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The Machineries of Empire #2
Raven Stratagem
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Readers' Favorite Science Fiction (2017)When the hexarchate's gifted young captain Kel Cheris summoned the ghost of the long-dead General Shuos Jedao to help her put down a rebellion, she didn't reckon on his breaking free of centuries of imprisonment - and possessing her. Even worse, the enemy Hafn are invading, and Jedao takes over General Kel Khiruev's fleet, which was tasked with stopping them. Only one of Khiruev's subordinates, Lieutenant Colonel Kel Brezan, seems to be able to resist the influence of the brilliant but psychotic Jedao. Jedao claims to be interested in defending the hexarchate, but can Khiruev or Brezan trust him? For that matter, will the hexarchate's masters wipe out the entire fleet to destroy the rogue general?
355 pages, Paperback
First published June 13, 2017
602 people are currently reading
7522 people want to read
About the author
Yoon Ha Lee
206 books2,055 followersYoon Ha Lee is an American science fiction writer born on January 26, 1979 in Houston, Texas. His first published story, “The Hundredth Question,” appeared in Fantasy & Science Fiction in 1999; since then, over two dozen further stories have appeared. He lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,041 reviews
April 10, 2018
Re-read 4/10/18:
I have no complaints about my previous review. :) I enjoyed it just as much and just want to add one thing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ-v9...
Original review:
Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC!
I think it's safe to say that I'm a fanboy of this writer. I was blown away by the flashy greatness of the first novel, the quantum-perception nature of a whole society versus other whole societies, and especially the absolute craziness of having an undead general in your brain to help you fight impossible battles in space.
This one continues in that same vein, but it does so with a heavy dose of mystery and sadness and three other viewpoints while all eyes are focused on the resurrected General who's dead set on taking on absolutely everyone.
Continue the campaign? No problem. Do it over your dead bodies? No problem. Do it even when the people who thought they had him on a leash now just want him dead at all costs except for the one that says he's taking care of their enemies for them so why not let him continue on for just a bit longer? No problem.
Of course, the novel becomes a long exercise in truly scary mind-control loyalty games and the introduction of a long-term strategy to accompany the most brilliant tactician anyone has ever seen.
And perhaps the overthrow of the Calendar. Oohhhhh!!! THE HERESY!
Honestly, this one doesn't require as much effort to learn new things as the first one does. It does, however, suffer a little bit with the middle-book-syndrome. I'm also not quite sure I like the direction the end took, but the middle reveals were freaking fantastic.
And best of all... relieved.
There was a bit of difficult tension I had to go through while reading this, and it's all story and character. It had me almost in tears.
Now how in the world am I going to wait for the third book?
I have no complaints about my previous review. :) I enjoyed it just as much and just want to add one thing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ-v9...
Original review:
Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC!
I think it's safe to say that I'm a fanboy of this writer. I was blown away by the flashy greatness of the first novel, the quantum-perception nature of a whole society versus other whole societies, and especially the absolute craziness of having an undead general in your brain to help you fight impossible battles in space.
This one continues in that same vein, but it does so with a heavy dose of mystery and sadness and three other viewpoints while all eyes are focused on the resurrected General who's dead set on taking on absolutely everyone.
Continue the campaign? No problem. Do it over your dead bodies? No problem. Do it even when the people who thought they had him on a leash now just want him dead at all costs except for the one that says he's taking care of their enemies for them so why not let him continue on for just a bit longer? No problem.
Of course, the novel becomes a long exercise in truly scary mind-control loyalty games and the introduction of a long-term strategy to accompany the most brilliant tactician anyone has ever seen.
And perhaps the overthrow of the Calendar. Oohhhhh!!! THE HERESY!
Honestly, this one doesn't require as much effort to learn new things as the first one does. It does, however, suffer a little bit with the middle-book-syndrome. I'm also not quite sure I like the direction the end took, but the middle reveals were freaking fantastic.
And best of all... relieved.
There was a bit of difficult tension I had to go through while reading this, and it's all story and character. It had me almost in tears.
Now how in the world am I going to wait for the third book?
May 25, 2018
I liked this significantly more than the first installment. It may have been a combination of listening to it on audio and it being much more character focused. I do still find myself not following the plot at points and losing interest, but not as much as book 1.
July 16, 2017
4ish stars.
An improvement in all areas on the already impressive Ninefox Gambit, reading this makes me glad I gave a second chance to NG. The POV characters are much more interesting and relevant, the pacing is much more consistent and the prose is just as military-grade immaculate.
This is expansive, unprecedented military space opera done right. If that sounds like your jam, go ahead and spread it on thick. If you're like me and feel intimidated or if it just isn't your preferred genre, give it a try (or two) anyway. There are enough payoffs by the end to make it worthwhile.
Something I continue to struggle with is that, while the idea worldbuilding is incredible, the physical worldbuilding leaves me floating somewhere in the middle of hexarchate space. I have a really hard time visualizing a lot of what goes on and there's not much physical description to help me out.
Otherwise a great sequel without a hint of "middle book" syndrome in sight.
Posted in Mr. Philip's Library
An improvement in all areas on the already impressive Ninefox Gambit, reading this makes me glad I gave a second chance to NG. The POV characters are much more interesting and relevant, the pacing is much more consistent and the prose is just as military-grade immaculate.
This is expansive, unprecedented military space opera done right. If that sounds like your jam, go ahead and spread it on thick. If you're like me and feel intimidated or if it just isn't your preferred genre, give it a try (or two) anyway. There are enough payoffs by the end to make it worthwhile.
Something I continue to struggle with is that, while the idea worldbuilding is incredible, the physical worldbuilding leaves me floating somewhere in the middle of hexarchate space. I have a really hard time visualizing a lot of what goes on and there's not much physical description to help me out.
Otherwise a great sequel without a hint of "middle book" syndrome in sight.
Posted in Mr. Philip's Library
June 13, 2017
Extended Review at https://1000yearplan.com/2017/05/17/r...
I must admit I was shocked and a little disappointed when I got through the first chapter of Raven Stratagem. Not because it was bad, mind you; it was just that my memory of the first chapter of Ninefox Gambit – which unceremoniously barrel kicks you into a huge flaming pit of WHAT-THE-F***-IS-THIS – was still fresh in my mind nearly a year later. Compared to that, the kickoff for Raven Stratagem is just so damned conventional: setup and action clearly explained! Characters and their place in the story established! Wall-to-wall info-dumping! Yoon Ha Lee – WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?!
Before long though, this second dip into the world of the Hexarchate gives the people what they want –the exotic weaponry, the surreal settings and space battles, the impossibly perfect prose. The story follows three characters on a collision course with the dangerously insane and freshly unleashed General Jedao and his plans for upending the “perfect” order of the Hexarchate’s empire. The primer that the first chapter provides turns out to be a wise choice: while Ninefox Gambit was a “storm the castle” narrative that boiled over with madcap action and biting humor, Raven Stratagem is more tightly focused on its main players and the toll that the broadcast of the high calendar exacts on their daily lives. A clear understanding of the concepts and contexts introduced in Ninefox Gambit is essential to any reading of Raven Stratagem.
A sequel – especially one for such an unconventional and original work like Ninefox Gambit – necessarily loses the ability to knock you out of your chair like the first one did. But that doesn’t mean it can’t still catch you off guard. With Raven Stratagem, Yoon Ha Lee continued to hold this reader in sway with his perfect balance of heady ideas and pulpy space opera thrills.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with this ARC.
I must admit I was shocked and a little disappointed when I got through the first chapter of Raven Stratagem. Not because it was bad, mind you; it was just that my memory of the first chapter of Ninefox Gambit – which unceremoniously barrel kicks you into a huge flaming pit of WHAT-THE-F***-IS-THIS – was still fresh in my mind nearly a year later. Compared to that, the kickoff for Raven Stratagem is just so damned conventional: setup and action clearly explained! Characters and their place in the story established! Wall-to-wall info-dumping! Yoon Ha Lee – WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?!
Before long though, this second dip into the world of the Hexarchate gives the people what they want –the exotic weaponry, the surreal settings and space battles, the impossibly perfect prose. The story follows three characters on a collision course with the dangerously insane and freshly unleashed General Jedao and his plans for upending the “perfect” order of the Hexarchate’s empire. The primer that the first chapter provides turns out to be a wise choice: while Ninefox Gambit was a “storm the castle” narrative that boiled over with madcap action and biting humor, Raven Stratagem is more tightly focused on its main players and the toll that the broadcast of the high calendar exacts on their daily lives. A clear understanding of the concepts and contexts introduced in Ninefox Gambit is essential to any reading of Raven Stratagem.
A sequel – especially one for such an unconventional and original work like Ninefox Gambit – necessarily loses the ability to knock you out of your chair like the first one did. But that doesn’t mean it can’t still catch you off guard. With Raven Stratagem, Yoon Ha Lee continued to hold this reader in sway with his perfect balance of heady ideas and pulpy space opera thrills.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with this ARC.
March 20, 2021
4.5 Stars
This is one of those fantastic cases where the second book was even better than the first! I really enjoyed Ninefox Gambit, but I absolutely loved Raven Stratagem.
Compared to the first book, this sequel felt much more accessible. The story and character motivations were just more clearly explained. I am now also have a strong grasp how the politics, mathematics and calendar system relate to the larger worldbuilding, which certainly helped.
The best aspect of this second book was the characters. This second book introduced several new perspectives and I honestly loved reading from all of them. Jadeo remains my absolute favourite, but all the characters were wonderfully complex, flawed, and quirky.
Everyone talks about the complexity of this series, but no one mentions how funny it can be. despite the high stakes and serious consequences, there was a lot of good humour in this book and I found it a throughly entertaining reading experience.
Needless to say, I would highly recommend this series to any science fiction reader. I am jumping straight into the third book because I am so excited to see how this trilogy will wrap up.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher, Rebellion Publishing.
This is one of those fantastic cases where the second book was even better than the first! I really enjoyed Ninefox Gambit, but I absolutely loved Raven Stratagem.
Compared to the first book, this sequel felt much more accessible. The story and character motivations were just more clearly explained. I am now also have a strong grasp how the politics, mathematics and calendar system relate to the larger worldbuilding, which certainly helped.
The best aspect of this second book was the characters. This second book introduced several new perspectives and I honestly loved reading from all of them. Jadeo remains my absolute favourite, but all the characters were wonderfully complex, flawed, and quirky.
Everyone talks about the complexity of this series, but no one mentions how funny it can be. despite the high stakes and serious consequences, there was a lot of good humour in this book and I found it a throughly entertaining reading experience.
