The Player of Games
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
|
| Author | Iain M. Banks |
|---|---|
| Country | Scotland |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Culture |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Macmillan |
| Released | 1988 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 288 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-333-47110-5 |
| Preceded by | Espedair Street |
| Followed by | Canal Dreams |
The Player of Games is a science fiction novel by Scottish writer Iain M. Banks, first published in 1988.
Contents |
[edit] Plot introduction
The second of the Culture novels. A brilliant, though decadent, game player (Gurgeh) from the Culture is entrapped and blackmailed to work 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.
[edit] Plot summary
Jernau Morat Gurgeh lives on Chiark Orbital, and is bored with his successful life. The Culture's Special Circumstances (SC) section suggests that he travels to participate in a games tournament in a distant and isolated alien civilisation, the Empire of Azad. In the Empire a complex game (also named Azad) is used to determine social rank and political status. At the same time, he is blackmailed by an ex-SC drone into accepting the assignment so that he can use SC's need of him as a lever to have the drone accepted back into Special Circumstances; this drone, Mawhrin-Skel, tempted Gurgeh into cheating on a game, using its records of Gurgeh's acquiescence as its weapon.
The game itself is sufficiently subtle and complex that a player's tactics come to reflect their own political and philosophical outlook. As a Culture citizen, Gurgeh naturally plays with a style markedly different from his opponents, and gradually he finds that his (and, by extension, the Culture's) values make for an extremely successful strategy. As he plays increasingly more powerful Azad politicians, Gurgeh ultimately plays for the position of Emperor of Azad. Belatedly, he discovers that his participation is part of a Culture plot to overthrow the corrupt and savage Empire, and that he, the player, is in fact a pawn in a much larger game.
Although Gurgeh never discovers the whole truth, it is ultimately revealed to the reader that even the blackmail that forced him to accept the mission was almost certainly carried out with the knowledge and permission of some faction within Special Circumstances itself. The book therefore, like Excession, concerns a possible abuse of power within the Culture.
[edit] History
Like most of Banks' early SF work, this was a reworking of an earlier version.
[edit] Literary significance & criticism
The Player of Games is considered by some the most immediately accessible of the Culture books, and therefore perhaps an easier introduction to the sequence than the earlier Consider Phlebas.
Banks was able to use the fast-paced science fiction thriller to make points about racism and sexism. The Azadians have three sexes, of which only members of the intermediate sex, the apices, stand a chance of succeeding in the game and advancing to high positions in society. The ultimate point of the book is seen as being the various levels of games being played by virtually every participant.
The fictional game Azad has some similarities with the fictional game Damage in Banks' earlier Culture novel, Consider Phlebas.
[edit] Bibliography
- The Player of Games, Iain M. Banks, London : Macmillan, 1988, ISBN 0-333-47110-5 (paperback ISBN 1-85723-146-5)
[edit] External link
| Iain M. Banks books |
|---|
| Consider Phlebas • The Player of Games • Use of Weapons • The State of the Art • Against a Dark Background • Feersum Endjinn • Excession • Inversions • Look to Windward • The Algebraist |
