That was the first Culture novel I ever read, and still probably my favourite. Time to dig it out and read it again!

Of course, the title of that book is delightfully ambiguous as to which game and which player it is referring to.

Just read the book and of course was thinking of it when reading his description of Go

To me the book was always about Go taken to the extreme. The Game is the Empire and visa-versa. Imagine if Japan had been more dominate in previous war, then conquered space - then you had the Player of Games.

Superb book.