The Player of Games

Iain M. Banks 1988 Buy from Amazon.com

Occasionally you will find a book that describes some concept which is interesting, deeply complex, with that flavour of exclusivity. Some books do it by concocting elaborate descriptions, rules, methods and techniques. The best books do it by implication, suggestion, and drawing clever analogies with familiar concepts.

The Player of Games is one of the best.

Although Iain Banks has written a number of Culture novels, they rarely describe the Culture in great detail, and there are tantalising hints around the society and the lifestyles of those within it. This novel is from the perspective of Jernau Morat Gurgeh, the best game player in the Culture. There are others slightly better at any given game, if they are specialists, but even they cannot guarantee a win against Gurgeh, master of them all.

Despite his success and notoriety, Gurgeh is bored, he seeks constantly to thrill himself with challenge and risk. The drone Chamlis Amalk-ney suggest that perhaps he is not the game player, ‘Morat’, after all, but instead ‘Shequi’, the gambler. Chamlis offers to mention Gurgeh to Contact, the special branch of Culture that deals with new cultures, because that’s where to find the brightest and best minds.

Things become complicated when Gurgeh gives in to the temptation of Mawhrin-Skel, a small drone that was dismissed from service in Special Circumstances, the even more esoteric sub-branch of Contact for being unsuitable. One evening Mawhrin-Skel suggests to Gurgeh that he can go further than just winning the game he is playing, he can win in a way that has never been done before. Gurgeh agrees, and sets himself up for blackmail.

Mawhrin-Skel wants back into Contact, and Gurgeh is forced to help him, agreeing to whatever Contact may have in mind for him and making Mawhrin’s re-acceptance a condition. When he learns what Contact wants, he is actually not unhappy with the arrangement, as they present him with the most complex game he has ever seen.

The game of Azad, a game so complex that it determines the social and political rank of everyone in the Azad Empire. The games are held every 6 years, and to win through the series of games is to become Emperor. It is so integral to their society that game and the empire have the same name. Contact wants him to go to Azad and play.

Gurgeh spends two years travelling to Azad and learning the game. At this point Iain Banks begins to really excel, while we are never given precise rules and descriptions of the game, we feel Gurgeh’s progress, his frustration, his awe and sense of excitement at learning the game. The hints about massive boards, biotech pieces, cards and moves tell just enough to give the feeling of the game without overwhelming with detail. He tries to also understand the bizarre culture of Azad society, with three sexes, male, female and apex, the apex being the dominant sex.

When Gurgeh arrives he plays brilliantly, if erratically. The periods where he is confused and frustrated are rendered with convincing pathos and he causes a furor by winning against those who have played their entire lives. As time goes on, he becomes more and more absorbed into the game and the culture of Azad, more accepting of cruelty, more possessive, more cold. He must be forcibly reminded by Contact of the Culture, and his strategy changes to his old style. As they play, the game becomes a representation of the two opposing cultures.

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