Needless to say, I would highly recommend this series to any science fiction reader. I am jumping straight into the third book because I am so excited to see how this trilogy will wrap up.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher, Rebellion Publishing.
July 9, 2017
After the events of Ninefox Gambit, the undead and possibly mad general Shuos Jedao is free and possessing the body of Kel Cheris. Rather than immediately seek revenge on the hexarchs for his time in the black cradle, Jedao takes a Kel Swarm and leads it in a defense of the hexarchate against an incursion of the Hafn. Meanwhile the Shuos hexarch Mikodez watches in horror as the other hexarchs make a bid for immortality, condemning the hexarchate to a potential eternal rule of their insanity.
This book takes a leisurely path through it's plot via Jedao-as-Cheris and the Kel Khiruev, the general in charge of the Kel swarm, Shuos Mikodez, his brother Istradez and his second-in-command Shuos Zehun and Kel Brezan, a crashhawk Kel who is able to resist the formation instinct that forces the Kel Swarm to fall in line behind Jedao. There's a few other viewpoint characters that add some welcome flavor including a young Mwennin girl (Cheris is a Mwennin) and the immortal hexarch Nirai Kujen.
This book makes an interesting contrast with the first book. One of the key elements of that one is the insane first couple of chapters where the reader struggles to understand what's going on and how this world works. This book doesn't have that, but instead the key question for the reader is the one that the hexarchs have to keep asking: what is Jedao, both Shuos and Kel to the core, really up to?
Another aspect that the first book has is pacing issues around the middle of the book, which this book is thankfully free of. In fact, it's a cracking read throughout with a beautifully multilayered plot and wonderful characterization.
One final note is regarding that dreaded middle book problem that trilogies often have. This is not the case here; in fact, it was with some surprise that I found out that this is a trilogy as this book wraps things up pretty well.
This book takes a leisurely path through it's plot via Jedao-as-Cheris and the Kel Khiruev, the general in charge of the Kel swarm, Shuos Mikodez, his brother Istradez and his second-in-command Shuos Zehun and Kel Brezan, a crashhawk Kel who is able to resist the formation instinct that forces the Kel Swarm to fall in line behind Jedao. There's a few other viewpoint characters that add some welcome flavor including a young Mwennin girl (Cheris is a Mwennin) and the immortal hexarch Nirai Kujen.
This book makes an interesting contrast with the first book. One of the key elements of that one is the insane first couple of chapters where the reader struggles to understand what's going on and how this world works. This book doesn't have that, but instead the key question for the reader is the one that the hexarchs have to keep asking: what is Jedao, both Shuos and Kel to the core, really up to?
Another aspect that the first book has is pacing issues around the middle of the book, which this book is thankfully free of. In fact, it's a cracking read throughout with a beautifully multilayered plot and wonderful characterization.
One final note is regarding that dreaded middle book problem that trilogies often have. This is not the case here; in fact, it was with some surprise that I found out that this is a trilogy as this book wraps things up pretty well.
May 16, 2017
A terrific space opera from an emerging talent who is already in the running in this year’s Hugo Awards for the first entry in this trilogy, Ninefox Gambit. I will have to go back and read that, but I couldn’t resist the opportunity of supping on this one through Netgalley. I had to catch up fast on the setting here, a large interstellar system of planets with faster-than-light travel and governed by six factions, the Hexarchate. Each group of the ruling confederate has areas of specialty in the power politics at large, which relates to divergences in their biology, religion, technological innovation, and military among their various star systems. It was a bit hard to keep track of, but the challenge was eased by the book’s focus on characters from two of the six, the Kel and the Shuos, with the former masters of military warfare and the latter of industry, espionage, and cut-throat political maneuvering. The political intrigue and military action, as well as the creative adaptations of technology that Lee pulls off, should satisfy many fans of space opera. A caveat is that a lot of the action is at the leader and general level, missing out on the realism and edge of the grunt soldier’s perspective. Also, the workings of the exotic technology put into play (such as weapons the warp the laws of physics and relative rates of time or ones that “winnow” a massive field of space to bits or atoms perhaps) is usually quite sketchy in terms of justification, leaving it close to magic. Instead of information dumps about technology, we get diversions into the quirky habits and hobbies of the four main characters. More than anything, this book is concerned with the psychology and intersections of a set of four likeable characters with big significance for the fate of humanity is under external threat from aliens and internal threat from within the Hexarchate.
In a thrilling kickoff for the book, we are placed in the middle of a momentous action in the fleet of military spacecraft sent out by the Kel to fight an invading alien fleet from a neighboring part of the galaxy, the Hafn. Aboard the flagship an officer comes aboard and takes charge by virtue of demonstrating himself to be the incarnated personality of infamous General Jedao in the body of female Captain Cheris. Because I didn’t know Cheris as a main character in the first book, I was easily lulled into forgetting the potential contribution of her personality to the hybrid commander. The existing female commander, General Khiruev, knows Jedao’s reputation both as a Shous who proved successful as a Kel general in tough campaigns for the confederacy and as an insane commander who sacrificed a large body of men and murdered officers hundreds of years ago in a dodgy suicidal action to win one war. Her first instinct is to shut Jedao down, but as the Kel are biological programmed somehow to follow all orders of superiors (called “formation instinct”), she must struggle hard to even consider actions of a treasonous nature. The set-up of Jedao in power of an independent fleet and Khiruev always wavering between supporting his genius and intervening to head off some disaster from his madness the latter makes for a fascinating interplay throughout the book and leads to an elegant surprise by the end.
The other two main characters are equally compelling and colorful in their own way and also critical to the future of humanity. One is the Shuos Hexarch, Mikodez, whom I love because of the vigor of his enjoyment of the perks of his decades at the top and of the management of his webs of power, all the while keeping sane by gardening and mentally jousting with his brother and his spymaster. While some of Mikodez sexual proclivities can turn anyone’s stomach, his solid insights on what’s really going on propels our little glimmers of enlightenment. He is less concerned about the invading Hafn than about the portentious disappearance of the Naija Hexarch, who not long ago accomplished immortality by some feat of bioengineering science their faction excels at. If that capability is not threat enough to the balance of power, the Naijan’s mastery of something termed calendrical mathematics and temporal physics that allows them to dominate in the setting of the Hexarchate’s adherence to a mysterious system that, if changed, could affect the special powers of the various Hexarch factions. The fourth character, Brexan, is a former executive officer of Khireuv who gets tapped by Kel Command to assist in the takeover of the fleet from Jedao. He is refreshing because of his balance of no-nonsense pragmatism, sardonic humor, and audacious bravery somewhat in the vein of Bruce Willis in the “Die Hard” movies. Like all good soldiers he knows when to take his pleasures now, for tomorrow we may die. In this case the pleasures being the bed of his assigned partner on the quest, an elegant tiger of a woman of the Anadan faction skilled at diplomacy, seduction, and assassination.
While some books in a series leave you on a cliffhanger, this one was fair at reaching a decent plateau for the wait for the closing volume. The mystery behind the missing Naijan Hexarch and prospects of changes to the calendric physics of the galaxy and power of the other Hexarchs remain as big unresolved plot elements. I still have the first volume to happily backtrack with. Definitely a fun ride.
This book was provided for review by the publisher through the Netgalley program.
In a thrilling kickoff for the book, we are placed in the middle of a momentous action in the fleet of military spacecraft sent out by the Kel to fight an invading alien fleet from a neighboring part of the galaxy, the Hafn. Aboard the flagship an officer comes aboard and takes charge by virtue of demonstrating himself to be the incarnated personality of infamous General Jedao in the body of female Captain Cheris. Because I didn’t know Cheris as a main character in the first book, I was easily lulled into forgetting the potential contribution of her personality to the hybrid commander. The existing female commander, General Khiruev, knows Jedao’s reputation both as a Shous who proved successful as a Kel general in tough campaigns for the confederacy and as an insane commander who sacrificed a large body of men and murdered officers hundreds of years ago in a dodgy suicidal action to win one war. Her first instinct is to shut Jedao down, but as the Kel are biological programmed somehow to follow all orders of superiors (called “formation instinct”), she must struggle hard to even consider actions of a treasonous nature. The set-up of Jedao in power of an independent fleet and Khiruev always wavering between supporting his genius and intervening to head off some disaster from his madness the latter makes for a fascinating interplay throughout the book and leads to an elegant surprise by the end.
The other two main characters are equally compelling and colorful in their own way and also critical to the future of humanity. One is the Shuos Hexarch, Mikodez, whom I love because of the vigor of his enjoyment of the perks of his decades at the top and of the management of his webs of power, all the while keeping sane by gardening and mentally jousting with his brother and his spymaster. While some of Mikodez sexual proclivities can turn anyone’s stomach, his solid insights on what’s really going on propels our little glimmers of enlightenment. He is less concerned about the invading Hafn than about the portentious disappearance of the Naija Hexarch, who not long ago accomplished immortality by some feat of bioengineering science their faction excels at. If that capability is not threat enough to the balance of power, the Naijan’s mastery of something termed calendrical mathematics and temporal physics that allows them to dominate in the setting of the Hexarchate’s adherence to a mysterious system that, if changed, could affect the special powers of the various Hexarch factions. The fourth character, Brexan, is a former executive officer of Khireuv who gets tapped by Kel Command to assist in the takeover of the fleet from Jedao. He is refreshing because of his balance of no-nonsense pragmatism, sardonic humor, and audacious bravery somewhat in the vein of Bruce Willis in the “Die Hard” movies. Like all good soldiers he knows when to take his pleasures now, for tomorrow we may die. In this case the pleasures being the bed of his assigned partner on the quest, an elegant tiger of a woman of the Anadan faction skilled at diplomacy, seduction, and assassination.
While some books in a series leave you on a cliffhanger, this one was fair at reaching a decent plateau for the wait for the closing volume. The mystery behind the missing Naijan Hexarch and prospects of changes to the calendric physics of the galaxy and power of the other Hexarchs remain as big unresolved plot elements. I still have the first volume to happily backtrack with. Definitely a fun ride.
This book was provided for review by the publisher through the Netgalley program.
