This is a science fiction book by Iain M. Banks. The only book I’ve read by him before was The Wasp Factory, which despite having read it a long time ago I still think about every now and then. It has stuck with me as a particularly dark and intense read.
In this book the protagonist is a part of a civilisation called The Culture. There is no ownership or control, everyone is equal. This includes drones, and even space ships themselves. He is particularly adept at playing games, and reknowned for this across the civilisation. Despite this at the start of the book he cheats in a game, and ends up being blackmailed to keep it secret. This leads him into a mission for the culture where he is expected to play a complex game in an alien empire called Azad. This other empire is obsessed with power structures and control. The game itself is used to determine who gets what job. The winner of this competition becomes the emperor.
I struggled with the names of all of the characters, they are particularly alien sounding and it became quite hard to keep track of who was who.