The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks (ISBN:0316005401)

English (US)

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		The Player of Games
	
				(85 reviews)			
(2471 Readers)

			Iain M. Banks		
	
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...more
 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   less

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							A Reader
						
							few weeks ago						
The most successful of Banks' Culture Novels, and the one I offer friends as an introduction to the series.

The Culture: a spacefaring diaspora -- apparently launched from Burning Man -- of humans and AIs who, in each installment of the series, run athwart some retrograde alien culture whose resemblance to modern human society is purely intentional. Hilarity (and...more
 The most successful of Banks' Culture Novels, and the one I offer friends as an introduction to the series.

The Culture: a spacefaring diaspora -- apparently launched from Burning Man -- of humans and AIs who, in each installment of the series, run athwart some retrograde alien culture whose resemblance to modern human society is purely intentional. Hilarity (and bloodletting) ensues!  

Imagine "The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy", only with the dorkiness suctioned out and titanium blades implanted under the fingernails.   hide

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							A Reader
						
							few weeks ago						
As with all the culture novels I have read so far, I was gutted that it finished. Intense, harrowing, surprising great book.

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							A Reader
						
							few weeks ago						
One of the best Iain M. Banks books I have read - but rather violent.

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							A Reader
						
							few weeks ago						
One of the early Culture novels, one of the best. You need to pay attention while reading it.

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							A Reader
						
							few weeks ago						
Perhaps Mr. Banks most approachable Culture novel , this is an excellent read.

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							A Reader
						
							few weeks ago						
A brilliant introduction the the essence of The Culture; brilliantly devised characters as always and so much depth in their interactions.

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							A Reader
						
							few weeks ago						
This was the first Culture novel I read.  The great thing about Ian Banks is that you read the books, and absorb them over time.  This one is defintely a favourite, I have read most of them, some of them several times.  One of my favourite authors.  It leaves you tihinking which is a good thing with books.
A friend suggested this book as an engaging think about the universe.  I thought it was...more
 This was the first Culture novel I read.  The great thing about Ian Banks is that you read the books, and absorb them over time.  This one is defintely a favourite, I have read most of them, some of them several times.  One of my favourite authors.  It leaves you tihinking which is a good thing with books.
A friend suggested this book as an engaging think about the universe.  I thought it was superb, but as with all of Banks' novels, it is only after you finish it, and digest it for a while that the brilliance of his mind sets in.  This is a great book to read and you are right there with the main character all the way through.   hide

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							A Reader
						
							few weeks ago						
Superior space opera from one of our finest sci-fi talents. There's a lot to enjoy here, from the imaginative backdrop, the rounded characters to the, stunning culture-clash finale.

What Banks excels at here is unveiling some biting commentary on our own society and our possible futures without it detracting at all from the exciting plot. His multi-layered prose and dialogue are also a...more
 Superior space opera from one of our finest sci-fi talents. There's a lot to enjoy here, from the imaginative backdrop, the rounded characters to the, stunning culture-clash finale.

What Banks excels at here is unveiling some biting commentary on our own society and our possible futures without it detracting at all from the exciting plot. His multi-layered prose and dialogue are also a delight.

A classic in the making.   hide

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							A Reader
						
							few weeks ago						
This was a very enjoyable book. I wish that I read it before I read some of the other books as a much better introduction to Bank' Culture than the other ones. The issues The Culture has with lesser civilizations has parallels that the thinking reader can draw with our world. A most excellent book.

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							A Reader
						
							few weeks ago						
OK, this was good fun.   More polished than Consider Phlebas; less hectic than Use of Weapons; somehow lacking a certain edge or weight; and burdened with a rather unlikeable hero; but certainly an enjoyable read.  Somehow the ending does not quite work for me... and Iain Banks's books are always about their endings...  but the whole game concept is beautifully imagined and convincingly woven...more
 OK, this was good fun.   More polished than Consider Phlebas; less hectic than Use of Weapons; somehow lacking a certain edge or weight; and burdened with a rather unlikeable hero; but certainly an enjoyable read.  Somehow the ending does not quite work for me... and Iain Banks's books are always about their endings...  but the whole game concept is beautifully imagined and convincingly woven into the story. Lacked the vortex of feeling that makes Banks's best work so good, but a nice trip all the same.   hide

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