Name: Ninefox Gambit
ISBN: 9781849979924

Yoon Ha Lee

NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR – NOMINATED FOR THE 2019 HUGO AWARD FOR BEST SERIES – WINNER OF THE 2016 LOCUS AWARD – NOMINATED FOR THE HUGO, NEBULA AND ARTHUR C. CLARKE AWARDS. When Captain Kel Cheris of the hexarchate is disgraced for her unconventional tactics, Kel Command gives her a chance to redeem herself, by retaking the Fortress of Scattered Needles from the heretics. Cheris’s career isn’t the only thing at stake: if the fortress falls, the hexarchate itself might be next. Cheris’s best hope is to ally with the undead tactician Shuos Jedao. The good news is that Jedao has never lost a battle, and he may be the only one who can figure out how to successfully besiege the fortress. The bad news is that Jedao went mad in his first life and massacred two armies, one of them his own. As the siege wears on, Cheris must decide how far she can trust Jedao–because she might be his next victim.

Ninefox Gambit

altlovesbooks

Hokay, I've sat on this review long enough. I finished the audiobook for this book yesterday, and I've been sitting here ever since trying to figure out how to rate this book. I feel like this is a book that you'll either find intriguing enough to want to continue, or you'll bounce off hard before you get started. This is a long review, so buckle in.

We meet the book's protagonist, Captain Kel Cheris, neck deep in keeping her troops alive capturing some point of interest for her command. The Kel as a whole (for "Kel" in Cheris' name indicates the society in which she was born, raised, and developed under) are very regimented, very militaristic, conditioned to react instantly to formation changes (orders, for lack of a better word) that were developed generations ago. Cheris herself is an incredible mathematician, something valued in this universe where math and mathematical calculations basically rules everything. Without getting too far into the weeds as to what calendrical society is, math governs the laws of nature, and the main struggle of this book is against a heretical order bent on pushing their own calendrical society and, essentially, rewriting the fabric of the universe as a result. 

Still with me? 

So Kel Cheris, by merit of being an incredibly good mathematician, gets an infamous strategist kept in cold storage (again, simplified) for hundreds of years implanted in her brain by Kel scientists and given a promotion allowing her to command several ships worth of people/servitors in order to combat this heresy. This infamous strategist is known for some evil things he did when he was alive, and they implanted him in Cheris' brain to augment her natural abilities with his. There's a bit of Cheris x Jedao tension there if you're looking for it, and Jedao himself shows some bisexual tendencies as well, which I thought was a nice touch.

This was a challenging book to read, not because of the topic necessarily, but the way things were integrated to carry the reader along. There's not a lot of hand-holding with respect to questions of "what does ______ mean?", and often I found myself shrugging my shoulders, assigning some arbitrary "x does y" meaning to it, and moving on. The ship names, the abilities, the station names, are very much "word salad", in that aside from being pretty and poetic, mean very little. I'm kind of in love with the pictures words and names like "Fortress of Scattered Needles", "Fortress of Spinshot Coins", "invariant ice", and ship names like "Unspoken Law" and "Sincere Greeting" conjured in my head while reading. I also recognize that this isn't everyone's cup of tea, and if you get hung up on what exactly some terminology means without explicit descriptions, you might have a bad time. 

I struggled in the beginning until I basically just let the book happen, and then I enjoyed it immensely. This strikes me as one of those series where things make more sense the further in you get, and then if you go back and re-read, you'll get even more out of it. Really glad to have stuck with this, and I look forward to reading more in this series.

Captain Kel Cheris of the hexarchate is disgraced for using unconventional methods in a battle against heretics. Kel Command gives her the opportunity to redeem herself by retaking the Fortress of Scattered Needles, a star fortress that has recently been captured by heretics. Cheris's career isn't the only thing at stake. If the fortress falls, the hexarchate itself might be next. Cheris's best hope is to ally with the undead tactician Shuos Jedao. The good news is that Jedao has never lost a battle, and he may be the only one who can figure out how to successfully besiege the fortress. The bad news is that Jedao went mad in his first life and massacred two armies, one of them his own. As the siege wears on, Cheris must decide how far she can trust Jedao--because she might be his next victim.

