Reddit reviews The Player of Games (Culture (2))
We found 22 Reddit comments about The Player of Games (Culture (2)). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
The Player of Games Culture
I just wanted to say that anybody who finds this idea interesting might look into the novel The Player of Games by Iain Banks. It's set in the post-scarcity future where the main government for sentient beings, "The Culture," is trying to bring a new alien race into the fold, but they are too incomprehensible to the Culture to figure out because their society is structured around a ridiculously complex game designed to choose their leader and organize their castes. The main character is a master game-player they send to try and figure it out. It's an interesting book.
It was brutal. I wasn't that good. But there were many people who were superb. It was such a pleasure watching them perform.
Here are some sci-fi recommendations (you may have read them already, but I thought I'd offer anyway):
Serious Scifi:
Anathem the "multiverse" (multiple realities) and how all that works
Seveneves feminism meets eugenics—watch out!
The Culture series by Iain Banks, esp Book 2, the Player of Games Banks is dead, but wrote some of the best intellectual scifi ever
Brilliant, Visionary:
Accelerando brilliant and hilarious; and it's not a long book
Snowcrash classic
Neuromancer another classic
Tawdry yet Lyrical (in a good way):
Dhalgren beautiful, poetic, urban, stream of consciousness, and more sex than you can believe
Underrated Classics:
Voyage to Arcturus ignore the reviews and the bad cover of this edition (or buy a diff edition); this is the ONE book that every true scifi and fantasy fan should read before they die
Stress Pattern, by Neal Barrett, Jr. I can't find this on Amazon, but it is a book you should track down. It is possibly the WORST science fiction book ever written, and that is why you must read it. It's a half-assed attempt at a ripoff of Dune without any of the elegance or vision that Herbert had, about a giant worm that eats people on some distant planet. A random sample: "A few days later when I went to the edge of the grove to ride the Bhano I found him dead. I asked Rhamik what could have happened and he told me that life begins, Andrew, and life ends. Well, so it does."
There's a lot of that. The clarifying beam of light in politics. The only one is internal consistency of the ideology. Through all my phases I really wanted what was the "best" system. AnCom stuff is peachy keen if you have no scarcity (read Player of games ). R & D ideology is totally obscure junk. Its conceit of knowledge at its finest. If you think politicians are qualified to make decisions for anyone or even themselves, you're wrong. I worked in politics and was shocked at how powerfully stupid many of them were. Not "leaders" in the sense that people like to pretend. Just narcissists.
Ultimately, comparing Ds and Rs at this stage of my life seems silly. They're so much alike. My transition between D to R took place after the Kerry campaign (which I worked) and the election season of 08. The Cato Institute and later, The Institute for Justice sold me on the "Right's" civil liberties cred. Obama supported FISA and McCain waffled on torture. That sold me on the anti-establishment part of the Rs, Ron Paul's crowd. To this day I like parts of the Rs much more than the Ds. Democrats have basically no civil liberties "leg" to stand on.
The catch is I don't vote and I don't encourage it. So its all basically sports to me now. Gross sports.
This was in The Player of Games by Iain Banks.
Consider Phlebas, The Player of Games, and Use of Weapons
These three were written by Iain M. Banks and they're all sci-fi novels set in a far off future Earth where we live in a post-scarcity, stateless, classless, communist paradise. Banks uses the alien societies we encounter in the future as a means of criticing our actual, modern society today.
I absolutely love those novels. The Culture (what we now call the united humans of earth + their colonies) is fascinating. I won't spoil it for you. But go for it. Read until your eyes bleed.
Also, if you're looking for something fun and innocent. You can't go wrong with The Smurfs. I shit you not, I grew up on these so don't any of you dare insult them >.>
You'll want the comics, of course, not the cartoons.
You might find the book 'Player of Games' interesting for some discussions on the topic.
This immediately brings to mind Ian Banks' Culture series à la The Player of Games. If you haven't, I definitely suggest a check out. The whole Culture series is a post-singularity exposition, though some books more than others definitively explore specific ideas such as leisure and play.
