With a middle initial like Iain M. Banks, the famous author of “The Wasp Factory”, “Crow Road”, “Business”, “Streets of Despair” and other novels beloved by the domestic reader are not for the faint of heart, publishes his science fiction. “The Player” — the second book of the famous cycle about Culture, the standard of intellectual space opera of a new type; The novel takes place several hundred years after the events of Remembrance of Phlebus, a sci-fi debut comparable in power only to Dan Simmons' Hyperion. Jerno Morat Gurgeh - a famous player, one of the most powerful specialists in various games in the entire Cultural civilization - is forced to agree to the proposal of the Special Circumstances department and go to the distant Azad Empire, play the game that gave the name to the empire and determines its entire bizarre structure, its entire its aggressive policy. Now the empire is afraid not only that Gurgeh might win (after all, the winner of the final round becomes the new emperor), but also the very manner of his game, reflecting the anarcho-hedonistic structure of the Culture...

(back cover)Banks is a phenomenon, he does everything equally well: brilliant suspenseful mainstream, and intricate fantasy. It seems that in the USA such things are prohibited by law. William Gibson

In the pantheon of British fiction, Banks occupies a special place. You wait with bated breath for each of his new books: what will he learn this time? The Times

An outstanding triumph of creative imagination! In The Gambler, Banks does not so much break genre canons as invent his own - only to immediately break them with special cynicism. Time Out

The greatest player of the Culture, against his own will, goes to the Azad Empire to take part in a tournament, on which the fate of two civilizations depends. Alone, he confronts an entire empire, forced to comprehend its incredible laws and cruel customs on the go...Library Journal

A notorious and outrageously versatile talent! The New York Review of Science Fiction

Banks is a player extra-class. To the reader's constant delight, he plays with form and plot, with vocabulary and syntax, with the novel's structure itself. As befits a true grandmaster, he does not break the rules, but uses them in the most unexpected way. And if next to his later novels The Gambler may seem comparatively straightforward, this is in no way a flaw...Tom Holt (SFX)

Poetic, striking, hilariously funny and creepy, exciting better than any aphrodisiac - the novels of Iain M. Banks are suitable for all occasions! New Musical Express

Absolute authenticity of the most fantastic constructions, a complete sense of presence is Banks' constant trademark. Time Out

Banks never repeats. But always on top.Los Angeles Times