Ninefox gambit

Gillian Rose

A really tight sci-fi adventure. Lots of humor and fun characters. Can't wait to dive more into this world.

Becky A

What a strange and interesting book. There are a lot of neat concepts in here, though few of them are actually every explained (and especially toward the beginning the level of technobabble is off the charts); the pacing is a bit wonky. But the further into the story you get, the more compelling it is and by the end I was dying for book two, which is always a good sign.

Ryan LaFerney

First in the Machineries of Empire series, Ninefox Gambit tells the story of Kel Cheris, a captain in the hexarchate who has been disgraced for “heretical tactics” during a battle. Knowing that there is a price that must be paid for going against her superiors, Cheris is prepared to accept the inevitable – but what she receives is not what she expected. Instead of punishment, she is given an incredibly prestigious assignment: to take back the impenetrable Fortress of Scattered Needles, which has recently fallen under heretic control. However, this is a big operation, and it is clear that Cheris cannot do this alone. So she is given a partner in the form of Shuos Jedao: a brilliant tactician famous for never having lost a battle, but notorious as a madman who massacred an opposing army – and his own. And as the siege wears on and they spend more time together, Cheris begins to wonder if all that she knows about Jedao is actually true – and if such questions are not a sign of her own, impending madness.

 That’s the pitch. However, you have to be ready for the hard drop into deeply alien territory.
What I have come to find is you really have to be in the right frame of mind to read this one. Because Yoon Ha Lee does not hold your hand. 

Ninefox Gambit takes place in a complicated and well-thought-out world (although it is slightly confusing at first), where calendars, religion and formations combine to produce magic-like effects used in warfare (and factions battle it out in living space ships). Math is a part of the world, but you are not going to be hit with equations (don't think too hard about it or it will make your head hurt). Instead, you are shown an unfolding and highly political world of different factions (think the houses of Dune), where religion is enforced to create military superiority, and the 'grunts' of the military have an enforced group-mind.
The main characters Cheris and Jedao are brilliantly imagined characters and really, although Ninefox Gambit is full of space battles, strange numerology, living space ships, etc. it's the character interaction between these two characters that make this book really shine and provides food for thought regarding identity, gender issues, and conformity. 
 
 
In Ninefox, Lee is playing with the idea of consensus reality — of a techno-political system that relies on rigid belief in order to function. Which, more specifically, requires near-religious (actually super-religious) adherence to a calendar: A numerical system which can be manipulated to alter reality. Our main character, Cheris is paired up with Jedao to destroy the heretics - the ones who don’t adhere to the hexarchte calendar. Yet, this very pairing leads Cheris to question her own belief system and revolt. And in the end:

“[Cheris] had learned that not all masters were worth serving.”

Cheris, by the end of the novel, can’t agree with the consensus reality. And it’s their break with such a reality that catapults us into book two of the series, which I can’t wait to read.
A brilliantly realized, fresh, take on military space opera. Both human and utterly alien. 

A book worth revisiting.

This was excellent. This will contain spoilers.

Set in a universe whose laws of physics are shaped by public opinion, "heretical" thinking that goes against the rules set by those controlling the "high calendar" is severely punished. After all, if enough people stop conforming to the social order and convention set by the government the unstable universe will reshape itself into something _other_. Needless to say the government needs to keep everyone in line mentally to not fall apart. 

Enter Kel Cheris. The Kel are a faction of the hexarchate focused on war and blowing things up. Kel individuals are nicknamed "suicide hawks" and are imprinted with a formation instinct, which allows higher ranked Kel to easily manipulate their troops in battle to achieve various "exotic" effects according to the fluid laws of the universe. For example, there are shield formations, attack formations, and the first discovered formation: the suicide formation.  Kel Cheris is disgraced after using a heretical formation in a battle on a planet overrun by a group of heretics. Approved calendrical formations would not work, since the laws of physics on the planet had been manipulated by the heretics, so she had to improvise.   

