[theoh]

Just to correct myself: it's Banks's later book Excession which was directly inspired by Civ. The video game hadn't yet been released when "The Player of Games" was published, and I can't provide evidence that Banks was aware of Railroad Tycoon or its predecessor board games.

"Excession" is a good book as well, and appears to draw on email mailing list culture. http://www.tor.com/2015/03/06/on-iain-m-banks-and-the-video-...

[navbaker]

Maybe I was just slow in the uptake, but it took until the end of the book for me to realize the interactions between and lives of the minds were the whole point of the story, not so much the main plot line.