Stefen’s Bookclub – September

The Player of Games
by Ian M Banks

Despite the fact that Ian Banks is one of my favourite science fiction writers, I have never suggested a Banks book for bookclub. I’m not sure why this is – maybe the moment wasn’t right. Anyway, for our next bookclub we will be reading The Player of Games. It’s not the first of his Culture novels, but as they don’t run in sequence it doesn’t really matter.  It is one of the easiest to read and one of the shortest. It concerns itself with a gambler who is a member of a galaxy-wide human society called The Culture who travels who a place with very different rules to deal with his own growing boredom at his successes at home. However, the gambling here is far more dangerous with prizes ranging as far as immortality but with stakes that are just as extreme. All of this takes place in a gambling station close to the edge of a burgeoning supernova where imminent destruction of the premises is part of the thrill. A really interesting take on culture shock and the differences between value systems. It’s also quite a lot of fun. I look forward to hearing what people think of it.