Consider Phlebas

As I write this I've finished Player of Games, and I can say that this book has done its job of setting up what I expect are the core philosophical questions of the series, but I don't feel as though enough attention was given to the narrative of this specific entry. Characters feel flat, motivations are written out and grappled with but there's no catharsis, I didn't come away feeling as though I understood what the point was.

This is my introduction to The Culture, a far in the future symbiosis of human and intelligent machine, an ever expanding post-scarcity anarchist utopian society. I enjoyed this book, it's a fast paced pan-galactic heist that does a good job of introducing its larger world. I felt like I was reading a sci-fi adaptation of The Mummy. Our main character is a “changer” shapeshifter on a mission from his alien overlords, he gets his ass kicked six ways from Sunday as he and his makeshift crew galivant disastrously across temples and desolate ruins. No one safe, nothing is sacred, and the author isn't afraid to build up a trope just to yank the rug out from under us.

I came away positive on the series, but this book is a freshman effort; The female characters might as well be cardboard cut-outs and the rest of the cast has zero agency which is weird since the MC doesn't start running the show until nearly the half-way point. At certain points in the story MC himself appears to be railroaded into the narrative, and for all the political philosophy and high minded rhetoric of the warring factions, the character's motivations aren't explored in a meaningful way.