Not my rip - many thanks to original upper on the usenet!

Publisher's Summary

Set in the 23rd century, The Glass Bead Game is the  story of Joseph Knecht, who has been raised in Castalia, which has  provided for the intellectual elite to grow and flourish.

Since  childhood, Knecht has been consumed with mastering the Glass Bead Game,  which requires a synthesis of aesthetics and scientific arts, such as  mathematics, music, logic, and philosophy, which he achieves in  adulthood, becoming a Magister Ludi (Master of the Game).

Audible reader review:

It is the last work of Herman Hesse, and his "Magnum Opus". In some  sense the book is philosophical science-fiction, though there are no  typical elements of sci-fi genre. The author predicts that the period in  human history will come when the knowledge became wide-spread and  popular, with multitude of authors writing multitude of stories. This  period, called "The Age of Feuilleton" was highly individualistic. The  main feature of the age was the passionate search of freedom. At this moment comes the main prophecy of the book. Hesse predicts  that on the ashes of the feuilletonistic age, new movement is born. The  purpose of the order is the cultivation of science and music. The order  cultivates highly elitist structure and its rule is as strong as the  rules of religious orders. It also includes meditation and  contemplation. The culmination of the order achievement is the synthesis  of all sciences and music in an instrument  called "glass bead game". A  game, was a like a symphony but with deep scientific background.  The  main character of the book, Joseph Knecht, after swift carrier, becomes  the chief Glass Bead Game custodian and player. The most of the book is  about his life and his path - first to the order of Castalia, than  through the rungs of the order hierarchy - to the startling decision to  leave the order, and become "awaken" to the everyday life ... Despite the end of the Jospeh Knecht story - Hesse, through the  entire book, demonstrates the admiration to the concept of intellectual  elitism, to the notion of "intellectual order" to the medieval concept  of hierarchical knowledge, well organized, and integrated with the  quintessence of art - with the classical music.