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The Player of Games
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins
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Publisher's summary
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.
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Fraa Erasmus is a young avout living in the Concent of Saunt Edhar, a sanctuary for mathematicians, scientists, and philosophers, protected from the corrupting influences of the "Saecular" world by ancient stone, honored traditions, and complex rituals. Over the centuries, cities, and governments have risen and fallen beyond the concent's walls. Three times during history's darkest epochs, bloody violence born of superstition and ignorance has invaded and devastated the cloistered mathic community.
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I love Neal, but Good lord... ugh!
- By SpiderGrrl on 10-08-19
By: Neal Stephenson
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Neuromancer
- By: William Gibson
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Twenty years ago, it was as if someone turned on a light. The future blazed into existence with each deliberate word that William Gibson laid down. The winner of Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick Awards, Neuromancer didn't just explode onto the science fiction scene - it permeated into the collective consciousness, culture, science, and technology.Today, there is only one science fiction masterpiece to thank for the term "cyberpunk," for easing the way into the information age and Internet society.
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Story? Classic. Narrator? Ugh.
- By Sage on 11-11-14
By: William Gibson
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The Diamond Age
- By: Neal Stephenson
- Narrated by: Jennifer Wiltsie
- Length: 18 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Neal Stephenson, "the hottest science fiction writer in America", takes science fiction to dazzling new levels. The Diamond Age is a stunning tale; set in 21st-century Shanghai, it is the story of what happens what a state-of-the-art interactive device falls into the hands of a street urchin named Nell. Her life, and the entire future of humanity, is about to be decoded and reprogrammed.
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The rock could use a bit more polishing
- By Tango on 05-19-13
By: Neal Stephenson
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Luna
- New Moon
- By: Ian McDonald
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren, Soneela Nankani, Thom Rivera
- Length: 16 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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As the leader of the moon's newest "dragon", Adriana has wrested control of the moon's helium-3 industry from the Mackenzie Metal Corporation and fought to earn her family's new status. Now, at the twilight of her life, Adriana finds her corporation, Corta Helio, surrounded by the many enemies she made during her meteoric rise. If the Corta family is to survive, Adriana's five children must defend their mother's empire from her many enemies - and each other.
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Disappointed.
- By Eugene R. White on 10-28-15
By: Ian McDonald
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Revelation Space
- By: Alastair Reynolds
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 22 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Nine hundred thousand years ago, something annihilated the Amarantin civilization just as it was on the verge of discovering space flight. Now one scientist, Dan Sylveste, will stop at nothing to solve the Amarantin riddle before ancient history repeats itself. With no other resources at his disposal, Sylveste forges a dangerous alliance with the cyborg crew of the starship Nostalgia for Infinity. But as he closes in on the secret, a killer closes in on him because the Amarantin were destroyed for a reason.
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Defeated
- By Eoin on 07-15-12
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A Case of Conscience
- By: James Blish
- Narrated by: Jay Snyder
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Father Ruiz-Sanchez is a dedicated man - a priest who is also a scientist, and a scientist who is also a human being. He has found no insoluble conflicts in his beliefs or his ethics...until he is sent to Lithia. There he comes upon a race of aliens who are admirable in every way except for their total reliance on cold reason; they are incapable of faith or belief. Confronted with a profound scientific riddle and ethical quandary, Father Ruiz-Sanchez soon finds himself torn.
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Moldy Oldie still gets it done
- By Bob V. on 03-22-09
By: James Blish
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Pandora's Star
- By: Peter F. Hamilton
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 37 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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The year is 2380. The Intersolar Commonwealth, a sphere of stars some 400 light-years in diameter, contains more than 600 worlds, interconnected by a web of transport "tunnels" known as wormholes. At the farthest edge of the Commonwealth, astronomer Dudley Bose observes the impossible: Over 1,000 light-years away, a star...vanishes. It does not go supernova. It does not collapse into a black hole. It simply disappears.
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Great Epic Scifi
- By Devin on 10-17-09
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The Dreaming Void
- Void Trilogy, Book 1
- By: Peter F. Hamilton
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 22 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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AD 3580. The Intersolar Commonwealth has spread through the galaxy to over a thousand star systems. It is a culture of rich diversity with a place for everyone. A powerful navy protects it from any hostile species that may lurk among the stars. For Commonwealth citizens, even death has been overcome.
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What can I say
- By Randall on 05-08-18
What listeners say about The Player of Games
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Bill
- 04-13-16
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.
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- CJ
- 07-22-20
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.
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- Dan Adams
- 07-18-17
great book
really fascinating book, far better in my option than Consider Phlebas from the same series. narration was on point as well.
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- Yaman
- 07-08-15
Good movie material!
a tough book to read, needs a vast imagination and a lot of focus, but great work. Love to see it as a motion picture! I plan to listen again in the future :)
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- Eric Lamy
- 07-15-15
Another Great Success
Brilliantly read and well-written as always. Banks' storytelling continues to impress with elegantly-woven threads of plot.
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- A. Davis
- 06-24-16
great story
narrator is wonderful but takes a bit to get acclimated. The world is food for thought and the ship names are humorous.
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- Lord Balrog
- 08-08-20
Great and deep book, but also a little depressing.
There's deep sci-fi, action, and intrigue, all as you would expect from the Culture series. But the ending is a bit of a downer if you think about it too long.
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- Duncan Gilbert
- 05-28-20
Much better then Consider Phlebes
I think this is a much better introductory novel to the culture then the first one. A really great story overall and I'm starting to love the narrator
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- Zerocleft
- 06-01-22
brilliant
I can't believe I have gone my entire life without reading this author's work.
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- Shekinah
- 11-20-23
strong character development
fun adventure, really enjoyed the world building, travel, characters and fun back and forth in the book
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