It takes a special book to start an obsession for me, known drop-outer of series, however the masterful The Player of Games, second in the Culture series by Iain M. Banks (which can be read in any order), has successfully won me over such that I am now on my third Culture book.
The Player of Games is sci-fi as it is meant to be, in my opinion: exploring the limits of human imagination within the confines of storytelling. At a basic level this book could be taken off of another genre’s shelf, because a story where a disaffected man must travel to a new place to gain a different perspective on his own life will always be relatable to us mere mortals standing in the intellectual shadows of novelists like Banks. That outline, however, is where the familiar part ends, and the picture painted in The Player of Games can, at times, transcend all outlining.
The Culture, in Banks’ stories, are a galactic, multi-species, utopian society where robots and humans collaborate to create a fascinating uber-system that stands above things like the need for resources. Some of the best sequences in the book are just the author introducing us to the Culture and how its people live; they go to parties, they study obscure subjects, they pursue pleasure or excellence, according to their personalities and desires. Larger, smarter robots help them with all of this, but they have personalities too, and there is a kind of comforting decentralization to the whole society that leads one to really believe power structures can be transcended if everyone can just work together, separately. In this novel, we follow one of those who pursues excellence: Jernau Morat Gurgeh, the Player of Games himself.
This, too, is another of Banks’ ingenious concepts. The protagonist of The Player of Games has problems that only someone in a utopia could have. Gurgeh has spent his life playing games—boardgames with strategy elements, mainly, though the idea of Gurgeh attempting to master Super Smash Bros. or roulette seems like it should be addressed—and he is simply too damn good at them. He is, in fact, the best the Culture has to offer, out of their trillions of souls (presumably only humanoids would count towards this ranking, though Gurgeh seems to be better than at least one super advanced AI-warship). Now, Gurgeh is bored, weeping, for he has no more worlds to conquer. Traveling throughout the galaxy for exhibition matches, meeting or teaching other players, learning new games, no! None of it is for Gurgeh, nothing could save his overawing ennui—save, that is, for the best and most dangerous game in the galaxy.
Through a series of mild plot contrivances, the threat of the only true punishment in the Culture’s utopia, social ostracization, is leveraged to send Gurgeh away from his delightfully cozy home orbital (an entirely Culture-constructed world) to face down the wicked empire of Azad at their own game. One of the main fascinations of Banks’ novels, it turns out, is the frequent story impetus in the form of Contact, within which is Special Circumstances: the Culture’s human and machine agents dedicated to finding new galactic life and liberating that life from the backwardness of the unCultured forms of oppression. In Azad, a multi-planet system of aristocratic excess and cruelty, that oppression is perpetuated through a game, also called Azad, which determines social rank and prestige—who gets to oppress who with practical impunity. Gurgeh’s mission, ostensibly, is to help Special Circumstances understand this game and world by playing in their greatest tournament, though it is clear from the start that Contact almost definitely has ulterior motives. It turns out not even utopia can protect from secrets and lies.
The medium of the game provides a look into The Player of Games’ central philosophical struggles: what artificial mediums do we use to construct our societies’ all-too-familiar forms of cruelty, and what should be the stance of one people who are free to another who are oppressed by a pampered few. For the former, one gets the feeling that the game of Azad could easily be swapped out for the divine right of kings or other religio-societal systems of self-justification the elite wield to explain The Way Things Are (see: late-stage capitalism), making the metaphor infinitely understandable while staying novel in the way it plays out through the tournament. The latter is thornier. Gurgeh’s greatest conflict is one of identity, and perversely the Empire of Azad offers him a new, more brutal kind of place in the social strata—one at the top. The central debate, and the central Azad match, becomes a battle between two ways of life.
In a crucial passage, Gurgeh’s drone companion, the very proper and slightly fussy Flere-Imsaho, takes him on a tour of the seedy underbelly of Azadian life, something that he knew intellectually had to be there but had perhaps put out of his mind. It is tough to read. Banks relishes a little here in describing every imaginable form of cruelty, all of which could certainly be happening somewhere right here, in the world outside the novel, underscoring at every step how the cruelties and perversions are enacted on the lowest in society for the amusement of the highest. It is hard to say then that the Culture shouldn’t come in, CREW guns blazing, and bring fairness and utopia to the trodden-upon population of entire worlds. But the novel knows, as we know today in the post-R2P (Responsibility to Protect, a now quite disused principle in international politics that the stronger must protect the weaker, even when the weaker need protecting from their own governments) world, that it is scarcely that simple. However, even the idea that a few competent people and their powerful computer friends could attempt to do something about such an entrenched power structure remains one of the most attractively utopic ideas Banks introduces us to.