"The Algebraist" by Iain M. Banks.
Banks is better known by the Culture series. The most accessible book in the series may be "The Player of Games" and others have mentioned "Consider Phlebas". I did not like "Matter" very much but YMMV.
edit: I usually link to the Amazon's page because it is a quite good place to see reviews and get a general idea about if the book is any good. As others have said it is a good idea to get the book from a library.
Great series of books. You do not need to read them in order; I read book 4 first, and it spoils nothing.
Supposedly, Amazon Prime wants to do a miniseries of this, or at least the first book, to the level of quality of Game of Thrones. I'll... believe it when I see it.
Anyway here are Amazon/Audible links! (Or hit up your local library, etc.)
I really like this stuff as space opera type stuff. It's usually not "hard" sci-fi like Asimov or even Philip K. Dick or anything, but I rather hope humanity heads in the direction of the Federation, and then ultimately to The Culture.
Fun fact!! Elon Musk named the autonomous drone barge ships (the ones that SpaceX rockets land on) after some Culture ships. Namely the Of Course I Still Love You, and the Just Read The Instructions. I also rather like the full name of the ship Mistake Not… (Don't Google it! It's a spoiler!!!)
The Culture books of Iain M Banks.
Use of Weapons is often considered one of the best.
I quite like the first Consider Phleabas. Player of Games is pretty popular with the reddit crew.
A list of the novels can be found here. Wonderful.
Iain Banks' Culture: https://www.amazon.com/Player-Games-Culture-Iain-Banks/dp/0316005401/
OP doesn't mention the best-known Culture book
The Player of Games (Culture) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0316005401/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_ErJpxb3QP2HKJ
Which is awesome.
Also H. Beam Piper, if he doesn't ring a bell, you can thank me later. How's "Space Viking" for a title?
If you like sci-fi, you should try the Culture books by Iain M. Banks. There's been no romance plots in the ones I've read, and they're really imaginative about the possibilities of far future tech and cultural development. And they're really good, engaging, and there's quite a few of them (though they're not really a series, just a shared universe).
Maybe try The Player of Games first.
Have you read Player of Games by Iain Banks? If not, firstly shame on you, and secondly I'd really recommend it. While his isn't exactly a bed time story he does employ a similar technique that uses an outside narrator to tell the story but he gives a couple of small segments where the narrator has his own voice aside from the action of the story. It was a really great effect for me because it made me aware that the story was being related to me and meshed those moments of broken action because I knew where it was coming from.
It's also one of my absolute favorite scifi novels.
And you are welcome.
Since you like epic, sprawling tales and speculative fiction set in other cultures, I'll recommend Iain M. Banks' novels about "the Culture". The first one I've read, though not the first one written, is The Player of Games.
Some things about the Culture novels:
Some non-spoilery things about the plot of The Player of Games:
you should read the culture series of novels by Ian Banks ...
Gillion years: Player of Games - Iain M Banks
Incidentally, check out this collection of Le Guin's Hainish novels. (Totally worth it by the way.)
Otherwise, here are some suggestions for other authors:
It is really good, and you're quite welcome. Though, if this is your first Culture novel, I'd advise reading The Player of Games first. It's a more straightforward novel, so you get a good intro to the Culture without having to deal with unraveling two simultaneous stories. It also has a decent twist, but that's less "Darth Vader is Luke's father" than a infodump at the end explaining everything that happened, including the stuff the protagonist wasn't told.
The Player of Games by Ian M. Banks. Part of the classic Culture sci-fi series and a great starting point for that series.
These are favorites of mine that I don't expect will make it on other lists:
The Great Book of Amber by Roger Zelazny
Blindsight by Peter Watts
The 1st Chronicles of Thomas Covenant The Unbeliever by Stephen R. Donaldson
The 2nd Chronicles of Thomas Covenant The Unbeliever by Stephen R. Donaldson
The Culture Saga by Iain M. Banks
The Takeshi Kovacs series by Richard K. Morgan
I'd recommend Player of Games by Iain M Banks. I loved the Dune series and would urge you to read and make up your mind for yourself.