The Player of Games by Iain M Banks

The Culture a humanmachine symbiotic society has thrown up many great Game Players and one of the greatest is Gurgeh. Jernau Morat Gurgeh. The Player of Games. Master of every board computer and strategy. Bored with success Gurgeh travels to the Empire of Azad cruel and incredibly wealthy to try their fabulous game...a game so complex so like life itself that the winner becomes emperor. Mocked blackmailed almost murdered Gurgeh accepts the game and with it the challenge of his life and ver