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A review by natcat
Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee
adventurous
dark
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
This book absolutely blew me away, wow, what a ride! I couldn’t remember why I’d put this on hold at the library so went into it without any expectations and, wow, I loved it! I loved the ride it took me on, and the inventiveness of the worldbuilding is amazing and the way that world building unfolds is incredibly compelling - I thought all of that was just super well done.
This is a pretty grim book, in a lot of ways - the universe it takes place in is a dark one, in which lives are incredibly disposable, and a lot of people die in this book, many of them from the actions of our main characters - and it doesn’t shy away from that, but it’s not depressing, either. The characters might exist in a universe where lines of morality are drawn differently, but their emotions and motivations are not alien and are very compelling and are very much looking at those moral lines.
The way the story unfolds is fascinating, and I was very impressed with how the author started weaving in short segments from a wide variety of characters in the second half of the book - some of them were very short, but each character felt different and fully realized. I really liked our main perspective character, Kel Cheris, and her relationship - the central relationship of the book - with Shuos Jedao is fascinating, and I think would be very rewarding on a reread.
I also really liked the casual way sexuality and gender and queerness worked in this book - several of the characters have same-sex relationships, and the way this is portrayed feels very convincingly like all the people involved haven’t grown up in our societies, with our hang ups and perceptions of ‘normal’, all of which was really lovely to read.
Inventive, emotionally compelling, and entirely engrossing - I highly recommend this book!
This is a pretty grim book, in a lot of ways - the universe it takes place in is a dark one, in which lives are incredibly disposable, and a lot of people die in this book, many of them from the actions of our main characters - and it doesn’t shy away from that, but it’s not depressing, either. The characters might exist in a universe where lines of morality are drawn differently, but their emotions and motivations are not alien and are very compelling and are very much looking at those moral lines.
The way the story unfolds is fascinating, and I was very impressed with how the author started weaving in short segments from a wide variety of characters in the second half of the book - some of them were very short, but each character felt different and fully realized. I really liked our main perspective character, Kel Cheris, and her relationship - the central relationship of the book - with Shuos Jedao is fascinating, and I think would be very rewarding on a reread.
I also really liked the casual way sexuality and gender and queerness worked in this book - several of the characters have same-sex relationships, and the way this is portrayed feels very convincingly like all the people involved haven’t grown up in our societies, with our hang ups and perceptions of ‘normal’, all of which was really lovely to read.
Inventive, emotionally compelling, and entirely engrossing - I highly recommend this book!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, War, and Violence