July 15, 2018
My Video Review
https://youtu.be/IHPhg59j-fk
Woah! I did not expect this to be such an easy read after my experience with the first book. You can jump straight back into the world with ease. His one has more of a focus on characters which lessened the confusing aspects of the first book for me. I did tend to lose my bearings sometimes during battle scenes, but otherwise I really enjoyed this a lot! I liked the representation of different people and how diversity and fluidity is the norm. There is incest in here, so that was shocking. I’ll probably never get used to that in stories. Overall, I think this one was better for me and I liked the ending a lot. It makes me excited to see the repercussions for this universe.
https://youtu.be/IHPhg59j-fk
Woah! I did not expect this to be such an easy read after my experience with the first book. You can jump straight back into the world with ease. His one has more of a focus on characters which lessened the confusing aspects of the first book for me. I did tend to lose my bearings sometimes during battle scenes, but otherwise I really enjoyed this a lot! I liked the representation of different people and how diversity and fluidity is the norm. There is incest in here, so that was shocking. I’ll probably never get used to that in stories. Overall, I think this one was better for me and I liked the ending a lot. It makes me excited to see the repercussions for this universe.
April 22, 2024
Amazingly well done science fiction, full of snarky lines and big ideas on how a far in the future spacefaring society could be. Enjoyed this pageturner much more than the first installment!
Command would rather pin medals on corpses than on people who survived by doing the sensible thing
Incestuous twins running 1/6 of the galaxy jointly, an immortal technician and a hive mind, not to mention a long dead reanimated general: the Hexarchate is a wild place. The stakes are galaxy encompassing huge and the action, interspersed with conference calls, is effective.
This is a very satisfying page turner with overtures of how much uniformity a society can demand of its people, and what prize is too high to pay. The lowest taking down the highest, and fighting the exotic effects we came to know from Ninefox Gambit, and the mentality of technology above people, it is a heady yet successful mix.
Also, getting to know the fictional world outside of the main character of the first book made me enjoy Raven Stratagem more than its predecessor!
Finally, I highly enjoy the snarky tone Yoon Ha Lee manages to strike in this trilogy, without it becoming tiresome:
Quotes:
At least things were not likely to get worse
Overkill is something of a personal defect
… who hated shouting if she wasn’t doing it
Even if he had good intentions, an unlikely proposition
Killing people is so easy, but it’s usually irreversible
Shooting people is the only thing I am good at
There is every possibility that they know more ways of dismembering annoying cadets than I do
I’ve always believed that a properly guided bureaucracy is deadlier than any bomb
They will cheat, which means we need to cheat better
Counter factuals never feed the children
See you some other time, if we all live
Need I remind you we have a madmen who has an unsavory habit of winning all of his battles?
Brilliant tactician, shit strategist
Try not to kill more people than necessary
But you’ve got to stop reacting and start thinking
History forgives the winner a lot of things
They are reliable enough to satisfy me
You’re very stupid for being so clever
I don’t care about your people, it’s just orders - about genocide on 58.000 people
He appreciated the esthetics if it was someone else his problem
Whatever we do corruption never dies
Money is a much better defense than violence
You are people first
There is more to life than shooting your problems
Everything is as good as it will get
I see that tact is not your specialty
He was evil, but that does not necessarily mean he was wrong
I have done many terrible things, he said.
I’ve always done them because the alternatives were worse.
Why she didn’t like him, she believed in his fundamental competence
You are allowed to have personal attachments. As a rule, it’s the one’s who don’t who we need to assassinate for everyone’s good.
For a traitor he always was a judgmental prick
I suspect the only thing I regret more than saying yes is saying no
Command would rather pin medals on corpses than on people who survived by doing the sensible thing
Incestuous twins running 1/6 of the galaxy jointly, an immortal technician and a hive mind, not to mention a long dead reanimated general: the Hexarchate is a wild place. The stakes are galaxy encompassing huge and the action, interspersed with conference calls, is effective.
This is a very satisfying page turner with overtures of how much uniformity a society can demand of its people, and what prize is too high to pay. The lowest taking down the highest, and fighting the exotic effects we came to know from Ninefox Gambit, and the mentality of technology above people, it is a heady yet successful mix.
Also, getting to know the fictional world outside of the main character of the first book made me enjoy Raven Stratagem more than its predecessor!
Finally, I highly enjoy the snarky tone Yoon Ha Lee manages to strike in this trilogy, without it becoming tiresome:
Quotes:
At least things were not likely to get worse
Overkill is something of a personal defect
… who hated shouting if she wasn’t doing it
Even if he had good intentions, an unlikely proposition
Killing people is so easy, but it’s usually irreversible
Shooting people is the only thing I am good at
There is every possibility that they know more ways of dismembering annoying cadets than I do
I’ve always believed that a properly guided bureaucracy is deadlier than any bomb
They will cheat, which means we need to cheat better
Counter factuals never feed the children
See you some other time, if we all live
Need I remind you we have a madmen who has an unsavory habit of winning all of his battles?
Brilliant tactician, shit strategist
Try not to kill more people than necessary
But you’ve got to stop reacting and start thinking
History forgives the winner a lot of things
They are reliable enough to satisfy me
You’re very stupid for being so clever
I don’t care about your people, it’s just orders - about genocide on 58.000 people
He appreciated the esthetics if it was someone else his problem
Whatever we do corruption never dies
Money is a much better defense than violence
You are people first
There is more to life than shooting your problems
Everything is as good as it will get
I see that tact is not your specialty
He was evil, but that does not necessarily mean he was wrong
I have done many terrible things, he said.
I’ve always done them because the alternatives were worse.
Why she didn’t like him, she believed in his fundamental competence
You are allowed to have personal attachments. As a rule, it’s the one’s who don’t who we need to assassinate for everyone’s good.
For a traitor he always was a judgmental prick
I suspect the only thing I regret more than saying yes is saying no
September 9, 2019
WARNING: SECOND BOOK SLUMP ALERT. I’m having flashbacks of the Ancillary series all over again. No, no, NO! You can’t make me relive that, you can’t, I won’t, NO!
Hey, hey, calm down there self, calm down, it’s not that bad. *pats self on back* There, there. Have a juice box. Pomegranate. Yummy. And good for prostate cancer. Maybe a cookie too. Yes, a cookie will make it all right. And remember, it’s just a book.
Whew, got a little nonplussed there. Funny word that, nonplussed, bit of an autoantonym, actually. It means you’re so disturbed that you act totally calm and bemused. Kind of like if you take a Lovecraftian horror response - insanity in the face of incomprehensibility - and sprinkled some glitter on it. That’s nonplussed. That’s how this book makes me feel.
It’s like I encountered one of the Elder Gods, but the Elder God was My Little Pony. Ha ha okay I jest. Kinda. Actually, specifically, the Elder God is this aesthetic/style that’s become popular - or at least award winning - in sci-fi and fantasy lately. If I had to describe this aesthetic in one word, it’d be, hmm, self-righteousness. A broad term, but I think it’s pretty good.
It is this utter confidence that you are on the righteous path and that anyone who disputes you is wrong and evil. And incompetent. Best throw that in there too.
Now I’m not a big fan of self-righteousness as a personality trait. In fact, I’m pretty sure most evil is committed by self-righteous people. They’re doing evil for their children’s sake, or for God, or for posterity, or etc. You know how it is. Self-righteousness as a writing style isn’t that bad, but it has plenty of problems of its own, the exploration of which will involve spoilers. Consider that your spoiler warning.
See, in fiction, conflict is the heart of plot. No conflict? No plot. And the problem with the self-righteous aesthetic - regardless of the underlying ideology - is that it doesn’t leave room for the protagonists to doubt themselves. No internal conflict. And because competency is so closely tied with morality, it doesn’t leave much room for failure either. No external conflict.
Where does that leave us? A book without much plot.
So I finished Raven Strategm about a week ago and if you asked me to describe to you the plot, I would honestly struggle to do so. Really. But here we go, I’m going to try:
Jedao/Cheris alters the calendar of the Hexarchate Empire.
What’s missing from that summary? Any conflict, any struggle, any doubt. Because there is none. Which is why we don’t even get her PoV, because there wasn’t even anything to write there.
Instead here’s the main PoVs we get:
General Khiruev has the best plot of the three since we have an early element of internal conflict, and she’s commanding the swarm trying to fight an enemy invader. So there’s actual conflict in this PoV. But it’s not well done. The internal conflict is neatly resolved “off page” for the most part. And resolution of the external conflict largely involves Jedao/Cheris arriving at the last minute and saying, “Oh hey, do this magical manuever and everything will work out!”
Psychopathic (except…not? I don’t know, the book doesn’t have a strong grasp of non-conformist psychology, despite most characters being written as such) Brezan gets arrested, plays patty-cake with a couple of spy-types, randomly gets promoted to High General in what may be the worst plan I’ve ever seen, flies around on the spaceship version of the Gaylord Opryland Hotel while having boring passionless sex, and then immediately fails his mission. He did all this because… *pauses* …wait a second, why exactly did he do any of this? Honestly, I don’t know.
Shuos Hexarch Mikodez sits at his desk, eats cookies, and takes care of a green onion…? I mean, I LIKE this guy BUT FOR THE LOVE OF PLOT, SHOW HIM DOING SOMETHING. I DON’T CARE ABOUT HIM HAVING SEX WITH HIS TWIN BROTHER AND EATING SWEETS. LESS MASTICATION, MORE MACHINATION.
And you can be sure that there’s no counter-perspective to the anti-establishment themes present in this book (and in all such novels of the self-righteous aesthetic). Not that I’m suggesting we shouldn’t shatter an empire that employs formalized torture, but there’s also good reasons not to start a civil war? Surely someone might bring some of them up, maybe? As part of an actual argument, not just some throwaway line easily dismissed? Maybe even a PoV from a good person ON THE OTHER SIDE? Because those do exist. Or at least some examples of the supposed good guys directly harming innocents with their war mongering and anarchy - as at least the first book had? Even better: develop an actual character so there’s a real sense of loss and complexity when they fall as a result of the “good” guys?!
But such complexities will not be countenanced by the self-righteous aesthetic, which cannot accept any validity of the opposing perspective. While the Ninefox Gambit and Revenant Gun do a much better job of avoiding the worst pitfalls of this aesthetic, Raven Strategm is a prime example of it. For me at least, that made the reading experience tedious.
In fact, it was tedious enough that, if you asked me to give a thumbs up or a thumbs down for the whole series, I’d have to give it a thumbs down. It’s… frustrating that this is the path sci-fi & fantasy has taken. I’m all for politics and philosophy and gender explorations to be part of sci-fi, and I keep picking up these highly decorated books expecting such. But then it’s simply not there. The politics, philosophy, and so on are not interrogative, but declarative. They’re not explorations, they’re pronouncements of righteousness, without even a plot to make them fun to read.
Hey, hey, calm down there self, calm down, it’s not that bad. *pats self on back* There, there. Have a juice box. Pomegranate. Yummy. And good for prostate cancer. Maybe a cookie too. Yes, a cookie will make it all right. And remember, it’s just a book.
