1
of
1
The Player of Games
Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.
Check link for latest rating. ( 81,482 ratings, 4,067 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still
learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Summary
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$5300
Unit price
/
Unavailable
International Supplier
This title is in-stock with overseas suppliers. While it is not available locally, we fly books in weekly from the US and UK to our Auckland warehouse for immediate dispatch.
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER
Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 2-3 weeks
Found a better price? Request a price match
The Player of Games
$5300
Unit price
/
Unavailable
Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
A seminal novel in Banks's acclaimed series about the universe of the Culture. Gurgeh is the best, the champion of the ancient, all-embracing Culture in which there is no disease or disaster, only the endless games. Then he accepts the challenge from the Empire of Azad--and finds out what the Game is really all about.
Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and
still learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Description
The Culture - a human/machine symbiotic society - has produced many great Game Players, and one of the greatest is Gurgeh. Jernau Morat Gurgeh. The Player of Games. Master of every board, computer, and strategy.
Bored with success, Gurgeh travels to the Empire of Azad, cruel and incredibly wealthy, to try their fabulous game... a game so complex, so like life itself, that the winner becomes emperor. Mocked, blackmailed, almost murdered, Gurgeh accepts the game, and with it the challenge of his life - and very possibly his death.
Praise for Iain M. Banks:
“Poetic, humorous, baffling, terrifying, sexy -- the books of Iain M. Banks are all these things and more” -- NME
“An exquisitely riotous tour de force of the imagination which writes its own rules simply for the pleasure of breaking them.” -- Time Out
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks is often praised for its intricate world-building and sophisticated narrative. Readers frequently highlight the book's exploration of themes such as power, politics, and the nature of competition, wrapped in a thrilling and cerebral storyline. The character development and Banks's imaginative depiction of a complex society receive commendation, with many noting how the author's sharp prose keeps the pace engaging and thought-provoking.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780316005401
Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 26 March 2008
Country: United States
Imprint: Little, Brown & Company
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 34.0mm
Width: 140.0mm
Height: 210.0mm
Weight: 370g
Pages: 416
About the Author
Iain Banks came to controversial public notice with the publication of his first novel, THE WASP FACTORY, in 1984. CONSIDER PHLEBAS, his first science fiction novel, was published under the name Iain M. Banks in 1987. He is now widely acclaimed as one of the most powerful, innovative and exciting writers of his generation. Iain Banks lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Also by Iain M Banks
View all-
Feersum Endjinn
The novels of Iain M. Banks have forever changed the face of modern science fiction. With breathtaking imagination and extraordinary storytelling, they have secured his reputation as one of the most extraordinary and influential writers in the genre. 'Banks is a phenomenon' – William Gibson Count Sessine is about to die for the very last time... Chief Scientist Gad fium...Paperback$2600Elsewhere:$2799Unit price /UnavailableBackorderShips mid August -
Against A Dark Background
Against A Dark Background follows the story of Sharrow, who was once the leader of a personality-attuned combat team during one of the sporadic commercial wars in the civilisation orbiting the planet Golter. Now, Sharrow is hunted by the Huhsz, a religious cult that believes she is the last obstacle before the faith's apotheosis. Her only hope for survival is...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Against A Dark Background
The novels of Iain M. Banks have forever changed the face of modern science fiction. With breathtaking imagination and extraordinary storytelling, they have secured his reputation as one of the most extraordinary and influential writers in the genre. 'Banks is a phenomenon' William Gibson Lady Sharrow was once the fearless leader of a combat team in one of the sporadic...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Surface Detail
The novels of Iain M. Banks have forever changed the face of modern science fiction. His Culture books combine breathtaking imagination with exceptional storytelling and have secured his reputation as one of the most extraordinary and influential writers in the genre. 'Banks is a phenomenon' - William Gibson The "War in Heaven", a simulated war game, rages between civilisations. Its...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
The Hydrogen Sonata
The novels of Iain M. Banks have forever changed the face of modern science fiction. His Culture books combine breathtaking imagination with exceptional storytelling, and have secured his reputation as one of the most extraordinary and influential writers in the genre. 'Banks is a phenomenon' William Gibson The Scavenger species are circling. It is, truly, the End Days for the...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Consider Phlebas
The novels of Iain M. Banks have forever changed the face of modern science fiction. His Culture books combine breathtaking imagination with exceptional storytelling and have secured his reputation as one of the most extraordinary and influential writers in the genre. 'Banks is a phenomenon' William Gibson War rages across the galaxy. Billions have died, billions more are doomed. Moons,...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableBackorderShips mid August -
The Algebraist
The novels of Iain M. Banks have forever changed the face of modern science fiction. With breathtaking imagination and extraordinary storytelling, they have secured his reputation as one of the most extraordinary and influential writers in the genre. 'Banks is a phenomenon' – William Gibson It is 4034 AD. Humanity has made it to the stars, but Fassin Taak, a...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
The Culture: The Drawings
WINNER OF THE LOCUS AWARD FOR BEST ILLUSTRATED AND ART BOOK This extraordinary collection celebrates the dazzling worldbuilding of Iain M. Banks, one of the most important and influential writers in modern science fiction. Faithfully reproduced from notebooks he kept in the 1970s and 80s, these annotated original illustrations depict the ships, habitats, geography, weapons, and language of Banks' Culture...Hardback$12000Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Use Of Weapons
The novels of Iain M. Banks have forever changed the face of modern science fiction. His Culture books combine breathtaking imagination with exceptional storytelling, and have secured his reputation as one of the most extraordinary and influential writers in the genre. 'Banks is a phenomenon' William Gibson The man known as Zakalwe was one of Special Circumstances' foremost agents, changing...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Matter
