Another book from the Culture-series which tells about a galaxy-spanning, anarcho-communistic, post-scarcity society which is run (if that society needs running) by extremely high IQ artificial intelligence minds. There isn’t actual military, but there is a “Special Circumstances”, an organization which examines possible threats to Culture and responds if necessary. The Special Circumstances has found a large interstellar civilization, the Empire of Azad, from the Magellan Cloud. It hasn’t revealed for Azad Empire the full truth of the Culture and has led the representatives to believe that Culture also originates from the same galactic cloud and isn’t as technologically advanced (and liberal). It really is. They have been careful not to reveal more advanced gadgets and ships.
The political system of the empire is practically based on a game that is used to determine high government positions and also who is the emperor. The better someone is in the game, the better his position will be. However, the empire turns out to be corrupt and is extremely sadistic and cruel in nature.
The drone, who works for Special Circumstances, approaches a professional gamer. He is asked to travel to Magellan Cloud (which will be two years' travel time) and to take part in the game. He agrees and spends years training for the game. When he eventually arrives, he takes part in the competition and manages pretty well with a very different game style which has been traditional. But the Special Circumstances (and the Minds) never reveal everything – not for anyone.
A very good and an interesting book. The Culture-series has somehow fallen between cracks in my reading and I had not read this book before even when it is quite widely known. The plot was appealing and even surprising at places. The writing was very well done and the concept itself was very interesting. The main character was well developed with a full personality. I found this book to be better than Consider Phlebas.
391 pp.
No comments:
Post a Comment