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  • The Player of Games

  • Culture Series, Book 2
  • By: Iain M. Banks
  • Narrated by: Peter Kenny
  • Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (377 ratings)

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The Player of Games cover art

The Player of Games

By: Iain M. Banks
Narrated by: Peter Kenny
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Publisher's Summary

The novels of Iain M. Banks have forever changed the face of modern science fiction. His Culture books combine breathtaking imagination with exceptional storytelling, and have secured his reputation as one of the most extraordinary and influential writers in the genre.

The Culture - a utopian human-machine symbiotic society - has thrown up many expert Game Players, and one of the greatest is Jernau Morat Gurgeh. He is Master of every board, computer and strategy - he is The Player of Games.

Bored with success, Gurgeh travels to the cruel and incredibly wealthy Empire of Azad to try their infamous game . . . a game so complex, so like life itself, that the winner becomes emperor. Mocked, blackmailed, almost murdered, Gurgeh plays the game, and faces the challenge of his life - and very possibly his death.

The Culture series:
Consider Phlebas
The Player of Games
Use of Weapons
Excession
Inversions
Look to Windward
Matter
Surface Detail
The Hydrogen Sonata
The State of the Art

Other books by Iain M. Banks:
Against a Dark Background
Feersum Endjinn
The Algebraist

©1988 Iain M. Banks (P)2010 Hachette Digital

Critic Reviews

'Banks is a phenomenon' William Gibson

What listeners say about The Player of Games

Average Customer Ratings
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Love this book!

In my opinion, the best of the Culture novels... Followed closely by Use of Weapons.

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5 people found this helpful

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Banks at his best, performed competently

If you want a hard-s.f. space opera with some sociological consciousness and a measured smattering of well integrated wit, then Iain M Banks is, was, your man.

Reading is fine.

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1 person found this helpful

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Too good!

I couldn't stop listening! The narration was great, the plot, enjoyable, and the prose, transporting. If you love boardgames, I'm quite sure you'll love this novel. And if you don't, well - after this you'll probably want to. Right, I'm going to start on the next culture book.

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An easy slip into the future

A pleasant read with plenty of thoughtful prompt for reflection of today's civilisation. Time well spent saturated in this novel.

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Thought provoking, well thought out plot.

This is the second book I have read from Iain M Banks. His imagination is truly out of this world but his storytelling ability make it believable, thought provoking. Even the ending while anticlimactic fell into the plot and integrity of the culture built into the plot.

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Possibly the best Culture novel

Dark and thought provoking. Difficult to work out who are the aliens. Certainly a mirror held up to our “humanity”

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Banks rules

Couldn’t get enough of this one. The story is great and the narrator kept me focused

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Totally horrid

Narrator is deranged with a horrible cadence Narrator is deranged with a horrible cadence ffs

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Great Narrator. good story

Narrator is amazing. wanted to listen to more.
Great theme I believe that apply to today.
Tho the game is some what mysterious.

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Awesome

As someone from China, I think the depiction of that empire is quite believable. When people are treated as objects that can be owned, things in the book will happen.

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