Ninefox Gambit

Nope, not for me! There seem to be two groups of people out there: those that love Ninefox Gambit, and those that didn't finish it. I won't be finishing this book.

If you like to be dumped into a complex far out SciFi setting where nothing is explained and every other word was invented by the author, then shoot me a message. I'll mail you my copy.

Hokay, I've sat on this review long enough. I finished the audiobook for this book yesterday, and I've been sitting here ever since trying to figure out how to rate this book. I feel like this is a book that you'll either find intriguing enough to want to continue, or you'll bounce off hard before you get started. This is a long review, so buckle in.

We meet the book's protagonist, Captain Kel Cheris, neck deep in keeping her troops alive capturing some point of interest for her command. The Kel as a whole (for “Kel” in Cheris' name indicates the society in which she was born, raised, and developed under) are very regimented, very militaristic, conditioned to react instantly to formation changes (orders, for lack of a better word) that were developed generations ago. Cheris herself is an incredible mathematician, something valued in this universe where math and mathematical calculations basically rules everything. Without getting too far into the weeds as to what calendrical society is, math governs the laws of nature, and the main struggle of this book is against a heretical order bent on pushing their own calendrical society and, essentially, rewriting the fabric of the universe as a result.

Still with me?

So Kel Cheris, by merit of being an incredibly good mathematician, gets an infamous strategist kept in cold storage (again, simplified) for hundreds of years implanted in her brain by Kel scientists and given a promotion allowing her to command several ships worth of people/servitors in order to combat this heresy. This infamous strategist is known for some evil things he did when he was alive, and they implanted him in Cheris' brain to augment her natural abilities with his. There's a bit of Cheris x Jedao tension there if you're looking for it, and Jedao himself shows some bisexual tendencies as well, which I thought was a nice touch.

This was a challenging book to read, not because of the topic necessarily, but the way things were integrated to carry the reader along. There's not a lot of hand-holding with respect to questions of “what does __ mean?”, and often I found myself shrugging my shoulders, assigning some arbitrary “x does y” meaning to it, and moving on. The ship names, the abilities, the station names, are very much “word salad”, in that aside from being pretty and poetic, mean very little. I'm kind of in love with the pictures words and names like “Fortress of Scattered Needles”, “Fortress of Spinshot Coins”, “invariant ice”, and ship names like “Unspoken Law” and “Sincere Greeting” conjured in my head while reading. I also recognize that this isn't everyone's cup of tea, and if you get hung up on what exactly some terminology means without explicit descriptions, you might have a bad time.

I struggled in the beginning until I basically just let the book happen, and then I enjoyed it immensely. This strikes me as one of those series where things make more sense the further in you get, and then if you go back and re-read, you'll get even more out of it. Really glad to have stuck with this, and I look forward to reading more in this series.

Anywhere from 2 to 4 out of 5!I had to work hard to enjoy this book. The author explains almost nothing; I almost put it down after the first 20 pages. I'm glad I persevered with it, although I must say there is still quite a lot of stuff in the story I'm not 100% clear about! Let's try the second book.

Maybe closer to 3.5 stars rounded down. This book was... whew. It was more difficult to read than Dune and that's saying a lot. I don't mind if books plunged you into the deep end from the beginning, because I do enjoy deciphering a strange new world by inference instead of being told exactly what's what. But this one really tested that to the extreme. From beginning to end I felt like I was, at best, only understanding maybe 70% of the action happening on the page. At worst, it was probably just a mere 20%.

It might be because I'm not one for military fiction, and this is space military fiction, so a lot of it went over my head. For another, Lee uses a lot of terms that mean nothing to me and also doesn't quite explain it. A lot of the unique features of his world remains shrouded in question marks. Because of this indecipherability, I almost DNFed this book. I pushed through and finished it really for only one reason: Shuos Jedao.

There aren't a whole lot of characters in this book that we spend a lot of time with besides Jedao and our other protagonist, Cheris. Jedao was by far the more interesting one. He reminded me of a space general version of Captain Jack Sparrow, where you're constantly guessing which side he's on at this moment. Even though he doesn't even have a physical body, his intelligence, charisma, and gifts of persuasion are all that he needs to get things done his way. Cheris is fine, and as far of a reader self-insert as we could possibly have. What really kept me going though, was wondering what Jedao was really up to in the grand scheme of things, and what was going to happen to him.

There's a glimmer of a really interesting storyline and world in here which was a smaller reason why I continued. There were whole chapters where I skimmed because I had no idea what was going on, but other chapters where I read thoroughly because I did get what was happening and it was engaging. That sums up my experience with this book - when I could understand it, it was amazing, but those moments are probably less than half the time I spent with the book overall.

