The Player of Games

This is the follow up to Consider Phlebas, the second book in The Culture. The story revolves around a Culture master gamer; Juneau Gurgah. He is invited to play the game of Azad, an ultra complex board game by which the Empire of Azad determines its Emperor and much of its social hierarchy. This book touches on more than games, it's an exploration of the culture and mores of the “Culture”, it's a commentary on late stage capitalism, and it also takes its shots at gender equality and transhumanism.

Sometimes contrast is the best way to illustrate a point, and the Empire in this novel encapsulates the unsavory and evil nature of ownership as a concept. Throughout the novel we see the differences between the Culture and the Empire; here we see capitalism and ownership equated to barbarism. I saw an extremist version of the US in the Empire, a place where you can gamble with your life and limbs as a stake, a place where slavery is commonplace and the ruling class revels in owning another person, a place where the genders are rigid and hierarchical, a place where value is not inherent but defined by the suffering undergone to achieve ownership. There is a moment in the book where the band that is playing in the background, is revealed to be playing treasured instruments of human bone, drums bound in human skin, violins whose every string has strangled the life of someone. This novel peeks under the hood of a capitalist homogenous society, and it is stark and uncompromising in what it chooses to show the reader.

The Main Character undergoes a change as he adapts to the culture and language of the Empire, as he plays their game and understands their worldview. I will say this second entry in the series does itself a lot of favors by stripping down the cast, and mainly focusing on the culture clash and its effects on the MC. It isn't a perfect book but it explores some very interesting concepts, and that's really why many of us read Sci-Fi. Again I found myself wishing for better character development, we rarely ever get a peek into the mind of Gurgah; this is excused by the narrative device of a third party telling the story after the fact.

You do not need to read Consider Phlebas to enjoy or understand this book, as a standalone sci-fi novel this entry is about as good as it gets. By virtue of its setting it kind of spoils some of CP; but in my reading of CP knowing those spoilers will not detract from the point of that story.