Whew, got a little nonplussed there. Funny word that, nonplussed, bit of an autoantonym, actually. It means you’re so disturbed that you act totally calm and bemused. Kind of like if you take a Lovecraftian horror response - insanity in the face of incomprehensibility - and sprinkled some glitter on it. That’s nonplussed. That’s how this book makes me feel.
It’s like I encountered one of the Elder Gods, but the Elder God was My Little Pony. Ha ha okay I jest. Kinda. Actually, specifically, the Elder God is this aesthetic/style that’s become popular - or at least award winning - in sci-fi and fantasy lately. If I had to describe this aesthetic in one word, it’d be, hmm, self-righteousness. A broad term, but I think it’s pretty good.
It is this utter confidence that you are on the righteous path and that anyone who disputes you is wrong and evil. And incompetent. Best throw that in there too.
Now I’m not a big fan of self-righteousness as a personality trait. In fact, I’m pretty sure most evil is committed by self-righteous people. They’re doing evil for their children’s sake, or for God, or for posterity, or etc. You know how it is. Self-righteousness as a writing style isn’t that bad, but it has plenty of problems of its own, the exploration of which will involve spoilers. Consider that your spoiler warning.
See, in fiction, conflict is the heart of plot. No conflict? No plot. And the problem with the self-righteous aesthetic - regardless of the underlying ideology - is that it doesn’t leave room for the protagonists to doubt themselves. No internal conflict. And because competency is so closely tied with morality, it doesn’t leave much room for failure either. No external conflict.
Where does that leave us? A book without much plot.
So I finished Raven Strategm about a week ago and if you asked me to describe to you the plot, I would honestly struggle to do so. Really. But here we go, I’m going to try:
Jedao/Cheris alters the calendar of the Hexarchate Empire.
What’s missing from that summary? Any conflict, any struggle, any doubt. Because there is none. Which is why we don’t even get her PoV, because there wasn’t even anything to write there.
Instead here’s the main PoVs we get:
General Khiruev has the best plot of the three since we have an early element of internal conflict, and she’s commanding the swarm trying to fight an enemy invader. So there’s actual conflict in this PoV. But it’s not well done. The internal conflict is neatly resolved “off page” for the most part. And resolution of the external conflict largely involves Jedao/Cheris arriving at the last minute and saying, “Oh hey, do this magical manuever and everything will work out!”
Psychopathic (except…not? I don’t know, the book doesn’t have a strong grasp of non-conformist psychology, despite most characters being written as such) Brezan gets arrested, plays patty-cake with a couple of spy-types, randomly gets promoted to High General in what may be the worst plan I’ve ever seen, flies around on the spaceship version of the Gaylord Opryland Hotel while having boring passionless sex, and then immediately fails his mission. He did all this because… *pauses* …wait a second, why exactly did he do any of this? Honestly, I don’t know.
Shuos Hexarch Mikodez sits at his desk, eats cookies, and takes care of a green onion…? I mean, I LIKE this guy BUT FOR THE LOVE OF PLOT, SHOW HIM DOING SOMETHING. I DON’T CARE ABOUT HIM HAVING SEX WITH HIS TWIN BROTHER AND EATING SWEETS. LESS MASTICATION, MORE MACHINATION.
And you can be sure that there’s no counter-perspective to the anti-establishment themes present in this book (and in all such novels of the self-righteous aesthetic). Not that I’m suggesting we shouldn’t shatter an empire that employs formalized torture, but there’s also good reasons not to start a civil war? Surely someone might bring some of them up, maybe? As part of an actual argument, not just some throwaway line easily dismissed? Maybe even a PoV from a good person ON THE OTHER SIDE? Because those do exist. Or at least some examples of the supposed good guys directly harming innocents with their war mongering and anarchy - as at least the first book had? Even better: develop an actual character so there’s a real sense of loss and complexity when they fall as a result of the “good” guys?!
But such complexities will not be countenanced by the self-righteous aesthetic, which cannot accept any validity of the opposing perspective. While the Ninefox Gambit and Revenant Gun do a much better job of avoiding the worst pitfalls of this aesthetic, Raven Strategm is a prime example of it. For me at least, that made the reading experience tedious.
In fact, it was tedious enough that, if you asked me to give a thumbs up or a thumbs down for the whole series, I’d have to give it a thumbs down. It’s… frustrating that this is the path sci-fi & fantasy has taken. I’m all for politics and philosophy and gender explorations to be part of sci-fi, and I keep picking up these highly decorated books expecting such. But then it’s simply not there. The politics, philosophy, and so on are not interrogative, but declarative. They’re not explorations, they’re pronouncements of righteousness, without even a plot to make them fun to read.
May 7, 2018
It feels like all I've done since Ninefox Gambit came out is try and convince people to read it, and now I have another weapon to use in my battle against those who resist my will. Read Ninefox Gambit because then you get to read the sequel. And trust me, you want to read the sequel.
In what has already been a year of fantastic books for me Raven Stratagem is the best one yet. It takes everything I loved about Ninefox Gambit and just makes it even better. It also does what the very best sequels do; it makes me want to reread Ninefox Gambit with all the new information I've learned in mind.
The Raven Stratagem picks up just a short while after Ninefox Gambit leaves off, and by the end of the first chapter Jedao has captured for himself an entire swarm. Because, like, of course he has. What he plans to do with them, is not so clear. Unlike Ninefox Gambit, which stuck pretty close to Cheris/Jedao, Raven Stratagem follows three other main characters; two senior ranking Kel and, awesomely, the leader of the Shuos. I say awesomely because Mikodez, big boss Shuos dude, is just the best character ever and in a weird way probably the most likeable character in these books so far. Which is just hilarious considering who he is and the faction he's head of.
The three main pov characters are each interesting in their own ways (obviously Mikodez is the most interesting but there can only be one Mikodez) and it also meant that the reader was kept in the dark as to what Jedao's motivations were, and, more pressingly at least for me, how much if any of Cheris had survived the previous book. The book kept me guessing about this and I loved it.
The plot was fantastic and there were some really epic and awesome space battles, if space battles are your thing, and of course they are because, hello, space battles. Overall things weren't as bewildering as in Ninefox Gambit, which took real joy in confusing the reader. Part of this is probably because I was a bit more familiar with the universe, but the author also seemed a bit more willing to actually explain somethings. Very grudgingly, true, but I'll take it. I feel like I actually kind of understand calandrical warfare now, just so long as no one asks me to explain it.
I also enjoyed the book's approach to gender, which as opposed to say Anne Leckie's much discussed pronoun trickery in the Ancillery books which ultimately was little more than plot dressing, feels much more radical in Raven Stratagem. And it's sad that I can describe it like that, as radical, when really it boils down to, oh that's your gender? Cool. I'm not sure of your gender so I won't assume until I'm sure, ok? Cool. I see you prefer to be referred to as they and not a specific gender, so, cool. It's all cool. The connect/disconnect because who we are on the inside verses what we are on the outside wasn't the biggest part of this book, but it was something that really made me think.
Raven Stratagem, when it wasn't making me think about stuff, also made me snicker a lot and then also decided to break my heart. All the best books break your heart just a little, and Raven Stratagem definitely didn't do a half arsed job of it. So many tears from me, I'm surprised I didn't fry my kindle.
So yes. Thrilling, thought provoking, wickedly funny and absolutely heartbreaking. That's Raven Stratagem, it's all those things, often at the same time. If you haven't read it yet I envy you the ride you have in store.
In what has already been a year of fantastic books for me Raven Stratagem is the best one yet. It takes everything I loved about Ninefox Gambit and just makes it even better. It also does what the very best sequels do; it makes me want to reread Ninefox Gambit with all the new information I've learned in mind.
The Raven Stratagem picks up just a short while after Ninefox Gambit leaves off, and by the end of the first chapter Jedao has captured for himself an entire swarm. Because, like, of course he has. What he plans to do with them, is not so clear. Unlike Ninefox Gambit, which stuck pretty close to Cheris/Jedao, Raven Stratagem follows three other main characters; two senior ranking Kel and, awesomely, the leader of the Shuos. I say awesomely because Mikodez, big boss Shuos dude, is just the best character ever and in a weird way probably the most likeable character in these books so far. Which is just hilarious considering who he is and the faction he's head of.
The three main pov characters are each interesting in their own ways (obviously Mikodez is the most interesting but there can only be one Mikodez) and it also meant that the reader was kept in the dark as to what Jedao's motivations were, and, more pressingly at least for me, how much if any of Cheris had survived the previous book. The book kept me guessing about this and I loved it.
The plot was fantastic and there were some really epic and awesome space battles, if space battles are your thing, and of course they are because, hello, space battles. Overall things weren't as bewildering as in Ninefox Gambit, which took real joy in confusing the reader. Part of this is probably because I was a bit more familiar with the universe, but the author also seemed a bit more willing to actually explain somethings. Very grudgingly, true, but I'll take it. I feel like I actually kind of understand calandrical warfare now, just so long as no one asks me to explain it.
I also enjoyed the book's approach to gender, which as opposed to say Anne Leckie's much discussed pronoun trickery in the Ancillery books which ultimately was little more than plot dressing, feels much more radical in Raven Stratagem. And it's sad that I can describe it like that, as radical, when really it boils down to, oh that's your gender? Cool. I'm not sure of your gender so I won't assume until I'm sure, ok? Cool. I see you prefer to be referred to as they and not a specific gender, so, cool. It's all cool. The connect/disconnect because who we are on the inside verses what we are on the outside wasn't the biggest part of this book, but it was something that really made me think.
Raven Stratagem, when it wasn't making me think about stuff, also made me snicker a lot and then also decided to break my heart. All the best books break your heart just a little, and Raven Stratagem definitely didn't do a half arsed job of it. So many tears from me, I'm surprised I didn't fry my kindle.
So yes. Thrilling, thought provoking, wickedly funny and absolutely heartbreaking. That's Raven Stratagem, it's all those things, often at the same time. If you haven't read it yet I envy you the ride you have in store.
May 13, 2019
It's difficult for me to put into words how much I love this book. Or this series. Just the fact that I can't tell which of the three books I like the most is something, since before reading this series, I could always easily rank my favorites.
Raven Stratagem is as good as its predecessor, but very different from it, with a much wider focus that doesn't concentrate on only one battle. Which means that the clockwork efficiency the first book had in its pacing and plot is lost, but so much is gained from this multi-PoV approach: a new perspectives on the Hexarchate, more details on key players, and wonderful characters.
If Ninefox Gambit was about a siege on two layers, Raven Stratagem is a war playing on many fields at once - in the form of battles just as much as in the form of mind games.
