The Player of Games

The Culture — a humanoid/machine symbiotic society — has produced many great Game Players. One of the best is Jernau Morat Gurgeh, Player of Games, master of every board, computer, and strategy game. 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, and almost murdered, Gurgeh accepts the game and, with it, the challenge of his life — and very possibly his death.