In "The Player of Games" by Iain M. Banks, the protagonist comes across a recent entertainment that sparks his interest despite its seemingly ridiculous premise. It revolves around a planet inhabited by intelligent glaciers and their offspring, the iceberg children. Initially, he anticipates finding the concept foolish, yet he discovers an unexpected charm in it that captivates his imagination.

This newfound amusement leads him to develop a game inspired by the glaciers' abilities to manipulate their forms. He envisions a playful scenario where players could extract minerals from rocks and reshape landscapes by liquefying and re-freezing the glaciers, leading to intriguing dynamics involving the destruction and creation of natural features like mountains and rivers.