Another thing that Raven Stratagem is better at is readability. I won't lie, Ninefox Gambit might be the most fascinating book I've ever read, but it's objectively a challenge. Raven Stratagem has all the subtlety and lying and perfectly foreshadowed twists with less of the over-complicated scenes (which I loved, but still) involving sci-fantasy weapons the first book was full of. However, there are a few typos here and there, which I didn't notice in either the first or the third book.
It also feels lighter - not because the Hexarchate is suddenly less horrible, one could argue it's actually getting worse, but because for most of the book the atrocities aren't as explicit as they were in the first.
But what I like the most about Raven Stratagem is the humor. It's darkly funny, and it makes the character feel like real humans in a terrible universe. When it comes to really dark books, I often stop caring about the world, but the lighter moments are what keeps me invested, and the Hexarchate is so beautiful and weird and at the same time unapologetically terrible that I can't help but be fascinated by it.
Also, I don't think I could ever bring myself not to care about those characters.
Machineries of Empire is the story of Jedao, but most of it isn't told in his PoV, and in this book specifically, he is the antagonist - the antagonist you want to see win. And I love this kind of set-up so much. The PoV characters are:
🌌 Kel Khiruev, the general of the swarm of which Jedao took control of. She's a dark-skinned bi/pan woman whose loyalty to Kel Command is wavering. She's tired, deserves better but struggles to admit that even to herself, and she studied engineering, which is now her favorite hobby. (This series has more women in STEM than half of the sci-fi books I've read together.)
🌌 Shuos Mikodez is the Hexarch of the Shuos faction. He's brown-skinned and aroace. He has the worst attention span, refuses to sleep, claims to not know about ethics and morals but still cares sometimes, on some level - which many people around him wouldn't believe. He's an extremely entertaining person to read about, competent but still often misinformed and always walking the line between "volatile but functional" and "complete disaster".
🌌 Kel Brezan is an unconventional kel who managed to escape Jedao's takeover, and who wants the swarm to be returned to the rightful general. He's grumpy, just wants to have a normal Kel life, and wants to demonstrate that just because formation instinct doesn't work for him, that doesn't make him disloyal. He's a trans man. I love him more with every reread. The tired and annoyed character who doesn't want to be there is always the most relatable one.
I loved how in this book there are three very different main character arcs following people who have very little in common but that are all about loyalty and betrayal in some way. Also, the non-PoV characters are just as well-drawn as the PoV ones, and I want to specifically mention:
🌌 Shuos Zehun, who is non-binary, always followed by their cats, and always trying to talk some sense into Mikodez and mostly failing;
🌌 Andan Tseya, who is probably my favorite character in the book. She's a secret agent, a terrible person, and a very good liar, but is far more graceful about it than most people in this series. And the scene in which she basically seduces Brezan by telling him that she was clearly not trying to seduce him hard enough? Wow. Also, she canonically slept with the villain out of spite. I love her so much, and I love her romance with Brezan too,but can she marry me instead
Tseya is a trans woman.
(Also, of course, I love Jedao, but I don't think I need to talk about him again.)
In this book, there's also a scene narrated by Hexarch Nirai Kujen, which never fails to make me feel sick, and which is basically... emotional foreshadowing for how half of Revenant Gun will feel.
Trigger warnings: genocide, death, torture, really dysfunctional sibling dynamics (includes incest: while it is not stigmatized in this society, it isn't romanticized by the book). Memory loss/erased memories/manipulation. Mentions of: transphobia, suicide, mass shooting, rape.
Raven Stratagem is as good as its predecessor, but very different from it, with a much wider focus that doesn't concentrate on only one battle. Which means that the clockwork efficiency the first book had in its pacing and plot is lost, but so much is gained from this multi-PoV approach: a new perspectives on the Hexarchate, more details on key players, and wonderful characters.
If Ninefox Gambit was about a siege on two layers, Raven Stratagem is a war playing on many fields at once - in the form of battles just as much as in the form of mind games.
Another thing that Raven Stratagem is better at is readability. I won't lie, Ninefox Gambit might be the most fascinating book I've ever read, but it's objectively a challenge. Raven Stratagem has all the subtlety and lying and perfectly foreshadowed twists with less of the over-complicated scenes (which I loved, but still) involving sci-fantasy weapons the first book was full of. However, there are a few typos here and there, which I didn't notice in either the first or the third book.
It also feels lighter - not because the Hexarchate is suddenly less horrible, one could argue it's actually getting worse, but because for most of the book the atrocities aren't as explicit as they were in the first.
But what I like the most about Raven Stratagem is the humor. It's darkly funny, and it makes the character feel like real humans in a terrible universe. When it comes to really dark books, I often stop caring about the world, but the lighter moments are what keeps me invested, and the Hexarchate is so beautiful and weird and at the same time unapologetically terrible that I can't help but be fascinated by it.
Also, I don't think I could ever bring myself not to care about those characters.
Machineries of Empire is the story of Jedao, but most of it isn't told in his PoV, and in this book specifically, he is the antagonist - the antagonist you want to see win. And I love this kind of set-up so much. The PoV characters are:
🌌 Kel Khiruev, the general of the swarm of which Jedao took control of. She's a dark-skinned bi/pan woman whose loyalty to Kel Command is wavering. She's tired, deserves better but struggles to admit that even to herself, and she studied engineering, which is now her favorite hobby. (This series has more women in STEM than half of the sci-fi books I've read together.)
🌌 Shuos Mikodez is the Hexarch of the Shuos faction. He's brown-skinned and aroace. He has the worst attention span, refuses to sleep, claims to not know about ethics and morals but still cares sometimes, on some level - which many people around him wouldn't believe. He's an extremely entertaining person to read about, competent but still often misinformed and always walking the line between "volatile but functional" and "complete disaster".
🌌 Kel Brezan is an unconventional kel who managed to escape Jedao's takeover, and who wants the swarm to be returned to the rightful general. He's grumpy, just wants to have a normal Kel life, and wants to demonstrate that just because formation instinct doesn't work for him, that doesn't make him disloyal. He's a trans man. I love him more with every reread. The tired and annoyed character who doesn't want to be there is always the most relatable one.
I loved how in this book there are three very different main character arcs following people who have very little in common but that are all about loyalty and betrayal in some way. Also, the non-PoV characters are just as well-drawn as the PoV ones, and I want to specifically mention:
🌌 Shuos Zehun, who is non-binary, always followed by their cats, and always trying to talk some sense into Mikodez and mostly failing;
🌌 Andan Tseya, who is probably my favorite character in the book. She's a secret agent, a terrible person, and a very good liar, but is far more graceful about it than most people in this series. And the scene in which she basically seduces Brezan by telling him that she was clearly not trying to seduce him hard enough? Wow. Also, she canonically slept with the villain out of spite. I love her so much, and I love her romance with Brezan too,
Tseya is a trans woman.
(Also, of course, I love Jedao, but I don't think I need to talk about him again.)
In this book, there's also a scene narrated by Hexarch Nirai Kujen, which never fails to make me feel sick, and which is basically... emotional foreshadowing for how half of Revenant Gun will feel.
Trigger warnings: genocide, death, torture, really dysfunctional sibling dynamics (includes incest: while it is not stigmatized in this society, it isn't romanticized by the book). Memory loss/erased memories/manipulation. Mentions of: transphobia, suicide, mass shooting, rape.
Want to read
May 15, 2017I NEED IT.
January 25, 2018
Have you ever read a series that is so bizarre and yet so fulfilling? Mine is Machineries of Empire. The first book, Ninefox Gambit, for me was one of the best reads of 2017. It was so refreshing, confusing, and engaging at the same time. The universe was as weird or even weirder than Vernor Vinge's Zones of Thought. Calendars and maths as belief system/technology/weapon? I have never read anything like it.
And the characters, oh my gosh, I love the characters and the dialogues! Even in this second installment, each and every sentence is precious. This is not one of those page-wasting books that need more than 500 pages to get to the point. Moreover, Yoon Ha Lee has a way with language that is both witty and at times quite endearing. His characters often self-effacing philosophy is not a downer because it was balanced with the humor. Which is one of the icing on the cake for me; I just couldn't help but snorted or chuckled lots of times
Another bonus point is the non-binary, gender-fluid characters, plus the non-conventional families. I am glad that it has become a trend in SFF.
What I found quite late was that the series is actually fantasy, even though many classified it as SF (maybe because it is a space opera and had some military SF elements). Lee's math is basically space magic that allows him to handwave all the space physics. These moth ships, for instance, no physics can explain a ship that had to lay eggs first before connecting to another ship.
The plot obviously has everything I like. Politics, espionage, backstabbing, betrayal or a combination of all four, are abundant. And yet we also see glimpses of people trying to do good, despite their very limited (socially and biologically engineered) capacity.
I highly, highly recommend Yoon Ha Lee and his other fictions, including the short stories. Truly a fantastic and entertaining writer.
And the characters, oh my gosh, I love the characters and the dialogues! Even in this second installment, each and every sentence is precious. This is not one of those page-wasting books that need more than 500 pages to get to the point. Moreover, Yoon Ha Lee has a way with language that is both witty and at times quite endearing. His characters often self-effacing philosophy is not a downer because it was balanced with the humor. Which is one of the icing on the cake for me; I just couldn't help but snorted or chuckled lots of times
Another bonus point is the non-binary, gender-fluid characters, plus the non-conventional families. I am glad that it has become a trend in SFF.
What I found quite late was that the series is actually fantasy, even though many classified it as SF (maybe because it is a space opera and had some military SF elements). Lee's math is basically space magic that allows him to handwave all the space physics. These moth ships, for instance, no physics can explain a ship that had to lay eggs first before connecting to another ship.
The plot obviously has everything I like. Politics, espionage, backstabbing, betrayal or a combination of all four, are abundant. And yet we also see glimpses of people trying to do good, despite their very limited (socially and biologically engineered) capacity.
I highly, highly recommend Yoon Ha Lee and his other fictions, including the short stories. Truly a fantastic and entertaining writer.
December 10, 2020
This was "okay" (two stars), which represents a huge disappointment considering how much I loved the first book.
Its main weakness was a misguided choice of focus and POV, as well as the resulting lack of plot development over the first 3/4. Instead of staying with the engaging pair of Cheris and Jedao, who are the ones who actually have a goal and an intricate plan for reaching it, we are denied this POV entirely. Instead, we're put into the heads of various other characters who seem to merely be boring copies of Cheris and Jedao, just for them to get the exact same development (=realization that Jedao isn't a crazy monster) that we already went through in the first book. In addition, we get long chapters about a hexarch who's probably supposed to seem old and wise, but comes across more like a creepy teenager who's made his sister become his lookalike brother - an exact copy of himself so they can serve as a bodyguard and replace him in boring meetings. Oh, and they also have miserably unhappy incestuous group sex for no discernable reason? At no point is this utter erasure of someone else's identity and independent life questioned in any way. Even their parents approve.
