Unlike the majority of people in this world who love Iain Banks, my first introduction to his world was not 'The Wasp Factory' but his first sci-fi novel 'Consider Phlebas'. It was an enlightening experience to say the least as finally I discovered someone who was truly reading my mental mail. Two years later, he was to surpass even this nugget of genius. Enter: 'Player of Games'.
A story of bluff and double bluff, the best games players in the galaxy come together to play in the ultimate strategy contest. Part chess, part poker, the competitors vie for power over an entire empire.
Unlike his mainstream fiction, the prose style seems to fire on all cylinders, unfettered by everyday context and scale. Yet it is such things that appear to be major stumbling blocks for people who don't get on with the sci-fi genre. Sadly this seems to bar some of his best work from view (not my loss however, heh, heh).
For anyone who is equally at home with regular and alternative fiction, I would put this book at the top of the Banks pile (even above, The Wasp Factory, Espedair Street and The Crow Road).
The XTC of authors.