Cheris is given a chance to redeem herself by the hexarchate: she is to team up with a 400 year old "ghost" named Shuos Jedao to win back the Fortress of Scattered Needles from a much larger and much more dangerous group of heretics. The place is protected by "invariant ice", which means it is not affected by the fluid laws of the universe. It's pretty much an impossible task - but maybe not for Jedao, who is an amazing strategist and manipulator who has never lost a battle. The Shuos faction loves games, and Jedao is especially good at the kinds of games you need in a war. Jedao was convincing people to kill themselves before formation instinct even existed.  

The problem is, 400 years ago Shuos Jedao went from being the star of the at-that-time-heptarchate (before they killed off a faction) to a madman on a murderous rampage, killing his entire swarm etc etc. Because Jedao had never lost a battle, the heptarchate did not just kill him: they stuck his ghost/soul/consciousness? into the black cradle and parade him out for important missions that they need some crazy to win. They basically attach him to an "anchor" (in this case Cheris) and the anchor walks around with him inside his/her head for the duration of the mission.   

Jedao is an amazing tactician, but he is lacking in math skills. Math (well, the futuristic fantasy math we are working with in this universe) is the key to figuring out and using the laws of this universe (the hexarchate has an entire faction dedicated to just producing mathematicians). Cheris happens to be great at math - she was encouraged to go into the mathematician faction but wanted to become a suicide hawk instead. The government figures with Chreis' math skills and Jedao's tactician skills in one place, this may be their only way to win back the Fortress of Scattered Needles.  

But Jedao has his own plans, and he is very good at manipulating people. The book, aside from the epic space battles, is all about an internal power struggle between these two characters - Cheris has to figure out a way to use Jedao to win the fortress and at the same time not let him drive her literally insane and have her go on a rampage like the one he had 400 years ago.  It was an amazing book. The only thing that worries me a little going forward through the series is that at the end:

When Cheris eats the Carrion glass shards, she and Jedao seem to become pretty much one consciousness instead of two separate entities. It seems like we may now be dealing with Jedao in Kel Cheris' body vs Kel Cheris and Jedao in Kel Cheris' body going forward into the next book. This is unfortunate if so, since one of my favorite parts of the book was the tumultuous relationship between these two distinct entities. 

Liza 

This was excellent. This will contain spoilers.

Set in a universe whose laws of physics are shaped by public opinion, "heretical" thinking that goes against the rules set by those controlling the "high calendar" is severely punished. After all, if enough people stop conforming to the social order and convention set by the government the unstable universe will reshape itself into something _other_. Needless to say the government needs to keep everyone in line mentally to not fall apart. 

Enter Kel Cheris. The Kel are a faction of the hexarchate focused on war and blowing things up. Kel individuals are nicknamed "suicide hawks" and are imprinted with a formation instinct, which allows higher ranked Kel to easily manipulate their troops in battle to achieve various "exotic" effects according to the fluid laws of the universe. For example, there are shield formations, attack formations, and the first discovered formation: the suicide formation.  Kel Cheris is disgraced after using a heretical formation in a battle on a planet overrun by a group of heretics. Approved calendrical formations would not work, since the laws of physics on the planet had been manipulated by the heretics, so she had to improvise.   

Cheris is given a chance to redeem herself by the hexarchate: she is to team up with a 400 year old "ghost" named Shuos Jedao to win back the Fortress of Scattered Needles from a much larger and much more dangerous group of heretics. The place is protected by "invariant ice", which means it is not affected by the fluid laws of the universe. It's pretty much an impossible task - but maybe not for Jedao, who is an amazing strategist and manipulator who has never lost a battle. The Shuos faction loves games, and Jedao is especially good at the kinds of games you need in a war. Jedao was convincing people to kill themselves before formation instinct even existed.  

The problem is, 400 years ago Shuos Jedao went from being the star of the at-that-time-heptarchate (before they killed off a faction) to a madman on a murderous rampage, killing his entire swarm etc etc. Because Jedao had never lost a battle, the heptarchate did not just kill him: they stuck his ghost/soul/consciousness? into the black cradle and parade him out for important missions that they need some crazy to win. They basically attach him to an "anchor" (in this case Cheris) and the anchor walks around with him inside his/her head for the duration of the mission.   

