Book 6: The Player of Games

I wrapped the second Culture book up this morning. This book is really incredibly well done. It is funny, inventive, insightful, and full of all the things which science fiction is best at (recontextualizing societal situations through a theoretical lens).

The book deals with issues of racism, sexism, colonialism, war, competition, obsession, and gaming culture.

I wish I weren't at work. I would love to sit with the book and detail the tonal shifts, the passages which delighted me, the few instances which I did not enjoy the book, and on and on.

Wikipedia has a good write up of plot but goes on to spoil the whole ending, so I won't get into that, but the Wikipedia entry doesn't really get into a lot of what is subtextually there.

The Player of Games is the second of the Culture novels. Gurgeh, a brilliant, though decadent, game player from the Culture, is entrapped and blackmailed into unwittingly acting as a Special Circumstances agent in the brutal Empire of Azad. Their system of society and government is entirely based on an elaborate strategy game, Azad.

The Player of Games Continues

It is absolutely ridiculous how good The Player of Games is.

So far about half way through it's an entertaining and wry sci-fi book about diplomatic relations between two cultures which really seems to be about British colonial relations yet is also exceptionally well written with two fascinatingly envisioned societies.

Why couldn't i have read this 20 years ago when it came out?

New Book: The Player of Games

I enjoy Ian Banks. I rather liked the Wasp Factory, finding it to be a rather fascinating portrait of a boy and his autonomous world.

I have never read any of the science fiction by the author (which is published under the name Ian M Banks) even though I have several of his books in my possession. Probably because everyone who is a raving fan says to start with The Player of Games. I managed to snag that book from Strand Books a few weeks ago and have begun to tuck into it.

So far I fear that this will be like Ender's Game but for middle age intellectuals but I'm only on page 30, so I have plenty of time to be pleasantly proven wrong.