The Culture
- a humanmachine symbiotic society
- has thrown up many great Game Players & one of the greatest is Gurgeh Jernau Morat Gurgeh The Player of Games Master of every board computer & strategy Bored with success Gurgeh travels to the Empire of Azad cruel & 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 & with it the challenge of his life
- & very possibly his death