The game of Azad

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The Player of Games (original title: The Player of Games , 1988) is the second published science fiction - novel from the culture cycle of Iain M. Banks .

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For over 70 years Kontakt , the diplomatic section of culture , has kept the existence of the Azad Empire a secret - a remarkable achievement in view of the culture's philosophy, which is geared towards radical public opinion. When the professional player Jernau Morat Gurgeh, who is highly regarded in the culture, signals his interest in working with Kontakt , this slowed-down matter suddenly moves.

The dynamics of the social and government system of the Azad Empire are based entirely on a very complex strategy game , which not without reason also bears the name Azad . In order to intervene successfully in the empire, an extraordinary player like Gurgeh is required . He lives on the orbital Chiark , now bored of his constant successes . However, when he learns what contact or his secret service special circumstances demand of him, namely a journey of several years and a game whose complexity he finds unbelievable, this seems unacceptable to him. He hesitates and falls into a trap set by the Mawhrin-Skel drone .

Due to the prospect of a perfect match result unprecedented in culture, he is tempted to cheat at a game and is suddenly in the blackmailing hand of the drone. Mawhrin-Skel, a clearly personality disordered former combat drone , was retired and disarmed by the Special Circumstances. Your only aspiration is to get back into service. To this end, Gurgeh should now use his new influence at Kontakt, otherwise Mawhrin-Skel threatens to publish the recording of the fraud and destroy Gurgeh's reputation as the best player in culture. Under these special circumstances, Gurgeh has no choice but to obey the wishes of Kontakt. Which in turn promises to benevolently examine the concerns of the insane drone.

On the way to empire Gurgeh learns the game Azad and is often close to despair. The game concept seems too complex, strange and opaque to be able to learn it in the one year that is available to him. But he progresses and is finally gripped by the fascination of the game. He's eager to be able to play it under real conditions.

The empire is a (re) acting society under the conditions of classical predatory capitalism. It is organized according to absolutist principles. At its head is an emperor and all social relationships are subordinate to property relationships . Possession is everything and everything is possession. According to the theories of the BU brains, Azad should not have achieved his given technical level of development with this social order. Azad is the game that counteracts the enormous centrifugal forces inherent in the system . It decides both on the social status as well as on the political rank of the participants, and anyone can participate, at least on paper. The winner of the game cycle, which takes place every six years, is declared emperor. The last emperor has died and his office was transferred to the regent Nicosar , who wants to confirm his emperor dignity in this Azad cycle.

Kontakt has obtained an exemption for Gurgeh to participate in the next game cycle. Against all expectations and resistance, he survived the first round and continued his triumphant advance until reaching the final round. At a crucial point, in the game against an older judge who appeared to be very upright and who, under pressure from the authorities, had to place a bet on the violation of personal integrity - in this case castration - with Gurgeh, the diplomatic drone Flere Imsaho , which had apparently been completely useless to date, intervenes into the action. She takes Gurgeh, who doubts himself, the game and the sense of it all, on a trip to the slums of the capital. Here Gurgeh, who until then had lived completely isolated in his hotel, is confronted with the brutal violence, the hopelessness and the social cold of the imperial system. He is shocked, but back at his hotel the drone decrypts the secret media communication channels of the military and the ruling bureaucracy for him . Everything is broadcast live here, from military massacres to child pornography and real-time torture . The next day, Gurgeh no longer has any qualms about defeating the charming judge.

The final round will be held on the fire planet Echronedal . A permanent firestorm that circles the planet in six years (the duration of the game cycle) dominates its biosphere. In anticipation of this inferno, Gurgeh plays his way through to the finale, in which Nicosar faces him. His play against this makes it clear that Azad, played at the highest level, is so subtle and complex that only a player who perfectly represents his political and philosophical beliefs has a chance of victory. Nicosar plays the empire while Gurgeh embodies the culture. As if playing in a trance, the two deliver a brilliant duel beyond the understanding of all viewers, including the cultural brains. Long before the last move, Gurgeh sees that the game is over. The empire lost. He expects Nicosar's congratulations, but the reigning emperor turns out to be a bad loser. Given his defeat, he runs amok and lets his guard slaughter all spectators of the game. But he wants to massacre the hated cultural player himself. At the last second, Flere Imsaho intervenes again. In the end, Nicosar is dead and Gurgeh is brought back to the Chiark orbital. It wasn't until much later that he realized that his participation in the game was only part of a civil plan to bring down the corrupt and brutal empire. He, the player, was just one character in a much bigger game.

Context within the culture cycle

Even if Gurgeh himself never learns the full truth, the reader is finally revealed that even the blackmail used to force Gurgeh to participate in the game Azad was probably carried out with the knowledge and approval of special circumstances . In this respect, the book, like Excession , is about the insidiousness and the potential abuse of power within culture, whereby Ian Banks always makes it clear that the brains and thus the culture as such by no means always represent the "good".

Banks uses the fast-paced novel to take a clear position on racism , sexism and torture . The Azadians have three sexes, of which only the middle, the apices , have a chance of success in the game and thus access to high social status. The other two genders, women and men, are only allowed to play pro forma. The main task of women is procreation and that of men the service in the lower ranks of the army. All those who fail in these “careers” end up in the millions of millions of an impoverished rag proletariat.

The game Azad represents the culture from the point of view of one of its members. It provides insight into the diplomatic work of contact and the work of special circumstances . It is often viewed as the most accessible book in the culture cycle.

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Aerial view of the first Autonomous spaceport drone ship after it in honor of Iain Banks the new name Just Read the instructions received, which is already painted on the deck.

On January 23, 2015, Elon Musk , CEO of the space company SpaceX , named two floating rocket landing platforms, his Autonomous spaceport drone ships Just Read the Instructions and Of Course I Still Love You , in honor of Iain Banks . These are starship names that Banks used in The Game Azad . Just Read the Instructions is stationed in the Atlantic and is intended to enable the landing of rockets from the Cape Canaveral spaceport . Of Course I Still Love You is to be stationed in the Pacific .

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Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stubby the Rocket: Elon Musk Names SpaceX Drone Ships in Honor of Iain M. Banks, January 23, 2015; Retrieved April 19, 2015