The Player of Games

By: Iain M. Banks

Narrated by: Peter Kenny

The Culture -- a human/machine symbiotic society -- has thrown up many great Game Players, and one of the greatest is Gurgeh. Jernau Morat Gurgeh. The Player of Games. Master of every board, computer and strategy. Bored with success, Gurgeh travels to the Empire of Azad, cruel and incredibly wealthy, to try their fabulous game. . .a game so complex, so like life itself, that the winner becomes emperor. Mocked, blackmailed, almost murdered, Gurgeh accepts the game, and with it the challenge of his life -- and very possibly his death.

Philosophical clash of paradigms and epistomology

This book was intense. The plot is thick and the characters are deep. The intellectual flexibility of the authors concepts are intriguing in both subtle and direct ways. If you like analyzing the underpinnings of cultures and how the worldviews of those cultures shape the reality they observe, this book takes a look at that in the concept of a game. The main character has to play a game that is more complicated than any game anyone has ever played on a remote planet and civilization. The game is so large scaled and complicated that the philosophies and subconscious motivations of the players manifest accurately onto the positions on the board. If a capitalist plays the game, the board takes on the garb of a capitalist structure and so on with other modalities. The philosophical intrigue of the book combined with the liveliness of the characters makes it a strong science fiction title. There are some adult themes in it, though none are direct. I'm looking forward to reading more novels in the same universe.

Great intro to Iain Banks' Culture novels

This was recommended to me as a good starting point into Banks' Culture novels (although technically its book #2) and I enjoyed it immensely.

The narration was fantastic, read at a fairly fast pace but not hard to follow. Kenny adjusts his voice in subtle ways to suggest different people, but does not treat it like an audio play. It felt like a book being expertly read to me. While I have recently grown to appreciate other narration styles, this is just the kind of experience I originally joined Audible for.

I'm disappointed to see that not all of the Culture books are available on Audible, but I'll listen to the ones I can, particularly if they are narrated by Peter Kenny.

Great story, superbly narrated

The second book of the Culture series tells the story of a serious game player (think board games, card games, etc.) who is manipulated into traveling across the Galaxy to participate in a tournament where the winner becomes Emperor of an alien civilization.

The Culture is a vast, technically advanced civilization where great machine minds keep most of the human populace living in liberty and high luxury. With all their needs provided for, the people of the Culture spend a great deal of their time in research, art, and recreation. However, a small number join "Contact," the Culture organization responsible for engaging with other civilizations and trying to peacefully share the Culture's values with them. Occasionally, Contact encounters a civilization which is either dangerously hostile or so backwards that direct engagement with the Culture could be calamitous for their less advanced neighbors. These are "Special Circumstances," and the SC group handles them.

The Azadians are indeed a backward civilization by the Culture's standards; aggressive, repressive, brutal imperialists subjugating every world they encounter. But their Empire is ordered according to the intricately complicated game of Azad. Hence SC decides the best approach might be to send in one of their top gamers... Only in the Culture, no one can be forced to do anything, and their best candidate doesn't seem to be interested.

Peter Kenny does a fantastic job voicing the characters and smoothly moving the story along.

Fantastic story read by wonderful actor

Iain Banks is a hugely creative author, Peter Kenney nailed the reading. One of my top 3 books ever read next to the Hitchhiker's Guide series and Iain Banks' Use of Weapons.

Culture at its finest

Great definition by comparison between the Culture v. Despotism rule and life. Actually applicable to today in our divided society. Puts forward an outcome of underestimating a preference for peace and education with the will +ability to back that up vs the stepping off first with force and aggression ruled along rigid artificially created lines of fear, disinformation, and differentiation.

Brilliant.

This is a splendid book. It is highly imaginative and skillfully plotted. The writing, which is graceful and unlabored, is enhanced by a narration that never hits a false note.

Excellent story, highly recommended

Just fantastic, the world of The Culture is hypnotic and alluring on so many levels. The narrator did a top notch job and I'm looking forward to more tales from The Culture!

Sci-Fi at its Best

The Player of Games is an excellent, engrossing story. The book starts with a fascinating expose of the world, falls flat a bit in the middle, but finishes with brilliance.

The writing, particularly in the final third, is technically excellent and manages to be at once pithy and flowery. The performance of the voice actor is outstanding, with only a slight gripe being the chosen accent for a major group of characters.

Overall, I would highly recommend The Player of Games to any sci-fi fan who enjoys political intrigue, social commentary, and imaginative scenery.

A great book

Any additional comments?

I would strongly suggest reading the series from start to finish. This one, however, is one of the highlights on the journey. Masterfully crafted. Beautifully written. Wonderful characters. Cutting social commentary. Brutally honest.

RIP Mr. Banks. This book has made you immortal.

Great story. Good narration.

I have only one major issue with the audio book. The narrator or audio editer happened to skip slightly over an entire page of the book; an entire page was missing from the narration The section beginning with "How did you know where to find us" and ending with "The car arrived minutes later."

A minor issue, being purely aesthetic, is that I did not agree with the voice acting at times.