The POV characters also lack proactivity: e.g. we have a Kel who spends the entire book being moved from one prison cell to the next and then being put on a ship with an assassination mission. Upon arrival, other characters make him give up that plan. That's his entire plot, he's being moved around by others the entire time. This is a pattern all over the book: whenever there's a chance to be in the head of someone *to whom something is happening* while they are passive and without any plans of their own, or drifting along in a confused/sleepy/hallucinating state, that's where the reader is put. Or whenever someone is having an irrelevant conversation about something. This does allow a "surprise ending" when the plans of the actual movers, planners and shakers are revealed - except it's no surprise at all for the reader because they've read Ninefox Gambit and know all of that already, it's only a surprise for the characters! The big reveal worked wonderfully in the first book, since the reader didn't know the truth, either, and because we were always where the actually interesting things were happening - here, most interesting stuff happens off-page somewhere else while we're literally spending an entire chapter in the head of a sleepy character who is dozing through a boring meeting!
And the "exciting space battles" (there's only one at the beginning) suffer from the fact that nothing about the magical tech being used is ever explained to the reader, so that they never understand why one formation would be better than another, what the purpose of this or that tactic is supposed to be, etc. It becomes pure magi-babble without any tension, when it could easily have been turned into a tense battle of wits.
The ending finally re-establishes some good stuff and puts us back on track, so maybe the third book will be good again? I'm not in a terrible hurry to find out, though.
Its main weakness was a misguided choice of focus and POV, as well as the resulting lack of plot development over the first 3/4. Instead of staying with the engaging pair of Cheris and Jedao, who are the ones who actually have a goal and an intricate plan for reaching it, we are denied this POV entirely. Instead, we're put into the heads of various other characters who seem to merely be boring copies of Cheris and Jedao, just for them to get the exact same development (=realization that Jedao isn't a crazy monster) that we already went through in the first book. In addition, we get long chapters about a hexarch who's probably supposed to seem old and wise, but comes across more like a creepy teenager who's made his sister become his lookalike brother - an exact copy of himself so they can serve as a bodyguard and replace him in boring meetings. Oh, and they also have miserably unhappy incestuous group sex for no discernable reason? At no point is this utter erasure of someone else's identity and independent life questioned in any way. Even their parents approve.
The POV characters also lack proactivity: e.g. we have a Kel who spends the entire book being moved from one prison cell to the next and then being put on a ship with an assassination mission. Upon arrival, other characters make him give up that plan. That's his entire plot, he's being moved around by others the entire time. This is a pattern all over the book: whenever there's a chance to be in the head of someone *to whom something is happening* while they are passive and without any plans of their own, or drifting along in a confused/sleepy/hallucinating state, that's where the reader is put. Or whenever someone is having an irrelevant conversation about something. This does allow a "surprise ending" when the plans of the actual movers, planners and shakers are revealed - except it's no surprise at all for the reader because they've read Ninefox Gambit and know all of that already, it's only a surprise for the characters! The big reveal worked wonderfully in the first book, since the reader didn't know the truth, either, and because we were always where the actually interesting things were happening - here, most interesting stuff happens off-page somewhere else while we're literally spending an entire chapter in the head of a sleepy character who is dozing through a boring meeting!
And the "exciting space battles" (there's only one at the beginning) suffer from the fact that nothing about the magical tech being used is ever explained to the reader, so that they never understand why one formation would be better than another, what the purpose of this or that tactic is supposed to be, etc. It becomes pure magi-babble without any tension, when it could easily have been turned into a tense battle of wits.
The ending finally re-establishes some good stuff and puts us back on track, so maybe the third book will be good again? I'm not in a terrible hurry to find out, though.
June 12, 2017
Ninefox Gambit
was one of the best books I read in 2016. Raven Stratagem might be even better. This whole series is utterly, gloriously, astoundingly brilliant.
Welcome to the world of the hexarchate, where total participation in rigid ritual not only keeps control of the population; it also warps the topology of reality to create "exotic effects" that keeps the hexarchate in power. The hexarchate is ruled by six factions: the Rahal, who make the rules; the Vidona, who enforce them with torture; the Andan, who control the culture; the Nirai, who provide mathematical and scientific technology; the Shuos, who act as spies, assassins, and bureaucrats; and the Kel, who are the military wing of the hexarchate. All but the Shuos depend upon an exotic effect to remain in power, from Rahal scrying and mindreading to the Nirai spacefaring mothdrive to the overwhelmingly powerful Kel military formations. Heretics are therefore a tangible, literal threat: not only do they threaten to disrupt the loyalty of the populus; they also weaken the hexarchate's exotic effects that drive the hexarchate's technology, military, and society.
Raven Stratagem starts where Ninefox Gambit leaves off. It introduces a cast of highly empathetic characters and explores the perspectives of several of the antagonists of the previous book. The story also expands its powerful exploration of gender fluidity. While the last book was told almost entirely from the Kel perspective, Raven Stratagem provides quite a bit more of the Shuos and even the Nirai perspectives. Our previous Shuos experience was almost entirely limited to the crazy undead mass-murdering General Shuos Jedao, who is occasionally let out of his immortal unrest in the Black Cradle to possess a Kel "volunteer" and use his scheming brain to win their wars. I adore the Shuos; it turns out they're not just assassins and spies; they're also the bureaucrats and administrators because
As with Ninefox Gambit, one of the main themes of the novel was agency. Kel are imbued with "formation instinct" that irresistibly compels them to unquestioningly obey their superiors. The few "crashhawks" for whom the programming has failed are constantly under suspicion by their superiors because they can choose not to obey. The hexarchs are increasingly out of touch, off planning new sadistic "remembrances" and chasing immortality even as their people are being invaded by the savage Hafn. As one character thinks:
There are a lot of thought-provoking themes in Raven Stratagem, but they don't get in the way of the character development or the action. I was utterly captivated by the story's twists and turns, and I'm only a little ashamed to admit that I fell for one of them. If you were a bit overwhelmed by Ninefox, then you'll be relieved to hear that Raven is much less math-heavy, focusing more on characters and worldbuilding. We get a view of the inner workings of the hexarch from Shuos Mikodez, we finally get a glimpse of the mysterious and somewhat horrifying Hafn, and the ending is utterly satisfying while leaving me desperate for more. I absolutely cannot wait to get back to the world of the hexarchate.
Yours in calendrical heresy,
Carly
~~I received this ebook through Netgalley from the publisher, Rebellion/Solaris, in exchange for my honest review. Thank you! Quotes were taken from an advanced reader copy and while they may not reflect the final phrasing, I believe they speak to the spirit of the novel as a whole.~~
Cross-posted on BookLikes.
Welcome to the world of the hexarchate, where total participation in rigid ritual not only keeps control of the population; it also warps the topology of reality to create "exotic effects" that keeps the hexarchate in power. The hexarchate is ruled by six factions: the Rahal, who make the rules; the Vidona, who enforce them with torture; the Andan, who control the culture; the Nirai, who provide mathematical and scientific technology; the Shuos, who act as spies, assassins, and bureaucrats; and the Kel, who are the military wing of the hexarchate. All but the Shuos depend upon an exotic effect to remain in power, from Rahal scrying and mindreading to the Nirai spacefaring mothdrive to the overwhelmingly powerful Kel military formations. Heretics are therefore a tangible, literal threat: not only do they threaten to disrupt the loyalty of the populus; they also weaken the hexarchate's exotic effects that drive the hexarchate's technology, military, and society.
Raven Stratagem starts where Ninefox Gambit leaves off. It introduces a cast of highly empathetic characters and explores the perspectives of several of the antagonists of the previous book. The story also expands its powerful exploration of gender fluidity. While the last book was told almost entirely from the Kel perspective, Raven Stratagem provides quite a bit more of the Shuos and even the Nirai perspectives. Our previous Shuos experience was almost entirely limited to the crazy undead mass-murdering General Shuos Jedao, who is occasionally let out of his immortal unrest in the Black Cradle to possess a Kel "volunteer" and use his scheming brain to win their wars. I adore the Shuos; it turns out they're not just assassins and spies; they're also the bureaucrats and administrators because
"A properly guided bureaucracy is deadlier than any bomb."The Shuos are renowned for turning everything into a game and are charmingly unexpected; for instance, the leader of the Shuos faction has a tendency of knitting during scheming sessions.
As with Ninefox Gambit, one of the main themes of the novel was agency. Kel are imbued with "formation instinct" that irresistibly compels them to unquestioningly obey their superiors. The few "crashhawks" for whom the programming has failed are constantly under suspicion by their superiors because they can choose not to obey. The hexarchs are increasingly out of touch, off planning new sadistic "remembrances" and chasing immortality even as their people are being invaded by the savage Hafn. As one character thinks:
"At some point you had to ask yourself how much legitimacy any government had that feared dissension within more than invasion without."The world of the hexarchate is brutal and unfeeling, the people kept under martial law and in constant fear of the Vidona. But overthrowing the hexarch also means destroying all of the technology built upon its exotic effects, and what if it is replaced with something even worse? As one character says:
"You know what? It is a shitty system. We have a whole faction devoted to torturing people so the rest of us can pretend we're not involved. Too bad every other system of government out there is even worse. [...] If you have some working alternative for the world we're stuck in, by all means show it to us without spelling it in corpses."
There are a lot of thought-provoking themes in Raven Stratagem, but they don't get in the way of the character development or the action. I was utterly captivated by the story's twists and turns, and I'm only a little ashamed to admit that I fell for one of them. If you were a bit overwhelmed by Ninefox, then you'll be relieved to hear that Raven is much less math-heavy, focusing more on characters and worldbuilding. We get a view of the inner workings of the hexarch from Shuos Mikodez, we finally get a glimpse of the mysterious and somewhat horrifying Hafn, and the ending is utterly satisfying while leaving me desperate for more. I absolutely cannot wait to get back to the world of the hexarchate.
Yours in calendrical heresy,
Carly
~~I received this ebook through Netgalley from the publisher, Rebellion/Solaris, in exchange for my honest review. Thank you! Quotes were taken from an advanced reader copy and while they may not reflect the final phrasing, I believe they speak to the spirit of the novel as a whole.~~
Cross-posted on BookLikes.
