The Player of Games :: The Blurb

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.

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.

You might get the idea from this that Gurgeh is some kind of super-intelligent adventurous playboy, and the book is an action thriller. It is not. I would hardly say that Gurgeh goes to the Empire of Azad just because he is bored, but you'll have to read the book to find out exactly why he chooses to go. A fair bit of the book is set before the Empire is even mentioned.