Rating: 
Summary: Don't get me wrong...
Review: ''The Player of Games' lacks the fearsome hypnotic pace of 'Consider Phlebas' and the inexorable mystery of 'Look to Windward' but nonetheless is a considerably compelling read. As ever the 'Culture' universe is detailed and further defined with languid succulence. Initially, the player himself is a curiuosly withdrawn, grasping, and at times pompous figure. Exposure to the 'Empire' and the sordid events which both send him there and surround him once he has arrived affect a gratifying change on his psyche. As the stakes increase he is foreced to abandon his flaccid insousciance as he seeks to unravel the web of prevarication that surrounds his whole excursion. This inner change over the course of the novel is one of its more rewarding aspects. The book spends a significant amount of space working its way through the many games our erstwhile voluptuary is required to play. The games themselves, the strategy and the mental processes involved are all fascinating. As the compettion proceeds, Banks' own graphic and blatanly critical descrption of the Empire begins to reflect the increasingly desperate stakes of the games being played. Yes, it's a horrible little Empire they have going here and the horrid injustices we are toured through can leave little doubt as to whom will go the spoils of victory. The denoument, when it comes, is neither shocking nor surprising, despite some reviewers claims. On the contrary, hints and a certain liberal foreshadowing allow for no other possible outcomes. That doesn't necessarily detract from the impact of the novel itself. Still, where I finished 'Windward' with long and deliberate wonder at its implications, whatever they might be, I found myself only chuckling knowingly at the 'revelations' which
concluded this book. Perhaps it is the inevitable predictability of linear narratives which have this effect. Bah! It was good, excellent, in fact. By all means read it. 4 stars is nothing to be sneezed at in any shape or form. Then, if you haven't, whip out and get 'Look to windward'- and make it snappy!
Rating: 
Summary: Spell-binding!
Review: 'Player of Games' was the first Iain 'M' Banks novel I have read, and I have to admit I loved it! Having read all his previous fiction novels, I was a little uncertain as to how much I would enjoy a SF Novel. Thankfully, all my fears were unfounded only a few pages in to the book. The main character Gurgeh is intelligent, complex and sexy. SF is a genre I never thought I would click with, but the freedom of living through the Culture, and the Empire of Azad was a liberating experience. I loved the dark webs of intrigue which connected many of the central characters, and the reality of this 'universe' was all too addictive. I have since read 'Consider Phlebus', and I enjoyed it just as much if not more. I can honestly say, Iain Banks, with or without the M, is one of the best writers of all time!
Rating:
Summary: A superb story
Review: A genius living in paradise is manipulated through a flaw in his personality into playing a game. In this sense a potential tragedy is in the making. Not so, as this is Iain M Banks writing and he's more advanced than that!
He travels to a rotten alien Empire, inspired by the worst in humans. He is naive politically and does not understand the true cruelty of the Empire and plays the game to decide who rules it. I can't give away the ending but it's well worth reading.
This is a clever, complex book with vivid scenes of paradise, advanced technology, barbarians, emotions and various scenes. The fire planet image is amazing. It's fun in places, exciting, an adventure story, it's nasty and horrible. It's sad and shocking. The 'hero' of the book is not your action hero of many sci fi stories. He's a vain coward at times single minded on playing games.
Short on violence, weapons and no space combat yet it doesn't matter. For violent thrills read Consider Phelbas or 'Against a Dark Background'. This is a carefully constructed story which I can and have read again and again without being bored.
There aren't many authors whose story endings are better. This one makes me smile, think 'Yes!' and then feel sad all at the same time...
Rating:
Summary: Thanks for loaning me this one, Noah!
Review: I like the part where some of the chess pieces are plant matter that ripens and changes moving ability over the course of the game according to color change! Don't shortchange this book on the title. There are games played in the book but they are metaphors to illustrate deeper concepts. Lengthwise this is fairly short. It's no Dune or anything. The book became a compelling page-turner by about the third chapter. Banks has created a world with intelligent robots that have jealousy, ambition, and hobbies. Three or four of the main characters are little floating spherical robots and Banks really makes good use of the robot as character to extend the possibilities of the social milieu here. It's analogous to game playing: chess is to checkers as Banks' robot society is to our human society. He plays around a lot with the possibilities of robots as active, socializable entities. And the super-robots called ship-minds are both space vessels and hyper-intelligent transcendent beings floating through the plot like blue whales on earth: big, intelligent, and seemingly benign. The main star of this book (and I guess Banks' other works) is his future society called The Culture. The culture was so cool of an idea socially that it left me spoiled for lesser science fiction books. When this book got me jonesing for more science fiction I tried to follow it up with Jerry Pournelle's The Mote in God's Eye. Isn't that supposed to be a classic? Well, I couldn't read it. The whole society portrayed seemed so obsolete and boring, like a Buck Rogers movie. So read Iaian Banks and get spoiled for lesser science fiction!
