The Player of Games

Science fiction novel. The Culture - a human/machine 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 very possibly his death.

This is the story of a man who went far away for a long time, just to play a game.  The man is a game-player called 'Gurgeh'.  The story
starts with a battle that is not a battle, and ends with a game that is not a game.