The Player of Games, Iain M. Banks
When you pick up “The Player of Games”, your enjoyment will depend a fair bit upon what you expect from the book. As an approachable introduction to the Culture universe created by Banks, “The Player of Games” works really well. But, if you’re looking for a stand-alone work, it’s not half bad either. The Culture influence isn’t absolute, as most of the book takes place on a planet outside of the Culture.
The idea is simple, a society that shapes itself around a game as complex as life itself. How you do in the game defines you and your role in society, from the bottom to the very top. Our protagonist is the best generic game player that the Culture has, and is shipped out onto this new realm to participate in the game.
As simple as the idea is, it’s a really neat concept. Banks inspects the interaction between the game and the player, how they shape each other — and the society as a whole, as well as the diplomatic aspects of this human playing the game. There are undoubtedly passages where the sheer number of aspects of the plot are fighting for prominence, that might leave the reader wishing for their core interest to be pampered to, but it’s not the way “The Player of Games” is written. It’s not a diamond hard single point Eganesque type of a story, nor does it share the very wide view of someone like Clarke. Banks drifts in the space between, with a mostly steady hand.