The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks

 genre: science fiction/space opera

Jernau Morat Gurgeh is a player of games. He is a master of strategy and extrapolation - he is well known throughout The Culture for being one of the best.  In his society of sentient machinery and extra-advanced human life, there is no need for war or for a stratified society.  One lives, one watches or plays games, one creates, a peaceful enough existence that for Jernau, eventually, it's boring enough for him to take a chance on something bigger than he's ever imagined.  Apparently, out in space, there is an Empire at whose core is a game - Azad - upon which its society depends.  And The Culture thinks Jernau is the one human who can learn how to play it.

For me, this is science fiction that is just on the cusp of being too much for my brain.  The plot moves along a bit too slowly but it does move and the most sciency bits I just skimmed.  I don't need to know how everything is created or how it functions, I'm ok just knowing it does.  Jernau is not a likable character.  There really isn't any character at all to root for - but I was interested enough in the ideas here that I did want to finish it.  It was just slow going. I liked the big sort of thoughts it inspired in me - how it made me question the ideas that "wars" are are ever a necessity, how it made me look at social stratification and how ridiculous of an idea it is.  The end did surprise me and I liked imagining a life where one can just jet through space, I liked the crazy kinds of life forms that became commonplace.  Glad I gave this one a try.