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Book Details

The Player of Games

71.4% complete
1988
2010
1 time
See 4
One - Culture Plate
Two - Imperium
Three - Machina Ex Machina
Four - The Passed Pawn
Book Cover
Has a genre Has comments Has a year read Has a rating In my library In a series 
1444
 Culture Series*
#2 of 10
Culture Series*   See series as if on a bookshelf
A loosly related series of science fiction books that all take place in the same universe.  Written by Iain M Banks.

1) Consider Phlebas
2) The Player of Games
3) Use of Weapons
4) The State of the Art
5) Excession
6) Inversions
7) Look to Windward
8) Matter
9) Surface Detail
10) The Hydrogen Sonata
Copyright © Iain M. Banks 1988
For James S Brown
who once said 'Azshashoshz.'
This is the story of a man who went far away for a long time, just to play a game.
May contain spoilers
Would I lie to you?
Comments may contain spoilers
Good book.  Love the concept behind this and the Culture.
Synopsis not on file
Extract not on file

 

Added: 31-Jan-2015
Last Updated: 15-Mar-2022

Publications

 01-Jan-2001
Orbit
Mass Market Paperback
In my libraryI read this editionOrder from amazon.comHas a cover imageBook Edition Cover
Date Issued:
Cir 01-Jan-2001
Format:
Mass Market Paperback
Cover Price:
£6.99
Pages*:
309
Read:
Once
Cover Link(s):
Internal ID:
1490
Publisher:
ISBN:
1-841-49095-4
ISBN-13:
978-1-841-49095-3
Country:
United Kingdom
Language:
English
Credits:
Mark Salwowski  - Cover Artist
The Culture - a human/machine symbiotic society - has thrown up many great Game Players, and one of the greatest is 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.

'Few of us have been exposed to a talent so manifest and of such extraordinary breadth' The New York Review of Science Fiction

'Poetic, humorous, baffling, terrifying, sexy - the books of Iain M. Banks are all these things and more' NME
Cover:
Book CoverBook Back CoverBook Spine
Notes and Comments:
First published in Great Britain in 1988 by Macmillan (London) Limited
This edition published in 1989 by Orbit
Reprinted 1990, 1991, 1992 (twice), 1993 (twice), 1994, 1995, 1996 (twice), 1997, 1998, 2000
This edition published 2001

I read this just after finishing Consider Phlebas.

All Covers for this edition of the series

 01-Jan-2010
Orbit
Paperback
In my libraryOrder from amazon.comHas a cover imageBook Edition Cover
Date Issued:
Cir 01-Jan-2010
Format:
Paperback
Cover Price:
£9.99
Pages*:
309
Cover Link(s):
Internal ID:
2449
Publisher:
ISBN:
1-857-23146-5
ISBN-13:
978-1-857-23146-5
Country:
United Kingdom
Language:
English
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 possibly his death.

'Few of us have been exposed to a talent so manifest and of such extraordinary breadth'
THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF SCIENCE FICTION

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

'Confirms Banks as the standard by which the rest of SF is judged'  GUARDIAN

'There is now no British SF writer to whose work I look forward with greater keenness'  THE TIMES
Cover:
Book CoverBook Back CoverBook Spine
Notes and Comments:
Canada price: $14.99
NOT FOR SALE IN THE USA

Related

Author(s)

Iain M Banks  
Birth: 16 Feb 1959 Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland, UK
Death: 09 Jun 2013 Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland, UK

Awards

No awards found
*
  • I try to maintain page numbers for audiobooks even though obviously there aren't any. I do this to keep track of pages read and I try to use the Kindle version page numbers for this.
  • Synopses marked with an asterisk (*) were generated by an AI. There aren't a lot since this is an iffy way to do it - AI seems to make stuff up.
  • When specific publication dates are unknown (ie prefixed with a "Cir"), I try to get the publication date that is closest to the specific printing that I can.
  • When listing chapters, I only list chapters relevant to the story. I will usually leave off Author Notes, Indices, Acknowledgements, etc unless they are relevant to the story or the book is non-fiction.
  • Page numbers on this site are for the end of the main story. I normally do not include appendices, extra material, and other miscellaneous stuff at the end of the book in the page count.






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Presented: 29-Mar-2024 02:09:24

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