otto_books 's review for:

The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks

4.0

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

---

REREAD. The classic introduction to The Culture, the book that got me into the series after struggling with Consider Phlebas. The start is a little slow and meandering, nicely drawing a picture of the everyday life of Culture citizens for new readers to the series, but rereading now already familiar with Banks' setting led to a little impatience for the action to start. Once it does though, this is a gripping read. I found the gameplay portions particularly well written - Banks' decision to keep explicit references to rules and moves minimal, in favour of more artistic descriptions of the flow of each game and Gurgeh's emotional reactions to them, was effective in keeping the narrative tense and exciting without getting bogged down in the particulars. His exploration of the Empire and it's dark underbelly were likewise affecting, propelling Gurgeh's character towards an excellent climax which exemplifies The Culture and its Contact division at their most interesting. My only other minor complaint is that making the protagonist the only cishet person in his gender-bending society might have made sense in 1988, but now seems a missed opportunity to explore that aspect of The Culture - particularly in contrast to the hierarchical, third-sex-dominant Azadians.