Jedao is an amazing tactician, but he is lacking in math skills. Math (well, the futuristic fantasy math we are working with in this universe) is the key to figuring out and using the laws of this universe (the hexarchate has an entire faction dedicated to just producing mathematicians). Cheris happens to be great at math - she was encouraged to go into the mathematician faction but wanted to become a suicide hawk instead. The government figures with Chreis' math skills and Jedao's tactician skills in one place, this may be their only way to win back the Fortress of Scattered Needles.  

But Jedao has his own plans, and he is very good at manipulating people. The book, aside from the epic space battles, is all about an internal power struggle between these two characters - Cheris has to figure out a way to use Jedao to win the fortress and at the same time not let him drive her literally insane and have her go on a rampage like the one he had 400 years ago.  It was an amazing book. The only thing that worries me a little going forward through the series is that at the end:

***SPOILER***

When Cheris eats the Carrion glass shards, she and Jedao seem to become pretty much one consciousness instead of two separate entities. It seems like we may now be dealing with Jedao in Kel Cheris' body vs Kel Cheris and Jedao in Kel Cheris' body going forward into the next book. This is unfortunate if so, since one of my favorite parts of the book was the tumultuous relationship between these two distinct entities. 

***END SPOILER***



Sheila

Holy BALLS this sci-fi is hard as FUCK & has 0 mercy, I love it. If the 1st chapter doesn't drown you, you'll be able to embrace the brilliance of this series opener. I knew this book had me when I took a nap and began to dream that I was experiencing the effects of calendrical rot...

Cannot wait for the next book coming out next summer! This book keeps you guessing, & I'm willing to bet we'll be guessing until the very last page of this series! Respect this mad genius.

Barry Hess

This wasn’t for me. I basically never knew what was going on for the whole book. I’m not sure why I stuck with it!

Maggie Delano

Kaitee Tredway

This is another book that took me a while to crack into — some of the world rules left my head spinning. I felt a little off balance most of the time, which I thought was brilliant given the situation of the main character.

Read as part of BookRiots read harder 2020 challenge

Paige Green

Rating: 1/5

Recommended Age: 18+

Favorite quote: none. DNF-ed


Cheris is a Captain of the Kel. When she decides to make unconventional decisions during battle, she becomes disgraced by her people. She has one chance to redeem herself: take control of the Fortress of Scattered Needles from the heretics. If the fortress completely falls, the whole hexarchate might be next. Her best chance of winning lies in relying on a man named Jedao who is undead. He has never lost a battle... But he did kill his whole command once. Can Cheris trust him and his unconventional ways to win this war?

This book is an excellent example of good writing and the book did something I often wonder about when I read other sci fi books: it creates its own calendar and time keeping system. Unfortunately that's the only things the book did good in my opinion. I'm really sorry, but I did not like this book. It was like I was missing the first 4 chapters of the book. I had no idea what was going on or what these names or things meant. I spent the whole book guessing the meaning behind people's words. I made it to about 100 pages left in the book before I finally had to give up. At that point in the book, random characters were being introduced without proper explanation or being mentioned again in the future. If you had to ask me what I believed was happening when I stopped reading, I'd have to honestly say I didn't know. 

Don't let my review sway you to not try this book. I am not a voice for everyone and because I couldn't get into a book doesn't mean you won't be able to. This book is an excellent sci fi war book and to someone who can understand what is happening in this book, I bet this would be the best book ever.

Ben Nathan

This is a did not finish "review". I don't put down books that I start. Basically never. One chapter in and I couldn't continue because I was constantly saying to myself "this is awful, but the whole hugo thing means it has to be pretty good right?" Well, it sucks. The writing is stodgy. It's military sci-fi (which is my least favorite type) and terribly written. I was not a fan of the Ancillary thing and this was just a much much much worse version that epitomized all my least favorite parts of that. Awful. If I could negative star it, I would.

