The Player of Games [NOOK Book]

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Overview

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...
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More About This Book

Overview

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.

Praise for Iain M. Banks:

"Poetic, humorous, baffling, terrifying, sexy -- the books of Iain M. Banks are all these things and more" -- NME

"An exquisitely riotous tour de force of the imagination which writes its own rules simply for the pleasure of breaking them." -- Time Out

Editorial Reviews

Library Journal
The Culture's greatest game player travels to the Empire of Azad to participate in a complex competition that could settle the fates of two civilizations. Theauthor of Consider Phlebas vividlyportrays an empire ruled by arcane conventions and sophisticated brutality in an ambitious novel of gamesmanship and intrigue. Supple prose and subtle manipulations of plot produce a thought-provoking story which is highly recommended.-- JC

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780316095860
  • Publisher: Orbit
  • Publication date: 12/1/2009
  • Sold by: Hachette Digital, Inc.
  • Format: eBook
  • Sales rank: 41,515
  • Series: Culture Series
  • File size: 581 KB

Meet the Author

Iain Banks came to controversial public notice with the publication of his first novel, THE WASP FACTORY, in 1984. CONSIDER PHLEBAS, his first science fiction novel, was published under the name Iain M. Banks in 1987. He is now widely acclaimed as one of the most powerful, innovative and exciting writers of his generation. Iain Banks lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4.5
( 62 )

Rating Distribution

5 Star

(37)

4 Star

(22)

3 Star

(2)

2 Star

(1)

1 Star

(0)

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See All Sort by: Showing 1 – 20 of 62 Customer Reviews

  • Posted September 5, 2011

    Gripping

    Ive only recently discovered Banks and his Culture series. This is a very well written and unique universe. In this installment the reader is drawn into competative gaming. Banks keeps the reader riveted through action, interesting characters, and even incomprehensible alien gaming.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted November 12, 2010

    You can live here too!

    Player of Games continues the Culture series of Iain M. Banks sci-fi novels after Consider Phlebus, and if you read that one first, get this one next. I could live in the world of M. Banks' characters from the Culture series and you could, too. Just buy the books. JM

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted December 19, 2009

    more from this reviewer

    I Also Recommend:

    9780345496553

    Good book

    I've just starting to get into Iain Banks fairly recently--this is the third book of his I've read. I like his writing style, and his stories are definitely different! I especially like his characterizations of aliens and robots--they really have personalities, sometimes very humorous. The Player of Games wasn't my favorite Banks sci-fi novel so far, but it's very good.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted January 21, 2012

    Among Books by Iain Banks, One of the Best

    .

    0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted October 15, 2011

    Good world-building

    Good world-building and good clash-of-cultures plot. I'm so glad I discovered Iain Banks' Culture books. I'll read most if not all of them.

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  • Posted July 2, 2011

    Great read

    This book was hard to put down and makes good societal comentary.

    0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted February 16, 2001

    This book is hard to put down!

    This is an excellent story. I highly recommed it--full of new worlds, ideas, characters and situations. Banks is fantastic. His prose is great, his characters alive.

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