May 2, 2019
Bit of a letdown after a very cool book one, but this was still an enjoyable read. Totally different in terms of story and presentation this one had a lot less action and a lot more maneuvering and political intrigue. Ninefox Gambit was literally a block to block, street by street, door to door taking over a fortress of a novel with weird math stuff and crazy characters that had an totally awesome explosive finale. Raven Stratagem had a completely different feel and pace and nothing felt as exotic or as strange as almost everything did in book one. A lot more time was spent informing the reader as to what the different factions and titles and histories all mean and I definitely have a better understanding of who everyone is and the universe as a whole but it made me miss the complexity and effort required that the vagueness of Ninefox Gambit offered. Nevertheless it is still a highly original creation and entertained me enough to where I will read book three, it is just not among my favorite science fiction reads.
Read
March 15, 2018I read through to the end of chapter 4 in this one (about 14% of the book) and I just wasn't into it. I knew from having already read the first in the series that it would probably take a lot for this to really draw me in, but sadly it just wasn't doing so and although I know many who love this book and series, I just don't think this sort of SF works for me personally. I like knowing where I stand as I read and with this series I constantly feel like I'm not sure what's happening or why or who's working for who etc.
Probably would have been 2*s at best, so I am DNF-ing here.
Probably would have been 2*s at best, so I am DNF-ing here.
July 3, 2018
Second read attempt 6/2018
Read it a year later and liked it much more. You can find my review of this book and Revenant Gun here: http://www.commontouchoffantasy.com/r...
First read attempt 6/2017
DNF'd at 50%
Maybe I'll try rereading this series in the future but for now, I just can't get into it. I know it is me and not the book because so many people love this book. The part I loved about Ninefox Gambit was removed in Raven Stratagem and other points of view were added. These points of view are added to create a larger network of political threads so that the reader gets a much broader view of the universe that Yoon Ha Lee is creating. Unfortunately, I found it all to be tedious and uninteresting. I've read other reviews of people loving this book and how everything was so interesting and captivating but I just struggled to enjoy it. Looking at the writing style of Yoon Ha Lee and the stories I've read from him, I think that I may have a hard time connecting to the way he writes. I loved Cheris and Jedao's relationship in Ninefox Gambit but I had a hard time caring about anyone in this one. The mysteries of this universe just weren't things I was interested in unlocking. Maybe in a few years I can reapproach this book and love it but for right now, I'd rather move on to something else.
If you are looking for a more positive review, The Curious SFF Reader has a great review on her website: https://thecurioussffreader.wordpress...
Read it a year later and liked it much more. You can find my review of this book and Revenant Gun here: http://www.commontouchoffantasy.com/r...
First read attempt 6/2017
DNF'd at 50%
Maybe I'll try rereading this series in the future but for now, I just can't get into it. I know it is me and not the book because so many people love this book. The part I loved about Ninefox Gambit was removed in Raven Stratagem and other points of view were added. These points of view are added to create a larger network of political threads so that the reader gets a much broader view of the universe that Yoon Ha Lee is creating. Unfortunately, I found it all to be tedious and uninteresting. I've read other reviews of people loving this book and how everything was so interesting and captivating but I just struggled to enjoy it. Looking at the writing style of Yoon Ha Lee and the stories I've read from him, I think that I may have a hard time connecting to the way he writes. I loved Cheris and Jedao's relationship in Ninefox Gambit but I had a hard time caring about anyone in this one. The mysteries of this universe just weren't things I was interested in unlocking. Maybe in a few years I can reapproach this book and love it but for right now, I'd rather move on to something else.
If you are looking for a more positive review, The Curious SFF Reader has a great review on her website: https://thecurioussffreader.wordpress...
June 1, 2020
Popsugar 2020 Reading Challenge
A book by a trans or nonbinary author
This was so good! It provided more insight into the world and characters (especially the factions and the hexarchs). This installment was much more character focused than the first book but we do get some interesting battle scenes and action (I just wish there was more 😭 I just can't get enough of the exotic weapons). The pace was slower as well since it was more character focused but it is a nice trade off for all the worldbuilding and character development we get.
I ended up really loving Mikodez's character, which was surprising because I did not care much for any of the hexarchs in book one. His exchanges with Zehun were some of the highlights of this book.
The inclusion of multiple sexualities and genders on the spectrum was soooooo refreshing 🥰. There is also a character with ADD and a character with dyscalculia.
My only issue was that I wished the whole calendrical spike would have been explained more (as far as how it was executed) but maybe I missed something.
I can't wait to finish this series up! I also can't wait to read the short stories set in this world either.
A book by a trans or nonbinary author
This was so good! It provided more insight into the world and characters (especially the factions and the hexarchs). This installment was much more character focused than the first book but we do get some interesting battle scenes and action (I just wish there was more 😭 I just can't get enough of the exotic weapons). The pace was slower as well since it was more character focused but it is a nice trade off for all the worldbuilding and character development we get.
I ended up really loving Mikodez's character, which was surprising because I did not care much for any of the hexarchs in book one. His exchanges with Zehun were some of the highlights of this book.
The inclusion of multiple sexualities and genders on the spectrum was soooooo refreshing 🥰. There is also a character with ADD and a character with dyscalculia.
My only issue was that I wished the whole calendrical spike would have been explained more (as far as how it was executed) but maybe I missed something.
I can't wait to finish this series up! I also can't wait to read the short stories set in this world either.
September 12, 2023
This is such an interesting series, though there are a lot of moving parts and I kind of wish I had read Raven Strategem sooner after finishing Nine Fox Gambit. (Which is why I'm hopping directly into the final volume!) Thematically this is exploring power, oppression, governance, personhood, and rebellion in very interesting ways, as well as playing with gender identity and how this is or is not embodied. But at the same time, it's a fairly fast paced military sci-fi novel with a lot of twists and complex political elements. I didn't love this one as much as book 1, but I'm enjoying the series a lot as a whole and excited to continue!
September 26, 2021
“I’m not a linguist, but do you ever think there’s something wrong with the things we do and don’t have words for?”
Well, this was amazing.
June 30, 2018
It was both better than and not as good as the first. Better, in that it finally allowed you to see some of the moving parts and name them for you. Not as good, because naming them meant there was a language, and the language has rules, and now I'm thinking about the rules as much as I am about how cool it all looks when it's working, so some of it seems off.
CONTENT WARNING: (not actual spoilers, just a list of topics)
Things to love:
-Jedao. Do I have to explain this again? Just give in. Love Jedao.
-The hexarchate madness. Holy crap the Vidona are scary. Wow are the Kel crazy. OMG the Nirai twist themselves so far into circles to pretend they're not involved. And the Shuos are, of course, absolutely out of their every mind.
-The set up. BAM! Just like that. Actually, this might be another "love Jedao" moment. Like really, don't play with me. He's so good.
-The imagery. It continues to be so much fun, even when you understand some of it better.
-The humor. I love how dry it is and how goofy. It's very K/J-drama where it manages to be completely serious while winking at you over the melodrama.
-The twist. I should have seen it coming. I didn't. I am so glad that I got to go on that ride!
Things that were not Jedao:
-The plot. It was good, but also extremely convoluted, and, because we're just learning how things work, tends to break everything we just learned to advance.
-The dialogue. Some of it was still opaque to me. I'm hoping Revenant Gun makes it add up. (Get it?? Math humor?? Because of...ok yes I'm stopping.)
-The pacing. The middle third felt like a lot of spinning my wheel. The bizarre choices for cameos, reminding us over and over that no one knew what Jedao was doing...it lost me a little. It made up for it, but it wasn't flawless.
All in all, a great second book. Definitely didn't suffer from the usual second book slump. Lots happened, and I feel more competent in the world. But...y'all got more of that Jedao somewhere? Can't wait to read more in this world!
CONTENT WARNING: (not actual spoilers, just a list of topics)
Things to love:
-Jedao. Do I have to explain this again? Just give in. Love Jedao.
-The hexarchate madness. Holy crap the Vidona are scary. Wow are the Kel crazy. OMG the Nirai twist themselves so far into circles to pretend they're not involved. And the Shuos are, of course, absolutely out of their every mind.
-The set up. BAM! Just like that. Actually, this might be another "love Jedao" moment. Like really, don't play with me. He's so good.
-The imagery. It continues to be so much fun, even when you understand some of it better.
-The humor. I love how dry it is and how goofy. It's very K/J-drama where it manages to be completely serious while winking at you over the melodrama.
-The twist. I should have seen it coming. I didn't. I am so glad that I got to go on that ride!
Things that were not Jedao:
-The plot. It was good, but also extremely convoluted, and, because we're just learning how things work, tends to break everything we just learned to advance.
-The dialogue. Some of it was still opaque to me. I'm hoping Revenant Gun makes it add up. (Get it?? Math humor?? Because of...ok yes I'm stopping.)
-The pacing. The middle third felt like a lot of spinning my wheel. The bizarre choices for cameos, reminding us over and over that no one knew what Jedao was doing...it lost me a little. It made up for it, but it wasn't flawless.
All in all, a great second book. Definitely didn't suffer from the usual second book slump. Lots happened, and I feel more competent in the world. But...y'all got more of that Jedao somewhere? Can't wait to read more in this world!
August 30, 2022
Space opera done right. I loved it!
August 19, 2022
Yoon Ha Lee is amazing! That's it, that's the review. Ordering book 3 immediately!
August 18, 2022
What a gem! Yoon Ha Lee is now one of my absolute favorite authors.
Everything about this book just clicks with me, the world building, the small details, the openness of the story he tells, the questions that remain unanswered.
I'm just a tiny bit worried for the next book in the series because this felt really like a finale.
Everything about this book just clicks with me, the world building, the small details, the openness of the story he tells, the questions that remain unanswered.
I'm just a tiny bit worried for the next book in the series because this felt really like a finale.
September 9, 2019
2.5
--
Raven Stratagem is a great example of a second novel that suffered from the cult popularity of the first. I felt overwhelmingly that Yoon Ha Lee's great success with Ninefox Gambit discouraged him from making significant improvements to his plot or world-building, and, I might argue, encouraged him to adopt a far more blasé attitude toward his characters than was present in the first installment. Why fix it if most people don't think it's broken, after all?
We spend a lot of time playing in the sand with the Shuos hexarch, Mikodez; yet another crashhawk Kel, Brezan; and the Kel general, Khiruev, whose swarm is taken over almost first-thing by Jedao/Cheris. Presumably, this is because the author wanted to shift the focus from the heavy military strategy of book one to political intrigue and character study in book two.
