Review Page: The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks
| Title: |
The Player of Games |
| Author: |
Iain M. Banks |
| Genre: |
Science Fiction |
| Publisher: |
Orbit |
| Date of Publication: |
1988 |
| ISBN: |
1-85723-146-5 |
No. of Reviews: 3
Av. Rating: 6/10
Buy this book from the Amazon website.
11.09.2000 - Shahrazade - 6/10
List of Reviews | Bio
Since I've already mentioned in another article that I wasn't very impressed with this book, I thought I should clarify my position by writing a proper review.
To begin with I'll say that I am generally impressed with Iain M. Banks (Iain Bank's science fiction alter-ego). I like his characters and his world and, admittedly to a non-scientist, I find his science very believable. Unfortunately I tend to think that his endings are strange and not always appropriate but many writers have trouble ending their books with conviction and in other areas I find Banks an impressive author. I enjoy his science fiction and especially those novels which concentrate on the Culture: a galactic civilisation on the brink of transcendence.
I've been asked in the past which novels of Bank's I would recommend to begin with and The Player of Games is certainly on the list of culture novels to check out. But in my opinion it's less good than Excession, Use of Weapons or Look to Windward. I think I'd place both it and Consider Phlebas as 6/10: above average quality but flaws may prove annoying.
My reasons for this is briefly that, and this is unusual for Banks, I find the content of the plot is less interesting than the original ideas. In many of his books the ideas are interesting but it's the wealth of detail in the characterisation of individuals, civilisations and other inventions that really interests me in reading the novel. With The Player of Games this wasn't the case.
The plot deals with a culture citizen name Jernau Morat Gurgeh. The name Morat means 'Game Player' and, although the culture does not have a strong personal achievement ethic, Gurgeh is perceived as an elite gamer: a master of all types of strategy game. When the Culture discovers an Empire in which status is entirely predicated on the results of a complex game, Gurgeh is the natural choice to discover more about it. The devious Special Circumstances division of the Culture's enthusiastic Contact Section manipulates Gurgeh into agreeing to go and play the game of Azad.
All of this is a great set-up and I began the book with enthusiasm. Sadly the enthusiasm didn't last. Gurgeh spends a great deal of time learning the game, thinking about the game and, after a long tedious voyage to the empire, playing the game. Other characters, from the empire and the Culture, appear to present their own ideas of games, game players, societies, the empire of Azad and the Culture. Eventually all of this is built up to a climax involving the final game Gurgeh plays and the book gets interesting again for another five minutes before it ends.
Yes, there are moments of interest by they are few and far between and the game itself is a crashing disappointment. The book reads to me as if Banks is saying 'ooh, Azad, it's ever so complicated' in a smug way but backs off with a 'but I couldn't possibly begin to explain it to you' note in his voice when you start to get interested. I know designing believable activities for your characters is hard but I expected better than this from Banks. Game pieces made of jelly are frankly silly and the most interesting part of the whole book is a discussion of the culture's (invented) language.
If you're a Banks fan you may as well read it and will probably get something out of it. But I wouldn't recommend it to begin with.
12.09.2000 - Al - 8/10
List of Reviews | Bio
It is certainly true that The Player of Games has a more simplistic plot than Iain M. Banks' other culture novels, focused as it is on a single (and somewhat eccentric) culture individual in a totally alien empire. However, this merely permits Banks to make a huge number of very interesting insights into our own culture, viewed from 'above' as it were.
In this respect, it is very similar to his novella "The State Of The Art" which features a culture warship surveying circa 1970s earth (and includes genuinely hilarious asides on Star Trek, property ownership, light sabres and the prospect of a banquet in which they eat human flesh, cloned from a few cells from Idi Amin and other monsters of human history).
TPOG, like 'Look To Windward' has the central concept of an alien observing another society. Gurgeh is admittedly somewhat of an idiot savant - quite capable of stunning gameplay, yet also capable of totally missing complex social issues. Banks pulls off this dichotomy with flair and panache while still managing to make the reader care for the character (something that he lacked in Excession, which was very dry).
As Gurgeh gets more embroiled in the empire, society and game of Azad (the central premise is that if you are good at the game, you succeed in the empire, so the Emperor is the winner of the grand series of games) the reader can see how the brutal, unpleasant and alien morals are affecting this mostly innocent individual. The passages where Gurgeh finally 'gets' the concept of cruelty, and how it can be utilised in the game (as opposed to the Culture view that it is despicable) are quite harrowing, focusing as they do on gambling physical mutilation on the outcome of the game.
I found the concept of the game of Azad to be hugely entertaining - admittedly Banks doesn't elucidate the rules at any point, but the various discussions concerning the game and how and why it should be played do show a keen appreciation of games and how they work. At no point is it laid out neatly for the reader to criticise, but conversely, at no point does the reader feel that the game is an artificially manufactured plot point - it is integral to the whole book.
I found "The Player Of Games" to be a wholly engrossing read (and re-read) with a host of interesting points to be made about relationships, cruelty and games playing, both social, personal and political.
I rate 'The Player Of Games' as another 8 out of 10 - not quite his best, but as a stand-alone novel it is highly accomplished. Then again, what a boring world it would be if everyone agreed with each other.
23.01.2001 - The Enchantress - 4/10
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In a word, I was disappointed with The Player Of Games. I've heard such high praise of Iain M. Banks that I expected much more than I got. That's not to say it was a bad novel, because it wasn't. It was just not as good as I had expected.
The plot struck me as very good. I definitely very much liked the idea, and that was what kept me going through the slow, boggy beginnings of the book. Jernau Morat Gurgeh is a Player of Games. He is The Player of Games, the best in the Culture. He has rarely lost a game (except for that one time, but that's not important.) But Gurgeh is bored, and not only is he bored, he is being blackmailed. What choice does he have but to go to the Empire of Azad and play the ultimate game? The game is so important that the Empire is named after it. It is so important that the winner becomes emperor, and the loser can face mutilation, even death, in the most extreme cases. And so the question drives the reader on: can Gurgeh win? And what happens if he does?
The plot is interesting, well constructed and the ending has no other description but 'delightful.' The word doesn't actually suit it, but that is how I felt. It made me smile, and it made the whole slog through the book feel worthwhile. But... there is something wrong, and I couldn't quite put my finger on it at first, but I think it's a mixture of two things: Banks' style is dull, and he spends far too much time world-building. Indeed, in the end, the game becomes not a contest between players, but a moral contest between the Empire and the Culture. A contest between good and evil, freedom and oppression. A large amount of world-building is needed for the differences between these two civilisations to be understood, but repetition, endless repetition, is not needed. It gets boring. It gets to the point where I skimmed paragraphs which I could tell were plain exposition of the same things I'd been told about throughout the book.
And the characters. Well, Gurgeh was mainly likeable. He was nothing special, but I did like him, until near the end. His whole character suddenly disappeared, and in place of it appeared a direct representation of the Culture. Then the character came back again. It was a little disconcerting. There weren't many other characters that Banks took the time to develop, but I did like the enigmatic narrator who popped up at the beginnings of sections and again at the end of the book. The book came alive when he spoke. He was the only character in the story with any real personality, and it was a pity Banks only allowed him a few pages of room.
Still, this was my first book of Banks', and I find it hard to judge a writer on one novel. I will definitely be reading more of his work, and I look forward to it.