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Summary: My favourite of the Banks "Culture" novels
Review: Really, the best of Banks' fabulous Culture novels.
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Summary: One of the best Sci-Fi books I've ever read. Really!
Review: I picked this book up at a little used book store outside Savannah for half the cover. I had never heard of the author but had decided I needed to broaden my horizons. Boy am I glad I did. The way Banks weaves such a believable game into an equally believable universe is amazing. The characters, not all human, are also brilliant. The main character represents all of us who have tried our best and still sometimes ended up bored when the venture was not up to our skill. It's not a page turner as other reviewers of Banks books have also said, but it does hold your intrest with new ideas. Not a cliche' type Sci-Fi read. A great satisfying ending tops it off. I am now searching for some of his other titles and dought I will be dissapointed.
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Summary: An astounding insight into the future
Review: This is an amazing story of a man who becomes bored with his too-perfect life and his string of victories, a man who can win any game against any competitor. Then he finds <i>Azad</i>, the place where the government is controlled by a game and life is nothing like perfect. This is a refreshing, innovative piece of science fiction like nothing you've ever read before.
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Summary: Michelle's Review -Player of Games by Iain M Banks
Review: Iain Banks has created a wonderful and crazily realistic semi-symbiotic society (the culture) and used it in many of his books but this particular story stood out from the others i have read. Although it appears as though the story takes a while to reach the important part, it is the little things that turn out to affect the outcome of the entire tale. At first, the story moves slowly but all of a sudden everything locks together and the full magnificence and cleverness of the final twist is great. The whole story is worth reading just to reach the twist. People who seemed so innocent become the bad guys and the seemingly bad guys become good and this lethal mix of surprises,hidden depths and twists baffle you. The best book i have ever read!!
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Summary: Is is just me or is there a Hesse-Banks connection?
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this Culture novel of Banks, but have begun to wonder if anyone else finds that it shares much with/is based on Herman Hesse's The Glass Bead Game/Magister Ludi. Either way, a highly recc'd read.
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Summary: Superb Science Fiction, Excellent Characterization
Review: On one hand, this a great SF novel which brilliantly describes a clash between two highly contrasting societies.On the other hand, Banks also has succeeded at creating a protagonist that game players really can identify with. I'm myself an avid player of chess and several other games, and this is the best literary portrait of a game player I've ever come across. In other books, players are often characterized as madmen or monomaniacs, but never as well-adjusted people who just like to play games and happen to be very focused and good at that.
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Summary: Trouble in Paradise
Review: The metaphorical possibilities of the Culture as Garden of Eden were always going to be too ripe and juicy not to pick(sorry); so we get the Fall of Man on an Orbital, where the best human game player in the universe is tempted by a sneaky, whispering box of mechanical intelligence. And well done it is, too -- humourous, colourful and thoughtful. In the second half, where we descend into Hell as Fascist Galactic Empire, things get a mite polemical, and it's not as fun. The planet of fire, though, at the end, is a great concept and the metaphoric coup de grace.
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Summary: My favorite book so far...
Review: This story smokes. It has a sizzling pace, strong character development, a great story and Mr. Banks anonymous storyteller style. Unlike Michael Crichton stories Mr. Banks actually manages to leave me feeling satiated when the story ends. I still have the copy I purchased back in 1989 when I was going to school in Manchester. Of all the books I have bought for the cover that were trash, this one has proven that the risk is worth it. I just wish I could find a hard cover first edition, so I wouldn't mind so much lending out my paperback.
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Summary: The Use of Games
Review: The Culture is a galaxy-wide civilization, so far advanced that it has solved most problems that afflict humanity. The great concerns of our time are all resolved. No longer planet-bound, no longer concerned with meeting needs; the Culture is a utopian, decadent paradise. A mix of wildly evolved humans and super-intelligent machines, including intelligent spaceships, it is very nearly all-powerful and omniscient. But there are still parts of the galaxy, or at least parts of the Magellanic Clouds, where the Culture has not yet gained influence. Those parts of the Galaxy are the business of Contact, the part of the very loose government of the Culture that deals with alien civilizations. And in the difficult cases, Special Circumstances steps in to solve the problem. "Special Circumstances," like most names in Banks' books, is a euphemism: "Special Circumstances" isn't bound by the legal, moral or cultural constraints that bind the rest of the Culture. Gurgeh, the protagonist, is recruited, perhaps blackmailed, by Special Circumstances to help Contact with an awkwardly difficult alien culture. The Azadians present a space-faring civilization, less advanced than the Culture but still powerful, whose ethos is based on The Game. Social position, military rank, governmental power, wealth; all of Azad is based on one's performance in The Game. Gurgeh is one of the Culture's best games players. Contact sends Gurgeh to Azad to compete in The Game. At one level, Banks is writing about the effect of an advanced culture on a less advanced one. At another, he is having fun with a traditional space opera culture that is in contact with his more subtle and sophisticated one. At another, he is poking fun at traditional SF authors. Because the underbelly of Azad is disgusting and horrific; in some ways, the Culture's efforts to undermine Azad are morally justified. But most of what Contact tells Gurgeh is a lie. He himself is an unknowing pawn in another game. When is it right to cheat? What is cheating? As ever, Banks asks the questions but doesn't really answer them, making you ask yourself instead, "Am I asking the right question?" Banks' Culture is ironic and self-mocking. The intelligent ship that takes Gurgeh to Azad is the size of an asteroid but calls itself "Little Rascal." The equally vast ship that takes him back is named "So Much for Subtlety." But the Culture is deadly, too, as evidenced in _Consider Phlebas_, set a few hundred years earlier than _Player of Games_. The Culture is peaceful and principled; that doesn't mean non-violent or honest. This is a very good book by a very good author. Banks never tells the same story twice, and in _Player of Games_ he sets a new benchmark for science fiction. Highly recommended.
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Summary: It's just a game
Review: I believe this was the second Culture novel (Banks' future history series, for those unfortunates who haven't read this series yet) and about as far from Consider Pheblas as can be. While that book was a grand space opera, taking place right in the middle of a war, featuring a lead character fighting against the culture, this novel is a lot more scaled down. But it's probably better than Consider Pheblas, if only because the mood isn't so downbeat, Banks can be morbidly witty most times but sometimes he goes too far and becomes downright depressing. So, here we have Guergh, probably the greatest game player in the Culture . . . he finds that games really don't hold any excitement for him anymore, and everything in the Culture easy to get (even sex changes!), there's no challenge elsewhere either. Until Contact invites him to go on a mission to a civilization based completely about games. He goes for it and winds up on a place so different from the Culture it might as well be barbaric. From there plots and counterplots start spinning, though this book is delightfully straightforward for the most part, but things are spinning around so fast that you can barely keep your breath. He gets the details right on everything and manages to generate excitement from the series of games that Guergh has to play without going into lengthy details of the rules. The climax is about as surprising as they come, as Guergh gets farther in the games and the stakes get higher as the civilization tries to stop this "outworlder" from making them look like a bunch of idiots. Probably the first SF book you should pick from Banks, both for its relative simplicity (compared to the others) and general lightheartedness. It's not all fun and games but the mood is generally witty and swift. One of those few books you really can't go wrong with if you want a good read.
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