The Player of Games
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4.5 • 476 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
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.
The Culture Series
Consider Phlebas
The Player of Games
Use of Weapons
The State of the Art
Excession
Inversions
Look to Windward
Matter
Surface Detail
The Hydrogen Sonata
Customer Reviews
Compelling, Imaginative, Thought provoking
A masterful tapestry of ideas, imaginations, combat and reflections - the idea of a civilization built on Azad game playing, the mirror held up to human society with all of its imperfections, the imagination of a society post material, post scarcity, the idea of a game playing climax that revealed its subtleties (though I wish more words were used to describe that final encounter between Gurgeh and the Regent Emperor). The loss of something beautiful, the soul connection in the playing of the game - the sad conclusion of that game and its complex interwoven dialogue.
The best of IB
Utterly Transporting, provocative with a deeply satisfying finish.
Decent
Slow to start. Builds and ends pretty well. Not what I expected in general. I think I liked it but definitely not a favorite.