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Title: The Player of Games by Iain Banks, Iain M. Banks ISBN: 0-06-105356-2 Publisher: Harpercollins Pub. Date: 01 February, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.46 (59 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A Near Perfect Book
Comment: 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: 5
Summary: It's just a game
Comment: 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.
Rating: 4
Summary: Don't get me wrong...
Comment: ''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!
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Title: Use of Weapons (Bantam Spectra Book) by Iain M. Banks ISBN: 0553292242 Publisher: Spectra Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 1992 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks ISBN: 1857231384 Pub. Date: 1987 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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Title: State of the Art by Ian Banks ISBN: 1857230302 Publisher: Firebird Distributing |
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Title: Against a Dark Background by Iain M. Banks ISBN: 0553292250 Publisher: Spectra Books Pub. Date: 01 July, 1993 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: Feersum Endjinn by Iain M. Banks ISBN: 0553374591 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 July, 1995 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
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