The novels of Iain M. Banks have forever changed the face of modern science fiction. His Culture books combine breathtaking imagination with exceptional storytelling, and have secured his reputation as one of the most extraordinary and influential writers in the genre. 'Banks is a phenomenon' — William Gibson The intricate structure of a Shellworld—an artificial planet of spheres-within-spheres—is matched only...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableBackorderShips mid August -
Look To Windward
The novels of Iain M. Banks have forever changed the face of modern science fiction. His Culture books combine breathtaking imagination with exceptional storytelling and have secured his reputation as one of the most extraordinary and influential writers in the genre. 'Banks is a phenomenon' — William Gibson It was one of the less glorious incidents of a long-ago war....Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
The Player Of Games
The novels of Iain M. Banks have forever changed the face of modern science fiction. His Culture books combine breathtaking imagination with exceptional storytelling, and have secured his reputation as one of the most extraordinary and influential writers in the genre. 'Banks is a phenomenon' – William Gibson The Culture – a utopian human-machine symbiotic society – has produced many...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today
More from Crime & Thriller
View all-
New ReleaseEvery Lake
Scary stories are fun... until your life becomes one. When Alice was fifteen, her father killed Mia Heywood in their lakefront cottage before vanishing into the trees. At least that's what the locals think happened. Over a decade later, Alice has lost her job as a journalist, she's going through an expensive divorce and she desperately needs to sell the...Paperback$3299Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseIt Could Have Been Her
PREPARE TO BE HOOKED: The no. 1 Sunday Times and MULTI-million-copy bestselling author is back with a brand-new spine tingling thriller. It was the night she almost died. Jane Trevally, newly divorced and feeling a little lost, agrees to accompany a man she doesn't know to his house in the darkest corner of Hampstead Heath. She's offered a drink, goes in, and...Paperback$3000Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New Release26 Beauties
The twenty-sixth thrilling novel in the globally bestselling Women's Murder Club series. Beautiful young women are disappearing by the dozen. A celebration is cut short when a concerned father crashes Detective Inspector Lindsay Boxer's party. His daughter is missing - and she's not the only one. DI Lindsay Boxer has been tracking a chilling pattern: a Jane Doe washed ashore,...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseThe Secrets We Hide
The stunning new North Falls thriller by the bestselling author of We Are All Guilty Here 'Quite simply, Karin Slaughter is the best of us' Dervla McTiernan Welcome back to North Falls -- a small town with big secrets. The house at 1601 Iris Drive looks like any other in the quiet, residential street. But rumours are rife about the Vickery...Paperback$3099Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseThe Parkwood Murders
They came for an escape, but can they escape a killer? Detective Nicola Bridge returns in another gripping and immersive mystery For its loyal guests, Parkwood Holiday Village in west Dorset is a haven- woodland walks, a tranquil lake, service around the clock. Until, just after midsummer, a body is found floating in the swimming pool. Detective Nicola Bridge, exhausted...Paperback$3000Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Hope Rises
'BALDACCI IS STILL PEERLESS' - THE SUNDAY TIMES REVENGE IS A DISH BEST SERVED COLD . . . Walter Nash, working under the alias of Dillon Hope, is on the road to revenge after becoming an informant for the FBI against a global criminal operation headed up by Victoria Steers. Steers has ripped everything Nash held dear away from him....Paperback$3099Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New Release
Slash
A year after a brutal shootout left her lover dead, ex-police sergeant Honey Chalmers is a hot mess, drinking too much and eating too little, working casual gigs for a shady firm of private investigators — while holding conversations with a ghost. A desperate father asks her to investigate his missing son — a double-murder suspect last seen during the...Paperback$3200Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseA River Red With Blood
The players call it the Game, and its aim is simple: to abduct and kill a stranger without getting caught. They're very good at it. They've been playing it for a long time. And they can keep playing as long as everyone sticks to the rules: No Killing Close to Home and No Killing Outside the Game. But those rules...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
The Shadow Step
The new Detective Miller thriller from bestselling author Mark Billingham, full of tension, wit and incredible twists. The Shadow Step: One taken simultaneously by a pair of dancers facing the same direction, one of them behind and slightly shifted leftwards ('in the shadow') Typically, such a step perfectly demonstrates synchronized elegance. It showcases a couple in near telepathic harmony with...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableBackorderShips mid August -
New ReleaseBlue Lightning
Blue Lightning The fourth Shetland novel A remote island on lockdown. A killer on the loose . . . Shetland detective Jimmy Perez knows it will be a difficult homecoming when he returns to Fair Isle to introduce his fiancée to his parents. With the autumn storms raging, the island is cut off from the rest of the world. Then...Paperback$3000Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseRed Bones
Red Bones is the third Shetland novel featuring detective Jimmy Perez. Sometimes the dead won't stay buried... When a young archaeologist uncovers a set of human remains, the island settlers are intrigued. Is it an ancient find—or a more contemporary mystery? Then an elderly woman is shot in what appears to be a tragic accident in the middle of the...Paperback$3000Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseSome Sort of Justice
The first time in print for the million-copy-selling crime writer. This time, a cast of good coppers, a wily ex-detective and a shadowy, well-connected operative are brought together by an aristocratic fatality. Only there's no body, no forensics—and enemies in the highest places. When Caroline Thorpe succeeded in casting doubt on the verdict of the inquest into her brother's death,...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today
Why buy from us?
Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!
Service & Delivery
Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.
Auckland Bookstore
We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.
Our Gifting Service
Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.
Crime & Thriller lists from the team
Explore our curated lists from our heroes to find your next read!
