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Book Club - The Player of Games by Ian M. Banks
It was one of those weird coincidences where you suddenly hear about the same thing from multiple sources in a short time span. Multiple friends separately mentioned the Culture series of novels, and I became curious. Apparently they are about a far future utopia where there is no material scarcity. The second book in the series, "The Player of Games", is about a man living in that Utopia who is the best at playing games. If the back of the book is to be believed, he gets embroiled in some games with unusually high stakes.
Based on everything I have heard, I think this book, if not the entire Culture series, is more down the dead center of GeekNights alley than any book(s) can possibly be. If you listen to this podcast, you owe it to yourself to read this book. It may even be possible this book is more up our alleys than the Prince of Nothing.
Shortly after this book was selected we have learned that the author, Ian M. Banks, has terminal cancer. We are very sad that we did not discover or appreciate his works earlier in his life, and that not much more ink shall flow from his pen.
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1. Player of Games. Probably the best introduction to the Culture, laying out Contact and Special Circumstances and all the rest. Viewpoint: normal culture citizen.
2. Consider Phlebas. The war in this is the main threat threat the culture experiences at its own level. It's also the first book chronologically, so it makes sense to go near the start. Viewpoint: outside enemy.
3. Excession. The best introductions to ships. While there are human-level characters, it's really all about the ships. It's also super fun! You need a break after some of the heavier books.
4. Use of Weapons. Really heavy stuff, showing how war isn't all about ship minds having fun. Viewpoint: outsider being used by Contact and SC.
5. The State of the Art. Once the Culture has been established, it's good to see where the Earth fits in with it. We also get to see more of Diziet Sma. Viewpoint: Culture insider looking at Earth.
6. Inversions. A Culture novel without any character knowing about the Culture. This fits well with State of the Art, as you can imagine what it would be like for someone on Earth to be in the same situation.
7. Matter. This is probably the most "minor" Culture book in the series, in my opinion. It's okay, and that's about it. At least after Inversions it'll get you back into the swing of spending time with ships and drones.
8. Surface Detail. The first on the list of three "death and afterlife" Culture novels. This shows "man's" attempt at creating an afterlife.
9. The Hydrogen Sonata. This shows the "science" of a true kind of afterlife on a civilization level, with much talk of subliming, or not subliming, and what life actually means when faced with something better after death.
10. Look to Windward. This is quite out of sequence chronologically and by publishing date, but could be the best way to finish off the series. While the viewpoint is from an alien visiting the Culture, most of the action takes place within it, rather than outside it (like most of the other novels). It also goes well with Consider Phlebas, so it's good to have them topping (almost) and tailing this list. Finally it rounds out the mini-series about what happens after death... but I don't want to spoil it.
What do you think of that then?
1. Player of Games
2. Use of Weapons
3. Consider Phlebas
I'm going to read Excession next, so we'll see if that changes.
I can reconcile them pretty well, actually, but it's not a quick thing to document.
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/14/03/20/1218259/time-dilation-drug-could-let-heinous-criminals-serve-1000-year-sentences
But using this on anyone for the purpose of vengeance and torture is just evil. We need to be reducing our vengeance, not increasing it.
I already think that prison is inhumane to begin with, so changing it by forcing weird psychoactive drugs on prisoners isn't going to be any better in my eyes.
Now, for the garden variety, non-psychokiller, prisons should be more about rehabilitation than punishment. Figure out why they committed the crime and how to avoid it in the future, perhaps give them some sort of job training so that they don't need to be criminals when they leave, and then give them job placement assistance (as well as some protection against "refusing to hire former prisoners" provided those prisoners have been reformed) so that they can live a productive life without returning to crime.
The last problem is with white collar criminals. Job training and such probably won't serve any useful purpose for them as they already are highly skilled. Perhaps substantial fines, such as a significant percentage of their future wages for a certain period of time, in addition to reparations to those they harmed, would be appropriate in this case.
It were an interesting question as to the ramifications of such a system, ensuring that the victims never interact with the body of the person who did those things, what if the original personality were to reassert itself, if possible, etc.
I guess that verges into the larger question of "informed consent," and how we determine it when (from what we know of neuroscience) the entire premise is kinda shaky.
Also the Peter Kenny readings of the Culture books are some of the best audiobooks I've ever heard. I actually waited for Audible release of the State of the Art audiobook instead of reading the ebook.
If you sign up for Audible, even for the free trial, please copy and paste this link: audibletrial.com/SFBRB
My guess was it was Mawhrin-Skel and he was hiding in the bracelet to keep Flere-Imsaho informed of whatever Gurgeh was thinking. And that wasn't quite right.
My guess for how it would end was off too. I thought that the emperor would realise that playing the culture way was better than their traditional ways (Gurgeh and the Emperor play styles aligned well with their societies) and so would change their society for the better by adopting some of the culture's ideals.
Such a use of weapons, when anything could become weapon.
Every book enriches every other book, and I appreciate how off-handed references and even slang across the books are extremely internally consistent.
I should have read Matter earlier than I did. Perhaps, it should be read immediately after Consider Phlebas. It's enjoyable, as Luke also said, but definitely weaker than most of the other books. I would have enjoyed it more if I'd known less about the universe at the time.
I'm most looking forward to Look to Windward of the four books remaining.