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Cover of The Player of Games by Iain Banks

The Player of Games

Iain Banks

Part of the Culture series

  • 320 pages · about 5 hours
  • First published 1988
  • 23 editions
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1 About this book

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 - a very possibly his death.

  • Science fiction
  • Science Fiction & Fantasy
  • Computer games

2 About Iain Banks

1954–2013

Iain Menzies Banks ( ; 16 February 1954 – 9 June 2013) was a Scottish author, writing mainstream fiction as Iain Banks and science fiction as Iain M. Banks. His books have been adapted for theatre, radio, and television. In 2008, The Times named Banks in their list of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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