The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks

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.

Being science fiction, I began this novel under the assumption that it would have more to offer in the way of ideas than its popular genre counterparts. I blame works of magnificent creativity like [b:Star Maker 525304 Star Maker Olaf Stapledon https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328048540s/525304.jpg 1631492] for this misconception.I tried to allow myself to enjoy the predictable flow of the story, and mostly succeeded in doing so, but found that there were a few things standing in the way. For the most part the heavy-handed social commentary was to blame. It was painful to read and worked completely counter to what the simple and entertaining narrative achieved best. The small portions of direct address from the narrator had the same issue.I also couldn't help but be disappointed by the predictable conclusion, complete with painful HEA reunion of essentially discarded characters.

I have wanted to read one of the Culture novels by Iain M. Banks for quite a while and one that sounded particularly interesting to me was The Player of Games. Unfortunately, that particular title was difficult to find in the U.S. – until it was reprinted here a couple of months ago. I am very glad it was since this is definitely one of the better novels I have read this year, containing layers and depth without ever becoming too dry or a chore to read.

Complete Review:
http://fantasycafe.blogspot.com/2008/05/review-of-player-of-games.html

I was starting to think that picking up this book was a good idea.

But then the author decides to have the protagonist cheat in a game, a game he was sure to win anyway, when a character he knows is crazy supplies the opportunity.

And then he gets blackmailed for it, thus forming the reason for the story to get started. Pathetic. Lead character being an idiot and a cheater makes it impossible for me to consider continuing reading this one.

Stopped reading after 1/3 maybe. I did not enjoy the writing style. Even if I tough this was a good story, I could not bear to read this any longer.

The book starts on a convoluted scene of some sort of game being played. I could not find any interest in this. There is no attempt to create an empathy for the protagonist. He is a guy who plays games. He is the best at it. What games? All sort of games, none one we know of course.

I don't know if reading the first book would have helped, but the lack of context was very disturbant. What are drones? Why are they relevant? Do people own them? How close to human is acceptable for them to behave? Do they share the same status as living things?

The main plot, which takes a while to get at, revolves around this player deciding to cheat at a game to achieve a very hard to achieve kind of victory. Why does he do it? Because. And then he is caught on tape by an evil drone (do drones have morality?). However, tapes are easy to temper with, an no one believes in them. This drone just happened to have the one kind of tape that people do believe in.

Even if this latter becomes explained, as a rouse to get the player to go to this years away world to play this life altering game, it is way too weak of a plot. The drone also seems to be omnipotent and omniscient. The threat of releasing the tape seems really meaningless compared to that.

I fully expect the book to waste many pages on the description of playing an arbitrary game which I care none about.