I just finished The Player of Games by Iain Banks. It is the second book in the Culture series. I chose it because it got good reviews, better ones than the first Culture novel.
The first 100 pages, a third of the novel, weren't great. The protagonist does nothing because ennui is eating him alive. He needs a new game and a good adversary. The rest of the novel is him playing that game for the crown of a galactic empire. That part is more engrossing, but it didn't satisfy the hard sci-fi and space opera fan in me. I'm not sure if I would recommend it or not. Weird.
Next up is The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett and The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells. Other classics.