In Joseph Knecht’s holograph translation: … Non entia enim licet quodammodo levibusque hominibus facilius atque incuriosius verbis reddere quam entia, veruntamen pio diligentique rerum scriptori plane aliter res se habet: nihil tantum repugnat ne verbis illustretur, at nihil adeo necesse est ante hominum oculos proponere ut certas quasdam res, quas esse neque demonstrari neque probari potest, quae contra eo ipso, quod pii diligentesque viri illas quasi ut entia tractant, enti nascendique facultati paululum appropinquant. THE GLASS BEAD GAME: A GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO ITS HISTORY FOR THE LAYMAN This being the second book by the author for me. I read it and perhaps will read it again some day but so far, I am not hippy enough to enjoy Hesse's writing. The rest of the book is some stories by Knecht which really are short stories. The biography section of the book soon ends. He then takes on the role of teacher of his friends wild son.

Knecht eventually leaves the society and the high position of Magister Ludi when he becomes disillusioned with a society that really is not helping society. The reader is never told how this game works but it involves all knowledge and especially music and mathematics. The men study various subjects and the Glass Bead game links them. Joseph Knecht is the young initiate into the monastic secular life of Castalia. The author received the Nobel probably because of this book in 1946. It also is full of Hesse's interest in Eastern philosophy and Western religion. I don't see the SF part of it but it also can be described as fantasy and fictional biography.

The story is the last by Hermann Hesse and is called a work of Science Fiction.

Set in the future, the 23rd century, I think, the setting is Castalia.

The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse