title: The Grand Wheel
text: # The Grand Wheel
  
  The Grand Wheel is the eighth science fiction novel by Barrington J. Bayley. The novel follows Cheyne Scarne, a professor of "randomatics", as he is selected by the eponymous organization (which holds a galactic monopoly on games of chance) to represent humanity in a card game with infinitely varying rules. The name of the main character appears to be a reference to John Scarne.
  
  ## Literary significance and reception
  
  Rhys Hughes, in his survey of Bayley's work, described The Grand Wheel as an "entertaining gambling novel" with a "seedy and elegant" atmosphere. Colin Greenland, writing in Foundation 18, received the novel negatively, saying that it had been produced for the market and "would have been old in 1957".
  
  