Iain M. Banks, The Player of Games - To be honest, TPoG is probably the weakest of the Culture novels, something I was surprised to find having read some excellent reviews.

By no means does this mean it is a bad book, simply that it fails to quite push buttons in the same way that, say, "Use of Weapons" does.

However, as with all Iain Bank's books, we are looking at an author who operates on a completely different level to most other sci-fi authors, so bear that fact in mind before reading on.

The main thrust of the book itself is not the game but the comparison between two very different societies. Whilst most readers of this review will be familiar with The Culture, the Empire Azad is a strict, secretive rule bound society, militaristic to the point of paranoia.

The interesting point here is that although our hero, Gurgeh, is in fact a culture citizen, his conservative attitudes and personality mark him out from others. So whilst we are seeing the Empire through the eyes of a culture human, he quite rapidly begins to empathise with the Azad way of life on an instinctive level. Increasingly our "home", The Culture, seems alien and remote.

I feel that this may well be the central message of the book as not only does Gurgeh relate well to the Empire, so does the reader. The descriptions of Azad society seems in some places to reflect the "real world" we see on the news rather too closely for comfort.

My main causes for praise and critiscism for the Gurgeh character also stem from this inherent conservatism. Basically, his naivete makes him far easier to identify with than many of Banks' more outrageous characters. He thinks and acts rather more like a twenty-first-century human being, a great strength in a character whose role is to act as our eyes and see the world as we might.

Unfortunately, I find it difficult to credit that any two-hundred-year-old denizen of the cuture could in fact be so naive. A small, picky point, but damaging to the credibility of the plot nonetheless.

Also, there is a subplot throughout the book, involving a failed special circumstances drone, which simply doesn't work. Rather than casting events in a new light at the end, however, the blatant predictability from the word go actually detracts from later events. Put simply, the major plot twists are ever so slightly more, as opposed to less, predictable.

All in all, a very good read, but Banks can do, and has done, far better. See "Use of Weapons" or "Excession" for Banks at the Peak of his powers. For a flamboyant, old fashioned, excess-filled, space opera romp through the culture, try "Consider Phlebas", also a good introduction to the Culture for newbies.