The Player of Games (Culture, #2)

<b>The Culture — a human/machine symbiotic society — has thrown up 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. </b><br><br>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.<br><br>The Culture Series<br><i>Consider Phlebas<br>The Player of Games<br>Use of Weapons<br>The State of the Art<br>Excession<br>Inversions<br>Look to Windward<br>Matter<br>Surface Detail<br>The Hydrogen Sonata</i>