Discover the true scope of Frank Herbert’s vision in Dune: Messiah, the epic second act in the classic sci-fi saga, presented in a cinematic illustrated edition from The Folio Society.
The Player of Games
Book 2 of the Culture series
Illustrated by Dániel Taylor
Following science-fiction landmark Consider Phlebas, Folio continues Iain M. Banks’s Culture novels with The Player of Games, featuring mesmerising original artwork by series artist Dániel Taylor.
£100.00
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‘Banks is a phenomenon.’
- William Gibson
Folio presents The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks, the second book in the acclaimed Culture series and the first ever illustrated edition, featuring brooding cinematic artwork by sci-fi artist Dániel Taylor. The Player of Games offers a view inside Culture itself – in this far-future utopia, there is no money, no scarcity, even death is uncommon, while society itself is automated by seemingly benevolent AI known as Minds. Bound in sumptuous maroon cloth, star-speckled and foil-blocked in gold and blood-red, this exclusive slipcased edition is a crucial volume in the library of any sci-fi connoisseur.
Though part of a sequence that broadened the intellectual scope of science-fiction literature, The Player of Games remains a mesmeric standalone read, an idea supernova that combines the surreal concepts of Philip K. Dick with the world-building of Frank Herbert’s Dune novels and the intellectual rigour of Asimov. Iain M. Banks has influenced a host of writers and artists, from Irvine Welsh to experimental pop star Grimes, while The Player of Games showcases precisely why The Times named him one of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945.
Bound in cloth, foil blocked in red and gold
Set in Garamond with Scene as display
376 pages
Frontispiece plus 6 full-page colour illustrations
Blocked slipcase with secret printed lining
9 ½˝ x 6 ¼˝
Printed in Italy
You want something you can’t have, Gurgeh. You enjoy your life in the Culture, but it can’t provide you with sufficient threats; the true gambler needs the excitement of potential loss, even ruin, to feel wholly alive.
Since publication, The Player of Games has become a startlingly pertinent tale of gamified living. Broad in extent, but intense in focus, the novel follows Jernau Morat Gurgeh, a master game-player himself manoeuvred into joining a lethal game, one so galactic in scope that the winner determines the fate of an entire civilisation.
Bored by his own flawless victories and the anodyne comforts of Culture society, Gurgeh learns to experience life by dicing with death. Like many a modern gamer, his life is absorbed by the game of Azad, which takes two years to learn and another three to play. The tournament itself supports an entire civilisation, with players – from lawmakers to labourers – staking life and limb on the chance to become emperor. Azad becomes a model of life more lifelike than anything Gurgeh has ever known. This ominous world is perfectly evoked by the seven full-page, colour illustrations by Dániel Taylor, the Hungarian sci-fi artist who previously illustrated Folio’s edition of Banks’s Consider Phlebas. A wireframe gameboard provides a suitably iconic cover for this edition, housed in a blocked slipcase, with a secret printed lining…
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