Reviews with content warning for Rape - The Player of Games

My first Culture novel, and an underwhelming one at that. The idea I had going in was of the Culture as a socialist society in space, and where the novels dealt with how such a society would function and how it coped with outsiders. The Player of Games... kind of did that. The problem was that making the main character standoffish and filled with existential ennui meant that the Culture kind of seemed a sucky place to live, and the book never gives it much depth. What does everyday life look like in an advanced, post-scarcity civilization? Well, people play a lot of games and go to parties and sometimes change their sex, and that's about it. Banks does an impressive job of taking an utterly fascinating concept (that also fits my own political views) and turning it into something rather bland and undesirable. There's also the fact that this entire book revolves around Azad - a game whose rules we never learn, and which is described so vaguely I was mostly just waiting for Banks to outright tell me who was winning. This book was disappointing, and all the more so for offering glimpses of the much better book it should have been.

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inferiorwit's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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thetarantulalounge's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

The Player of Games is the second in seven “Culture series” novels by Iain M. Banks. However, the novels don’t need to be read in order (or so I’m told). I started here and got along just fine.

In The Player of Games, Gurgeh is a well-known game player in The Culture – what appears to be a federated community of like-minded humanoid and synthezoid beings dedicated to the finer things in life. Work isn’t necessary, space is free to roam, decadent space islands are created at whim, and things are just like one long Fyre Fest, I guess?

Our protagonist, the titular Player of Games, is Gurgeh. He is, and I don’t think this has ever been done in a novel before, a kind of sad guy who is good at something and who women are drawn to. And he is looking for more out of life.

That’s why Gurgeh perks up when someone from The Culture shows up and asks him to commit to a five-year journey to another culture to play a game. But not just any game. An important and confusing game. Gurgeh doesn’t have much going on, so he agrees and boards a sentient spaceship for a two-year trip to the empire of Azad.

The culture of Azad is more or less based on the game of Azad and vice-versa. It’s a complicated mix of card games and then room-sized board games. Kind of like a 4-d chess experience? Gurgeh, a complete outsider to the culture, must try to learn the game, not commit any social faux pas against the (relatively) barbaric culture, and survive the journey home. It’s a little bit mystery, a little bit social commentary, a little bit of world-building.

Overall this was an enjoyable and quick-paced read. As you can probably imagine, The Culture and Azad have more and less in common than one would think at first blush. Banks has some interesting things to say about “the game,” language, economics, power, gender, sex (although some of it is dated) and more. I feel no compulsion to go grab another book from the Culture series, but this one left me with plenty of highlights and long nights page turning.

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charleyroxy's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

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booknug's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious medium-paced

Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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