain M. Banks's highly literate, quite sophisticated, "Culture" space opera series of novels. It is also among the earliest in the series, and one that is certainly most notable for its engrossingly in-depth study into the character of Gurgeh, the Culture's premier master of every game - especially those devoted to strategy - known to this long-lived space-faring human civilization. At the very pinnacle of his success, Gurgeh is bored and restless, until he accepts the seemingly impossible challenge of mastering Azad, the very game of life played by the ruling elite of the relatively primitive, autocratic, almost totalitarian, Empire of Azad, located in one of the distant Magellanic Clouds. It is a game that is rich not only in its intricate strategy, but also, in elaborate deception; an intense game whose very outcome may mean life or death for anyone playing it, especially Gurgeh. Told in incandescent, quite pyrotechnic, prose, Banks' novel comes across as a futuristic Graham Greene thriller set amidst more conventional - if elaborately descriptive - space opera settings. A splendid science fiction novel that is not merely a major landmark of Anglo-American science fiction, but one which ought to be reckoned as high literary art written by one of the foremost writers of fiction - in any genre - in the English language.
Today's crew of game obsessed YA is going to relate to this book! July 22, 2008
I've always liked books from a series that "stand alone." The Player of Games, by Iain M. Banks, is the second book written in the "Culture" series. You'd never know it, and you don't need book one. However, this one is intriguing enough to make you want to read more of them.
Culture is the future culmination of humanity and artificial intelligences (and probably a number of other sentient species; not the real focus of this volume). Jernau Gurgeh, a Culture-wide game player of significant renown, finds himself "volunteering" to serve the Culture as a member of Contact, an element of Culture that interacts with new beings, cultures, and empires. He's invited to a game tournament in the Empire of Azad, a game played every six years that determines one's place in Azad society, even the Emperor (as long as you are not a male or a female).
Gurgeh finds himself surrounded by a race that considers games of greater importance than even he does.
Culture finds Azad society troublesome.
Gurgeh cannot win. He should not win. Yet he must win.
It is, after all, THE Game.
Banks writes well. The characters are interesting, the various cultures are imaginative, and the story is engaging.
What more can you want from a sci-fi novel about life in a distant human universe? Except for the other books in this series, of course!
 Detailed & pitfall-ridden games, lacking tech. June 5, 2008
Very original idea- games of an alien culture and games of the future human society. The depth and rules of the alien game are hugely captivating, as is the plot involving human/alien relationships. Twists and turns in the plot provide entertainment outside of the entertainment of the game itself (not that the game would be fun for the loser). Player of Games is amongst the best of what Banks' offers, yet there's a lack of technology which is predominent in early Banks' novels, such as Consider Phlebas and Use of Weapons. Satisfied to a high degree, yet expectation was met short considering technology.
Best of Banks, ONe of the best Scifi I've read May 27, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Of all the Iain Banks scifi books I found this one of the most compelling. There was a sense of deep irony throughout the book as the master game player pits himself against a game that has consequences for an Empire. How he emerged from a low point of ennui, when he felt the the need to cheat in a board game to a master player in terms of life and death stakes was well drawn. The need to find a new sense of meaning was strongly presented here. I have read about 8 of Iain Banks scifi books and i felt this was his best, along with Use of Weapons.
I judge a good scifi book by how it makes me feel and think, and Player of Games gave me much to think about, that is why i rate it as one of the best i havev read.
Got me hooked on Banks April 20, 2008
This was the first book by Banks that I read; and it was absolutely fantastic. I regularly lend this book out to every sci-fi fan that I meet and can not recommend it highly enough.
In terms of Bank's overall works; I believe this is the best one to start with. Also, I generally recommend that people not touch any of the Iain Banks (no M) stuff. I remember that one of blurbs printed in the Wasp Factory was something like "Stay seriously away from this book."
The story line involves an alien sent to an even more alien world to play a game. The nesting of the games and the immediate immersion in this far future universe as well as brilliant writing make this my favorite book of all time.
|
|
|
