The Player of Games by Iain M Banks

11 Feb 2018

WARNING: Might contain spoilers

Second installment in the Culture series keeps the same universe, meaning same faster than light travel mentioned passingly and the great Culture location where people and drones, on their own will, co-exist happily.

As with all super-advanced civilizations, yeah, all really, because people have anything they desire they get bored easily - and our dearest Gurgeh cannot be satisfied with any new games. Because, you know, he really likes games and played so many that nothing entices him. I find a bit forced the reason, or one of the reasons, he decides to go on this crazy trip to some other system, a mere months away, even though he doesn’t like to travel.

I find the the Azadians and their empire (?) described as a bit nostalgic of “life from a different time”. They have crime/criminality, and even though most are forbidden from various activities or access to latest and greatest technology, they somewhat still get along in their daily lives and seem like they all work for the army or the government. We don’t get too many insights on how exactly such a great and vast empire lives and thrives but we get waved off that everything is tied to the game of Azad.

I liked a couple of things on the whole society and comparison between the 2 empires - on the one hand some preach something and do the opposite (the lowly not hyper-advanced azadians) with pervasive corruption running amok, on the other our “hero” is blind to almost everything, he’s just there for the play and fails to see the forest because of the trees.

The story unfolds nicely, there is a gruesome point (same as in the fist book, but which I’ve skipped because I was too sleepy and didn’t want to spoil it) and it has its flaws here and there (the tiny culture drone seems pre-set to maximum annoy) but overall it is a good read - solid 4 out of 5.