The player of games
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 - a very possibly his death.
Stats for nerds
114recommend
236mentions
194people
2008–2026years
58% recommend36% neutral6% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- People seem to bounce off Phlebas as a first go at (M) Banks. Player of Games is the usual recommendation for a first Culture book.
- It's brilliant and it touches on so many topics worth thinking about; I'm still of two minds re. the ancilliaries, slaves or avatars?
If you like scifi that touches on ethical questions, Iain Banks Culture series is very good in that regard, particularly Player of Games and Use of Weapons. I buddy-reread the last one with an internet friend this year and via our discussions got so much more out of it.
- > Consider Phlebas -- Iain M Banks
I started The Culture series a while ago. I read both "The Player of Games" (amazing book), and "Use of Weapons". Also amazing, with a Memento-like storytelling that was also incredible. I did enjoy both books a lot for different reasons, I can't vouch for any over the other really.
I then moved to "Consider Phlebas" and honestly, got bored to death. So my recommendation is to go for these two as well.
I recently (This month, bought a recent "deluxe edition" of sorts [1]) re read Neuromancer, and then jumped to "Count Zero" but at some point got bored mid way with Gibson's endless descriptions of non things.
- Somebody somewhere here gave a list that had "consider Phlebas" in it.
That particular book bored me to death, but from the same author / series I recently read "Player of Games" and "Use of Weapons" and I can't recommend (both) enough.
Dungeon Crawler, I started the series recently but got bored mid 3rd book. It is quite more denser than the first 2, and it feels like never ending.
- I agree! I read "Consider Phlebas" first and was turned off the series until I was recommended "The Player of Games" - much more compelling in my opinion.
- Both Player of Games and Use of Weapons are incredible good books.
I was actually surprised when I finished UoW regarding how different it was from PoG, while maintaining the quality (If not better, but PoG IS THAT GOOD anyway).
For the record, the series was recommended to be by Claude of all things, and it told me that Phlebas was not up to quality but I gave it a shot just for the sake of completeness of the series. Nop, not worth it.
