The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks

Apologies to ascetic_hedony who spent last night hearing me squeak "Listen to this!" and having to listen to me reading out my favourite bits - which I kept finding until the book was over.

The Culture, with it's incredibly sophisticated sentient machines and it's people genetically tailored to within an inch of their lives is a utopian society where you can live exactly the life you want to.

'But if someone kills someone else?'
'They're slap droned.'
'Ah! This sounds more like it, What does this drone do?'
'Follows you around and makes sure you never do it again.'
'Is that all?'
'What more do you want? Social death, Hamin; you don't get invited to too many parties.'
'Ah; but in your Culture, can't you gatecrash?'
'I suppose so," Gurgeh conceded. "But nobody'd talk to you.'

But for Jernau Morat Gurgeh the boredom is slowly destroying him, he is a player of games, The Player in fact. When the Culture's Special Circumstances branch asks him to travel to a distant Empire to play their incredibly complex and dangerous game he accepts the challenge. This is no ordinary game though, the rulership of the Empire rests upon it's outcome and the stakes are correspondingly high. No-one is too poor to play Azad, you can always bet self-mutilation or offer to amputate something valuable.

One of the things I loved was the names of the spacecraft, the Culture never came to terms with having been involved in the Iridian war and the names reflect this uneasiness.

GCU Flexible Demeanour, GSV Unfortunate Conflict Of Evidence, (D)ROU Zealot, GOU Limiting Factor, GSV Youthful Indiscretion, GSV Little rascal and the fabulous GSV Of Course I Still Love You