Friday 4 January 2019

Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee


Kel Cheris is a disgraced infantry captain with a knack for mathematics and a tendency to use unconventional tactics. Shuos Jedao is a strategically brilliant general but his hands are stained with the blood of two armies, one of them his own. He's immortal, ruthless, and possibly insane but he has an uncanny ability to win impossible battles. When a vitally important star fortress falls into the hands of heretics, Cheris sees a chance at redemption. If she's to win this battle, she must ally with Jedao but she is entering into a dangerous partnership. Cheris must decide how far she can trust Jedao, and what price she is willing to pay for victory.

Ninefox Gambit is a military science fiction space opera which has been on my backlist for a while. Having finally gotten around to reading it, I'm a little torn about how I feel about this book. Military scifi isn't normally my thing, and if I'm being completely truthful I find prolonged space battles much more interesting on the screen than in books. Also, I found a lot of things in this book annoyingly obscure and I'll admit that I just didn't get some of it. The worldbuilding, while very cool with its fusion of high-tech space empire and classical Asian culture, had a frustrating lack of description, and so by the end of the book I still had no idea what a formation or a cindermoth or a deltaform servitor looked like. They were just words with little meaning. As a result my attention wandered a lot and I was constantly having to go back and reread bits.

That being said, there were parts of Ninefox Gambit that I absolutely loved. Cheris is a sympathetic heroine who is impossibly torn between her loyalty to her troops and the machinations of her superiors. Likewise, Jedao develops into a really intriguing and morally complex character who may be completely mad - or the only clear-eyed person in the empire. The chapters which explore the complex dynamics between the two protagonists were fascinating to read. There's also lots of juicy political intrigue - always a good thing - and hints of an unravelling conspiracy at the very highest levels of the empire.

All in all, Ninefox Gambit is a challenging and inventive military space opera which raises difficult questions about loyalty, sacrifice, and the costs of waging war. 

Recommended For: fans of complex military science fiction with plenty of action, lots of space battles, and intriguing characters

Read On: The next book in the Machineries of Empire trilogy is Raven Stratagem which presumably picks up where Ninefox Gambit left off. Another space opera scifi which explores the personal costs of war is Shards of Honour by Lois McMaster Bujold.

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