The Player of Games

The Player of Games

By Iain M Banks

It feels strange to review this book. After all, it was first published 24 years ago. It means my opinion is even less relevant than usual. You would imagine that most people who were going to read it, have already done so.

However, I got my copy as part of World Book Night (http://www.worldbooknight.org/) - a scheme designed to encourage people to read. I signed up to be a 'giver' and listed TPoG as my 3rd choice book (The Book Thief and The Time Travellers Wife btw). I was duly selected as a giver, and was told I could hand out 24 copies of my it to whomever I wanted to. 

TPoG was the only book on the list that I hadn't read, but still wanted to - so my reasons for picking it weren't entirely altruistic. I've never really enjoyed Science Fiction novels (yes I've read Neuromancer, yes I've read Enders Game etc etc), despite enjoying Sci-Fi in films and comics. However, I've read most of Iain Banks's fiction output and I remain a big fan of his work. He adds the 'M' to his name to distinguish his Sci-Fi from his plain old 'Fi'. 

So to the book. TPoG takes place in a futuristic human society called 'The Culture'. A place where both humans and computers are considered sentient - where the need for money has long gone and living to survive is a thing of the past. People can devote themselves to travel, learning and other lofty pursuits. Within this safe environment - highly intelligent people can find themselves easily bored. So it proves with Jernau Gurgeh - one of the finest game players in the entire Culture -master of any form of strategy game in existence. 

In a bungled attempt to cheat and ensure a spectacular win, Gurgeh finds himself blackmailed and encouraged to help 'Special Circumstances' (the part of The Culture that deals with difficult situations) investigate a newly discovered Alien species called The Empire of Azad. The entire Azad culture revolves around a hugely complex game (also called Azad) - and a persons success in playing it dictates their social standing. The Culture are keen for Gurgeh to learn and play the game in an attempt to find out more about the potentially troublesome Empire.  

It's hard to go into too much more detail without giving away the story and much of what makes the book engrossing. Aside from doing an excellent job in creating not one, but two new societies and explaining how they work, Banks also manages to build tension around the playing of games that we don't know and don't understand (there is no attempt to explain the full rules of any of the games mentioned). Gurgeh starts off as a slightly arrogant and unsympathetic character, but you can't help cheering him on as the book develops. 

This story is as much about politics, psychology, power and ideologies as it is about anything particularly 'science fiction-y'. If you can accept or enjoy the futuristic setting, then there's a lot to be enjoyed here. 

What's the next best 'culture' novel then?