Ninefox Gambit / Yoon Ha Lee

Ninefox Gambit

(Machineries of Empire #1)

by Yoon Ha Lee

science fiction

copyright 2016

read in January 2017

rated 8/10: really quite good

It's "science fiction". The science is ... unusual. No basis -- as far as I know -- in any of current, theorised, or dreamt of, actual science. Science so hard to comprehend that it may as well be magic... But it all happens in spaceships. So it's science fiction.

Solid science but not hard science. I like it.

The actual story is traditional: individual struggle within a massive, dictatorial empire. (Not Empire, there's no Emperor. Can it still be an empire?) At the top of the page I've written, "1 of...". No individual can succeed within an entrenched empire. Not in one book, anyway...

What we have is, in essence, a single battle. And what a battle! The "science" is central. The characters are simply cannon fodder. And yet... I have time to get to know and almost like, many of the characters. Know them, like them, miss them when they are destroyed. "Destroyed", because ordinary "death" is too small a word for it.

I don't get to know them enough to be truly upset when they die. Or, perhaps, the author makes it clear that these people are destined to die. This preparation helps to soften the blow. (To the reader, if not to the dying character.)

And throughout the battle, plot is developing.

When the ultimate plot drivers are fully revealed, it is not a great surprise. The exact details are new but it's more satisfaction than surprise when it all falls into place.

Then the book ends -- with more to be done but a very satisfactory conclusion. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I was (still am) confused by the science, though it seems to be consistent and well thought out.

I enjoyed this book. As a novel, it can stand alone: the battle is over, relevant secrets have been revealed. All that is left, is to go out and explore the entire -- the huge -- empire. Room in this empire for a lot more books!

I'm hoping for more books to follow.

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Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper
Agamedes Consulting / Problems? Solved.
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"Before your dreams can come true, you have to have those dreams" … Dr Joyce Brothers