In all, this book will make you think, and laugh, and maybe even cry a little. It might be difficult for those without a utopian mindset, of course: if you don’t think that the end goal of humanity should be for everyone to simply be able to enjoy, however they wish, the infinite freedoms arising from post-scarcity, then there will undoubtedly be things baked into this novel’s core DNA that challenge or even frighten you. For some of us, however, it causes a deep yearning, and perhaps some motivation to live one’s life in a more utopian way. The only way we will achieve it is if everyone chooses to, after all.
Azad: Rules to the Drinking Game of Life
Step 0: Acquire a deck of playing cards (two if playing with four or more people, it is recommended to only have one set of aces though), a short board game of your choice, a long form strategy board game of your choice, a drink of your choice, and a liquor of your choice.
0.a: Short board game examples--Battleship, Monopoly Bid, Uno, Munchkin
0.b: Long form strategy board game examples--Dune, Axis & Allies, Twilight Struggle, Scythe, The Campaign for North Africa
0c. For a true game of Azad, steps 1 and 2 should be repeated three times in order to mirror the multiple boards of Azad, with different long form games each time. If this is possible for you, keep a running tally of total points, wins, etc. from the long form games (weighted to be on a scale such that the first two games are worth the same amount of points and the final game is worth twice as many points), and whoever has the most total points at the end is the winner.
Step 1: Every player must play each other in the short board game such that an absolute ranking is established. Sipping your drink is recommended during this phase, as there are no forced drinks. After that, take out your deck(s) of playing cards, setting the Jokers aside. Distribute playing cards so that each player in the ranking has four more cards (three for groups of more than four) than the one below them, with a maximum of 20 for the champion. Additionally, the top two players are distributed a Joker card. For example:
For a game of two: The champion has 20 cards and one Joker, the second place player has 16 cards and one Joker.
For a game of three: The champion has 20 cards and one Joker, the second place player has 16 cards and one Joker, and the third place player has 12 cards and no Joker.
For a game of six: The champion has 20 cards and one Joker, the second place player has 17 cards and one Joker, the third place player has 14 cards and no Joker, the fourth place player has 11 cards and no Joker, the fifth place player has 8 cards and no Joker, and the fifth place player has 5 cards and no Joker.
Step 2: Begin playing the long form game. While playing, on any player’s turn they may expend one of their cards to make a person of their choice drink based on the following rules:
2-10: The target player drinks for a number of seconds on the card.
Jack: The target player finishes their drink.
Queen: The target player adds half a shot into their drink.
King: The target player takes a shot.
Ace of Hearts: The target player and the user play a hand of Texas Hold ‘em, and the loser either finishes their drink or takes a shot, whichever is more alcohol. Observing players may bet on the outcome of this game by betting random draws from their own deck of cards.
Ace of Spades: The target player and the user play a game of blitz chess, and the loser either finishes their drink or takes a shot, whichever is more alcohol. Observing players may bet on the outcome of this game by betting random draws from their own deck of cards.
Ace of Diamonds: The target player and the user play a game of paper football, and the loser either finishes their drink or takes a shot, whichever is more alcohol. Observing players may bet on the outcome of this game by betting random draws from their own deck of cards.
Ace of Clubs: The target player and the user play a game of tic tac toe, and the loser either finishes their drink or takes a shot, whichever is more alcohol. If the game ties, repeat, and if there is a tie after three rounds both players are considered the winner. Observing players may bet on the outcome of this game by betting random draws from their own deck of cards.
2a. At any point in the game (except where specified), the players who hold Jokers may make a declaration of principles, granting the following benefits. Only one person my declare each principle.
Principle 1: Domination.
The player who has declared this principle may refuse the effects of either Jack, Queen, or King cards, their choice.
Principle 2: Tradition.
The player who has declared this principle may impose a new rule to (somewhat) handicap their opponents in the game.
Principle 3: Strength in Depth, Backups Upon Backups.
The player who has declared this principle may take two random cards out of the hand of each of their opponents.
Principle 4: Perfect Equality.
The player who has declared this principle may, 15 minutes into the long form game, switch places (not including cards won in Step 1) with any player of their choice.
Principle 5: Xenophilia.
The player who has declared this principle may, at any time, switch the drinks of any two players at the table, including themselves.
Step 3: The person who wins the long form game(s) is declared the Morat, the Player of Games.
Step X: All bets made while playing Azad must be honored, absolutely.