Ninefox Gambit: 1 (The Machineries of Empire, 1)

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Killed Off for Real: At the end of Ninefox Gambit, although his actual status is ambiguous until most of the way through Raven Strategem.

The Chains of Commanding: Being simultaneously ceremonial head of state and ultimate military commander of the Compact causes him a lot of stress and moral conflict. Much later in the book, our protagonists dig into records of the deaths that Jedao caused when he was alive: While I fully admit I was lost through most of "Ninefox Gambit" and experienced it in the worst possible format - what I did get out of it doesn't make me want to buy the book and read it again to "really get it". I think this will be a book that people either love or hate. I was frustrated with it.It is technology so dissimilar to our own that it seems like magic; math transmuted into religion. It's overwhelming and jarringly bizarre, this world where light storms lash the land and a change in battlefield formation can create shields or tornadoes or magical laser rays that melt people's faces off. But it is also beautiful, vast and rooted in the real by Lee's balanced focus on those things that are more common than alien: On shared meals and loss and dreams and regret. On the relationships between characters existing in this universe ( their universe, where none of this is strange at all), and the clashes between systems of belief. Finally, Jedao explains the concept of games to Cheris, and, in turn, sheds light on the mechanics of calendrical war and rot:

Naraucher wasn’t crying when his company reached the gate’s shriveled remnants, passing through the smoke-memory of people reduced to phantasms of number. But his eyes hurt. Ula’s company had burned up evaporating the gate. He could only do his part: fight through the breach they had won for those who followed. Kel Cheris/Ajewan CherisAn infantry captain with a talent for mathematics and independent (read: heretical) thinking.Dramatic Irony: In Revenant Gun, Jedao Two intermittently wonders about his Academy best friend/lover Ruo and what he would think of various things... whereas we know from earlier books that Ruo was forced into suicide a short time after Jedao Two's conscious memories end, due to Jedao's political naivety. de Bodard, Aliette (2012-01-04). "Ye obligatory eligibility post, plus asking for story recommendations". aliettedebodard.com . Retrieved 2014-01-08. Kel RagathA historian and infantry colonel, assigned to Cheris' fleet during the siege of Scattered Needles. So what could hold against such amazing weaponry? Oh, an entirely heretical calendar, of course, with all the people who believe that reality works a different way, and so it does.

Then there’s Jedao, whose mind I find both alluring and downright frightening. It’s no surprise that the story got interesting as soon as he entered the picture. He may spout things about war that make a lot of sense in a twisted and horrible kind of way, but that doesn’t change the fact he’s a merciless, stone cold-hearted bastard. And yet, despite being a complete psycho, the general’s character is also delightfully intriguing and complex. Many of my favorite scenes involve the conversations between him and Cheris, and perhaps against my better judgement, I wanted her to let him in. So, the heretics (the so-called “badguys”) are twisting this “reality engine” by breaking away from the hive-mind agreement that gives the government, the aforementioned heptarchate (which is the hexarchate by the time Ninefox Gambit begins), authority over the people and high-level technology. By doing so, they literally change the physical rules of warfare within their realm of influence, which centers around the Fortress of Scattered Needles. They’retrying to change the universe by recognizing that the near-holy calendrical system is more or less a mass delusion, that it can be abused, and is,in fact, a toolfor the governmentto control its citizens. This calendrical system is so baked into societal day-to-day operations that it is no more explained to the reader than the physicsof electricity would be in a near-future science fiction novel. So, yeah, it’s a lot to take in. Still confused? So am I.And therein lies the novel’s most challenging aspect. But that’s okay, and I’ll tell you why. I think I'll be thinking about this book for quite some time. It's just that interesting and clever. It's also a great story. My only hate at this point is in waiting for the next book. I CAN NOT WAIT. There's a very long game coming, even if this one was very satisfying on it's own, and I am entirely hooked. And for the even more curious, Stephanie Folse ( sfolse) at DeviantArt has an illustration of Cheris and an illustration of Jedao.

The nature of this universe's physics is in keeping with some of Yoon Ha Lee's short works, in which, for example, art, or language, can affect the physical reality. Here, it's mathematics. It's still undeniably challenging for the reader to wrap one's head around at first. For myself, I found that everything went a lot more smoothly after I realized that, as physical as this world seems in its depiction, the way everything works makes perfect sense (and seems entirely possible) if you think of it as happening inside a computer-generated virtual reality. Ana (2016-06-16). "SFF in Conversation: Yoon Ha Lee on Being Trans". The Book Smugglers . Retrieved 2023-05-10. I advise others to skip the first half of chapter 2. It's crap constipated word-salad and 95% irrelevant. Even without chapter 2, the book so far is pretty dull politics buried in word-salad-abused info-dump. Ugh When I finished Ninefox Gambit, I was left with so many questions. But they probably weren’t the questions you’d think I would have, if you know this novel’s reputation.

The bad news is that Jedao went mad in his first life and massacred two armies, one of them his own. As the siege wears on, Cheris must decide how far she can trust Jedao–because she might be his next victim. That had been eighteen hours ago. It wasn’t that anyone was surprised by the plan’s failure. It was the carnage.Complete Immortality: Jedao Two, because moths don't age and have a Healing Factor. Kujen speculates that jumping into a star might kill him. Thus explains how a Kel soldier named Cheris receives her next assignment. Expecting to be dismissed after a misconduct on the battlefield, Cheris is instead given the mission to recapture the Fortress of Scattered Needles, a star base recently taken over by a population of heretics. To aid her in breaking the siege, Kel Command has extracted the digital ghost of a brilliant general and tactician named Shuos Jedao, grafting his consciousness to hers so that the two can work as one to deal with the situation. The only problem is, in life Jedao was a madman, recognized for his victories but also notorious for having killed more than a million people including his own soldiers. While the general has never lost a battle, can Cheris really trust this manipulative genius not to make her his next victim? I was never bored, but this book took me through some rather difficult times because it is so dense with information. Fortunately, with a close eye and a stout heart, it is very worth the read and most things become obvious in their nature or there's enough visualization and idea-building behind it that it all becomes clear later. I won't say this is a difficult book, but I will say that it is challenging and very, very rewarding, almost as if we're playing a long and impressive game with the author. The war, in Ninefox Gambit, is between differing factions which believe in applying different calendrical concepts. So-called ‘heretics’ believe in different systems than the hexarchate, and challenge their rule.