Unfortunately, this wasn't executed nearly well enough to offset the severe drop in tension that came along with such a one-eighty switch. I like political intrigue tolerably well, but this book did not deliver political intrigue. What it delivered was a lot of circuitous, highly disjointed conversations only tangentially related to the current plot.
This was, in truth, my greatest frustration with the book--not only that so much nothing happened on page but that every discussion felt like it was cut and pasted from different conversations into one big one. I swear, I could barely follow some of the stilted, abstract, faux-profound nonsense that came out of these characters' mouths.
I did appreciate that the author took more care in explaining his technology/magic system and the world at large to the reader. I'm not a reader who requires things to be spoon-fed to me, but Ninefox Gambit was too deliberately abstruse for my liking. There was a marked, immediate change in overall clarity in Raven Stratagem, which was great.
The world itself is still intricate, still ambitious, and still intriguing. I just wish that more POV time was given over to civilian characters instead of the standard hexarchate faction characters. Not only was this a loss in terms of overall diversity of worldview, but the plot itself suffered from the lack. So much of the struggle to overthrow the existing power structure lies in the hands of the hexarchate's people, yet those people are no more than plastic toys for even our most progressive of faction members, bandied about in totality whenever somebody needs to justify their treason.
In fact, even the major plot points happen behind the scenes. The reader is clued in only right as the trap springs (despite the fact that the "reveal" about Jedao isn't really a reveal for us, considering we were there at the end of book one??), and so we're robbed of even the gratification of watching this monumental event occur real-time. The only remotely satisfying scene was the one where . Why? Because we were there for it. Because we were privy to the build-up and the intimate scene that occurred just before it happened.
Yoon Ha Lee's writing is better than average on a technical level, and it's clear he's wicked smart. I just wish that we'd been given a more cohesive, impactful narrative--one that made the best use of this expansive world. Instead, it ended up feeling like a very brainy rendition of your standard YA release: poorly plotted, shallowly characterized, and awkwardly paced.
I will be finishing out the series, but with great trepidation. : (
--
Raven Stratagem is a great example of a second novel that suffered from the cult popularity of the first. I felt overwhelmingly that Yoon Ha Lee's great success with Ninefox Gambit discouraged him from making significant improvements to his plot or world-building, and, I might argue, encouraged him to adopt a far more blasé attitude toward his characters than was present in the first installment. Why fix it if most people don't think it's broken, after all?
We spend a lot of time playing in the sand with the Shuos hexarch, Mikodez; yet another crashhawk Kel, Brezan; and the Kel general, Khiruev, whose swarm is taken over almost first-thing by Jedao/Cheris. Presumably, this is because the author wanted to shift the focus from the heavy military strategy of book one to political intrigue and character study in book two.
Unfortunately, this wasn't executed nearly well enough to offset the severe drop in tension that came along with such a one-eighty switch. I like political intrigue tolerably well, but this book did not deliver political intrigue. What it delivered was a lot of circuitous, highly disjointed conversations only tangentially related to the current plot.
This was, in truth, my greatest frustration with the book--not only that so much nothing happened on page but that every discussion felt like it was cut and pasted from different conversations into one big one. I swear, I could barely follow some of the stilted, abstract, faux-profound nonsense that came out of these characters' mouths.
I did appreciate that the author took more care in explaining his technology/magic system and the world at large to the reader. I'm not a reader who requires things to be spoon-fed to me, but Ninefox Gambit was too deliberately abstruse for my liking. There was a marked, immediate change in overall clarity in Raven Stratagem, which was great.
The world itself is still intricate, still ambitious, and still intriguing. I just wish that more POV time was given over to civilian characters instead of the standard hexarchate faction characters. Not only was this a loss in terms of overall diversity of worldview, but the plot itself suffered from the lack. So much of the struggle to overthrow the existing power structure lies in the hands of the hexarchate's people, yet those people are no more than plastic toys for even our most progressive of faction members, bandied about in totality whenever somebody needs to justify their treason.
In fact, even the major plot points happen behind the scenes. The reader is clued in only right as the trap springs (despite the fact that the "reveal" about Jedao isn't really a reveal for us, considering we were there at the end of book one??), and so we're robbed of even the gratification of watching this monumental event occur real-time. The only remotely satisfying scene was the one where . Why? Because we were there for it. Because we were privy to the build-up and the intimate scene that occurred just before it happened.
Yoon Ha Lee's writing is better than average on a technical level, and it's clear he's wicked smart. I just wish that we'd been given a more cohesive, impactful narrative--one that made the best use of this expansive world. Instead, it ended up feeling like a very brainy rendition of your standard YA release: poorly plotted, shallowly characterized, and awkwardly paced.
I will be finishing out the series, but with great trepidation. : (
July 21, 2023
Rereading this series was the right decision, I’m so glad. Just like during my first read, I enjoyed the second book of The Machineries of Empire much more than the first. There are more memorable characters, the plotting is tighter, and the intrigues abound. It also helps that the reader is more familiar with this universe ;), and the world building is done more seamlessly. Thanks to the latter, you appreciate the details. I’ve been in other book universes with cool spaceships’ names, but Yoon Ha Lee’s should have one of the top spots: Hierarchy of Feasts, Beneath the Orchid… Also, how about space battle formations called Knives Are Our Walls or Mountains Never Whisper? Awesome!
Chapter one lands you right in the middle of the action. I like Brezan’s voice and his story arc is quite fascinating (I had also forgotten nearly all of it). Serving the hexarchate is not a great choice to make; yet I could understand Brezan’s reasoning:
“...it was that the hexarchate was a terrible place to live, but it would be an even worse one if no one with a conscience consented to serve it.”
You cannot help but love watching Cheris/Jedao being badass. There are so many great conversations with a twist in this book (not to mention space battles!). General Khiruev’s storyline was also something I managed to forget. How could I? It’s heartbreaking!
I find that I’m fond of Mikodez – meaning that when you are exploring a vipers’ nest you might say “they are all scary, but *that* scary viper is more interesting to watch.” So I need to put in some Mikodez quotes, obviously:
“I don’t object to atrocities because of ethics, which we are never taught at Shuos academy anyway… I object to atrocities because they’re terrible policy.”
“Are you trying to make me feel guilty?” Mikodez said incredulously. “That only works on people with consciences, so both of us are immune.”
About 40% in, I had an idea that Mikodez was this universe’s fiendishly twisted version of Cliopher. (Those in the know, do you agree? ;) It’s weird and interesting how completely different books end up shaking hands in your head.)
“I do my job,” Mikodez said, “because after all the trouble I went through to get it, it would be irresponsible not to.”
I loved how all the plot threads came together by the end, with the bigger picture revealed. I’m looking forward to my reread of book 3!
Chapter one lands you right in the middle of the action. I like Brezan’s voice and his story arc is quite fascinating (I had also forgotten nearly all of it). Serving the hexarchate is not a great choice to make; yet I could understand Brezan’s reasoning:
“...it was that the hexarchate was a terrible place to live, but it would be an even worse one if no one with a conscience consented to serve it.”
You cannot help but love watching Cheris/Jedao being badass. There are so many great conversations with a twist in this book (not to mention space battles!). General Khiruev’s storyline was also something I managed to forget. How could I? It’s heartbreaking!
I find that I’m fond of Mikodez – meaning that when you are exploring a vipers’ nest you might say “they are all scary, but *that* scary viper is more interesting to watch.” So I need to put in some Mikodez quotes, obviously:
“I don’t object to atrocities because of ethics, which we are never taught at Shuos academy anyway… I object to atrocities because they’re terrible policy.”
“Are you trying to make me feel guilty?” Mikodez said incredulously. “That only works on people with consciences, so both of us are immune.”
About 40% in, I had an idea that Mikodez was this universe’s fiendishly twisted version of Cliopher. (Those in the know, do you agree? ;) It’s weird and interesting how completely different books end up shaking hands in your head.)
“I do my job,” Mikodez said, “because after all the trouble I went through to get it, it would be irresponsible not to.”
I loved how all the plot threads came together by the end, with the bigger picture revealed. I’m looking forward to my reread of book 3!
June 23, 2021
This wound up in an interesting place, but the journey to get there was more meh than I was expecting after the first book. I'll definitely finish the trilogy because I still am so interested in this distinctive universe Lee has created.
July 21, 2017
As a debut Ninefox Gambit couldn’t have been much better. Dropping the reader right into a complex world without any type of cheat sheet it managed to combine some first class world building with a tight and focused story. Kel Cheris, with the insane undead general Shuos Jedao in her mind, faced off against the heresy threatening the Hexarchate while at the same time being one of the main threats to the Hexarchate. It was my favorite kind of sci-fi, full of big alien ideas and smart enough to pull it off.
Raven Stratagem had a lot to live up to but a major advantage at the start over Ninefox Gambit; all that complex world building has already been laid out. So when Jedao shows up this time we already expect the unexpected. He takes advantage of the Kel Calendar system to take over a small force and then proceeds to threaten the destruction of the entire Hexarchate while seemingly working towards it’s goals. Lee is a master of keeping readers guessing without cheating to make surprises work. By the end of Raven Statagem I was once again in a trance; willing to go wherever the author wanted and completely enthralled with every twist and turn.
This series sits in a place somewhat hard to explain. It feels like hard sci-fi as it explains away magic with incomprehensible science. It is action packed and witty but absolutely not a ‘beach read’ as it takes a keen eye to catch every detail. Follow up books are not always successful as they either try to repeat the success of the first or stray too far from it. Lee weaves the line perfectly, building on the culture created in Ninefox Gambit while taking the story to a whole new place. And while it ends on something of a cliffhanger is its one I suspect most readers will gladly stick around for.
4 Stars
Raven Stratagem had a lot to live up to but a major advantage at the start over Ninefox Gambit; all that complex world building has already been laid out. So when Jedao shows up this time we already expect the unexpected. He takes advantage of the Kel Calendar system to take over a small force and then proceeds to threaten the destruction of the entire Hexarchate while seemingly working towards it’s goals. Lee is a master of keeping readers guessing without cheating to make surprises work. By the end of Raven Statagem I was once again in a trance; willing to go wherever the author wanted and completely enthralled with every twist and turn.
This series sits in a place somewhat hard to explain. It feels like hard sci-fi as it explains away magic with incomprehensible science. It is action packed and witty but absolutely not a ‘beach read’ as it takes a keen eye to catch every detail. Follow up books are not always successful as they either try to repeat the success of the first or stray too far from it. Lee weaves the line perfectly, building on the culture created in Ninefox Gambit while taking the story to a whole new place. And while it ends on something of a cliffhanger is its one I suspect most readers will gladly stick around for.
4 Stars
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