Rating:
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.
Rating:
Summary: A Near Perfect Book
Review: I say "near perfect" because as those who've read a lot of Ian Banks know, Banks is somewhat obsessed with cruelty and torture and this book has its fair share. At least here, however, it forms a logical and integral part of the book unlike Banks' Consider Phlebas, where it's so gratuitous and specific that it's really disturbing, and it doesn't form a huge part of the book like it does in The Wasp Factory, which I couldn't finish because of it. The above aside, the story is compelling, the writing superb, and the author's premise intelligent without being condescending or dense. Banks has created a version of Utopia, called the Culture, and thought it through quite well. Ownership and status have been eliminated, there's plenty of space, there's equality (even sentient machines share the same status as humans), people can internally create whatever drugs/state of mind they need/want and even select their gender, and people are happy and engaged. So when Jernau Gergeh, a professional game player, is recruited to play the game of Azad in the far-distant empire of Azad, he is reluctant to leave his home for the five years the game will take. But Gurgeh does leave, and Azad turns out to be a civilization much more like our own than that of the Culture. Azad is hierarchical, crowded and violent, and status is everything. One of the interesting things that Banks has done is to make us recognize ourselves in the empire of Azad, while still finding ways to make the Azadians different than the alien races one so often finds in mediocre science fiction writing. For one thing, the Azadians have three genders. Banks also focuses on the difference between the languages of the Culture and the empire, and how language may shape thought. Banks makes us understand why Gurgeh becomes attracted to the empire even with all its flaws, inequalities and cruelty, and to the game of Azad, a brilliantly created giant of a game which is central to the civilization of Azad and all its institutions, and which represents the entire philosophy of the empire. You might not think that a book about a game and game-playing would be consistently compelling, but in Bank's capable hands it is. A study of competition, cultural differences, politics and human nature, it stays captivating throughout, managing to combine a good story and excellent story telling with thought- provoking premises. This was the first book by Banks I ever read and easily my favorite still. I've read it at least half a dozen times and it holds up on every re-reading.
Rating: 
Summary: A Galactic Dostojevskijan story
Review: I've most liked the plot and the main carachter,Gurgeh.His moral dilemmas and failings are the most humane, and the setting in the
cruelly depraved Empire of Azad is most compelling.The Culture is a really intriguing concept,and the real game, if you notice that those who are holding the cards aren't exactly the organic beings, can be hard to conjecture, and can be very nasty at the end.Banks' machines have a lot in common whit those of Douglas Adams, only they are "class-conscious" and waspishly witty. They contrast vividly against the almost tragic sense of existentialism of Banks' human personae. The result is peculiarly weird.
Rating:
Summary: All in the game
Review: Iain M. Banks seems to be very popular with the nerd crowd. His "Culture Universe" books are stories set in a far future where, for the most part, material worries are a thing of the past, and people are allowed to develop themselves however they want. Taking care of them are various intelligent machines, including giant ships that whole societies live on. This sort of techie stuff is endlessly fascinating, and Banks is very good at creating interesting backdrops. Unfortunately, I find that in many of his books the actual story falls a little flat. Not so in this book. In the Culture universe, Jernau Gurgeh is the best living game player. He is also a bit bored. This makes him ideal for being sent on a long trip to a recently discovered society where games are almost synonymous with life. If you win the final game, you become ruler. This is an excellent book. There is a lot of "hard SF" in it, but it is also psychologically interesting, as Gurgeh delves into the Azad society and discovers just how much life and game are intertwined.
Rating: 
Summary: Poor
Review: Really, the best of Banks' fabulous Culture novels.
Rating:
Summary: I want to play that game
Review: Seriously a deceptive title, but the scope of the story is impressive. I really like the contrast between the culture utopian culture society and the savage primodial world has strong parallels with our own. I found the story quite profound and enjoyable, with good development and imagination, again a cleverly written story with twists and uncertainty, to be expected of Banks.
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