Bryan Alexander

Military science fiction has been an active subgenre for the past couple of decades. Actually, it really took off in the 1980s, and continued to rampage along, sometimes connecting with other genres (suspense, Tom Clancy-style military fiction). I dip into it from time to time, partly for my professional futures work, and sometimes under prodding from my son.

Ninefox Gambit is a pleasing addition to this subgenre. Not only does it offer what readers expect from military stories (war, weapons, characters at their limits, etc.), but the novel situates a war story in a very bizarre and intriguing world. 

Yoon Ha Lee has been writing short stories in this world for a while, and only now turned out a novel therein. The world is a far future space opera, where humanity has colonized the stars. Like most space operas there is a massive political order, here the Hexarchate, a complex tyranny based on using advanced science to control space and people. Said science is based on using math to control spacetime, I think, in a system called "calendrical". 

Ninefox Gambit concerns a calendrical heresy -a rebellion - which has seized a massive space fort and threatened the hexarchate. Our protagonist is a lower-level officer suddenly given the opportunity to retake the fortification. Cheris is a rare person in this world, a skilled soldier and brilliant mathematician. For this mission she is equipped with a kind of ghost, a recorded personality of a notorious general, who will advise her to victory.

One of the pleasures of the book is seeing the plot gently reveal the world. Lee is very careful not to infodump, and instead to offer sketches, hints, and glimpses of the hexarchate. Indeed, by the conclusion much is still mysterious. I'm not sure how calendrical power works, or what some of the ruling system does. But I couldn't help reading on to learn more.

The world is dark enough to be a dystopia. Democracy is unknown to the present day (198). Ritual remembrance days celebrate and/or enact torture (208). Injury and death are commonplace, and not just among the military branch.

Lee also partakes of the grand science fiction game of world-building through changed language and evocative names. Listen to these words and phrases: moth drives and cindermoths. The threshold winnower. Catastrophe guns. Abrogation sieves. A neglect cannon. Amputation guns. A town called the City of Ravens Feasting, and a building known as the Hall of Stochastic Longings. Without explicating them, the text gestures straight through our imaginations with such delicious language.

This is a novel capable of great precision in language. For example, notice how much gets crammed into the opening paragraph, and with what craft:At Kel Academy, an instructor had explained to Cheris's class that the threshold winnower was a weapon of last resort, and not just for its notorious connotations. Said instructor had once witnessed a winnower in use. The detail that stuck in Cheris's head wasn't the part where every door in the besieged city exhaled radiation that baked the inhabitants dead. It wasn't the weapon's governing equations or even the instructor's left eye, damaged from the attack, from which ghostlight glimmered.There's a host of strange terms, throwing us into another world. There's the military setting. There's horror, verging on the Gothic (ghostlight, mutilation). Stylistically, I enjoyed the in media res move, and also some of the tone and rhythm. Notice the repetition of "winnower", echoed in sound by "witnessed" and "weapon", setting us up for entropy if not dread. Note, too, the repeated negations (not, wasn't, it wasn't).

Then see how Lee carries on in the next sentences:What Cheris remembered most was the instructor's aside: that returning to corpses were only corpses, rather than radiation gates contorted against black-blasted walls and glassy rubble, eyes ruptured open, was one of the best moments of her life.More classic military tropes: destruction, the rush in war. More horror. And now we have assertions to oppose the preceding paragraph's negations... and they aren't happy ones.

The novel often has well-crafted paragraphs like this. Some are leavened by what I think of as a fun sense of humor, but I know others will think of as grim or bleak comedy:
...the unceasing silvered reflections, the eyeless spaces, the syncopated lights made her tense. Well, shooting people could be relaxing, if you shot the right people. (307)Naraucher liked parades. Everything could go wrong, but when you got down to it, no one was going to die. Except that one time with the combustible pigeon,
 and that had been a tasteless prank. (241)
I did find the plot stalling out around the 60% point, as key developments had occurred (he said, avoiding spoilers), and others entered a grinding phrase. The end answered some mysteries, but not powerfully. 

That said, this is my favorite Hugo/Nebula nominee for 2017.