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A review by meemzter
Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee
4.0
Reading Ninefox Gambit is like solving a puzzle. Every chapter is laid out in secrets and tangles and knots - and you, the reader, are expected to follow the complex thinking of a brilliant mathematician talking about technology you don't understand, as well as a brilliant tactician who thinks 50 steps ahead. The first time I read it, it was a demanding challenge, this second time - a joyful one.
I understood significantly more this time around. I read Raven Stratagem last year - which is a much more accessible read in my opinion, and it helped me to get a pretty good handle on exotics, invariants, calendrical warfare, formation instinct, etc - which were all things that mystified me for much of my first read of Ninefox Gambit.
However - I still didn't get everything. Even with a decent understanding of the background, I still found myself rereading paragraphs and entire pages to make sure I hadn't missed something. Sometimes I just had to accept that I *had* missed something and let it go. Sometimes I wasn't sure if I was even supposed to know the thing I was confused about. (Like Vahenz??? I have so many questions.)
Some people would probably find the difficulty of this book annoying or frustrating - and if it wasn't driven by such compelling characters, I probably would, too.
But this is the story of Kel Cheris and Shuos Jedao - and it's UTTERLY compelling. The tension between them, the mysterious history of Jedao, the strange world they inhabit - it makes all the difficulty worth it.
Ninefox Gambit still holds plenty of mysteries for me - which is why I'm confident I'll be back to read it again. For now - onto my reread of Raven Strategem!
I understood significantly more this time around. I read Raven Stratagem last year - which is a much more accessible read in my opinion, and it helped me to get a pretty good handle on exotics, invariants, calendrical warfare, formation instinct, etc - which were all things that mystified me for much of my first read of Ninefox Gambit.
However - I still didn't get everything. Even with a decent understanding of the background, I still found myself rereading paragraphs and entire pages to make sure I hadn't missed something. Sometimes I just had to accept that I *had* missed something and let it go. Sometimes I wasn't sure if I was even supposed to know the thing I was confused about. (Like Vahenz??? I have so many questions.)
Some people would probably find the difficulty of this book annoying or frustrating - and if it wasn't driven by such compelling characters, I probably would, too.
But this is the story of Kel Cheris and Shuos Jedao - and it's UTTERLY compelling. The tension between them, the mysterious history of Jedao, the strange world they inhabit - it makes all the difficulty worth it.
Spoiler
Not to mention!!! That the ending of this book!!!!!! Is the stuff of legends!!!!! You spend the entire book being like /I kinda feel like Jedao... definitely wants to bring down the Hexarchate... and I kinda feel like Cheris... might too..... and I definitely think the Hexarchate needs to go.../ and then after all this subtle maneuvering and all these clues (that I missed the first time because I was desperately trying to figure out what the hell was going on) Jedao says "I wasn't crazy when I killed everyone at Hellspin Fortress" and it kicks off this epic series of chapters to close the book and amazing setup for book 2!!!!! I will never forget reading this for the first time. Incredible. Yoon Ha Lee is a master.Ninefox Gambit still holds plenty of mysteries for me - which is why I'm confident I'll be back to read it again. For now - onto my reread of Raven Strategem!