My god did this book miss the mark for me. Maybe I just wasn't in the right frame of mind, but reading this was tortuous. It took me ages to work out what was going on and, although it picked up in the final 20%, at no point did I care about the motivations of anyone involved. I almost DNF'd this multiple times.

Granted, the world-building obviously took a lot of effort, but maybe some time making it a little less opaque would have been better.

I was going to give this a 2, but I'll settle for a generous 3, since the universe building is at least unique.

I don't typically like military SF, but this book reminded me of Ancillary Justice in the best ways. Amazing culture and world-building, thorough characters who keep you guessing, and bonkers technology. I read most of this on a plane which is maybe not ideal because it is so dense and difficult to visualize. Definitely not a book that treats its audience like children. I had to work to understand what was happening, but it didn't feel like work because the characters were so intriguing. Glad I bought the sequel too, but giving my brain a rest before reading it.

I loved this book... big worldbuilding sci-fi is just my jam and always has been. I loved figuring out the puzzle of the world, the space-opera elements, and the novel use of math in the setting.

If you hate sci-fi because thin characters and shallow emotional arcs make you check out, you might not like this. If you hate wandering around in a setting that you don't understand for the first half of the book, you're not going to like this book.

But if you like a fun, plotty, sci-fi novel, this is a pretty good one.

The first chapter almost lost me, but I'm glad I stuck it out. This book takes Clarke's third law to extremes like few other books, which can be off-putting or exciting, depending on your tastes. The world-building is reminiscent of Ancillary Justice, which remains one of my favorite books of all time. I'll definitely read the next books, and I'm tempted to give this one five stars, but it's on the edge, and probably closer to 4 than 5.

Ninefox Gambit wasn't bad per se, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. I had trouble understanding the intuitions behind “calendrical math”, even as someone working in a math-adjacent field. Math is by definition abstract and cannot in and of itself affect reality; it is an explanation of our physical world, but is not the physical world itself. So, I had a hard time connecting the notions of weaponizing math, “exotic” effects, formations, etc. These pieces of the world building felt incoherent. As a result, I really had trouble visualizing the scenes in my mind as I read. Setting those issues aside, the plot is chaotic at points, especially towards the end. The ending really had no grounding in rest of the story; it felt like an appendage. In sum, an interesting concept, but a not-so-great execution.

This was unnecessarily dense and difficult to understand. While I enjoyed the political intrigue, I never really comprehended the world, I also feel like Cheris' character was never explored in the depth; instead she seemed to be a convenient conduit for Jedao. I enjoyed some parts of this book, but ultimately it was pretty meh for me.

3.5 stars. Ninefox Gambit is very well written, but I found it hard to get into. I tried it as an audiobook but that didn't work due to the plethora of odd names and terms. I had to switch to the ebook and finally it rewarded persistence.
This book is hard to categorize. I finally came to think of it as fantasy with a space opera veneer. Character driven, it is a fascinating but hard read. Lee makes nothing easy for you. Read with close attention.

Executive Summary: So I enjoyed this one enough to give it four stars, but there is a giant caveat to that. In order to really enjoy it, I basically had to disregard the science completely. If you're able to do that like I was, you may enjoy it as I did. If not, you may find this a hard read.

Audiobook: Emily Woo Zeller does a pretty good job with the narration. She does a few voices, and reads with good volume and inflections. She seems like a good fit for this book, and I'll continue the series in audio if she remains the narrator.

Full Review
So I'm generally not a big reader of “hard” Sci-Fi. I tend to prefer Space Opera, or Space Fantasy instead. I'm not sure you can really call this “hard” sci-fi, since it doesn't really follow any known math/science that I'm aware of.

It does try to get pretty in depth with the “science” though. I must say I found it all very confusing. Not long into it, I decided to essentially just treat the science like fantasy and ignore most of the details.

In my mind, it came down to this:

1) Calendar Math somehow powers a variety of technology of the ruling empire
2) It's critical to how their soldiers fight in battle
3) It keeps the leaders powerful and in control
4) Going against it is pretty much the worst thing you can do and is an act of war/punishable by death.

Beyond that, nothing really matters as far as I'm concerned. That's enough for you to sit back and enjoy the plot. It has some pretty good space opera aspects, which is definitely more of my speed.

I wasn't really sure what to make of Kel Cheris at first, but I came to really enjoy her character. I particularly like the way she acts with the various artificial intelligence. I spent most of the book trying to figure out the deal with Shuos Jedao, and that's largely what led to me enjoying the story.

Things leave off in a pretty unresolved way, but I knew going in that this was the first book in a new series, so I'm not that surprised. I'll definitely be picking up the second book when it's out. I just hope focuses less on the “science” and more on the conflicts that he set up in this book. There is only so much I can ignore before I start to grow bored of a book.

It could have been a solid 4-star read, especially due to the twists in the end.

But oh my freaking lord was it difficult to read! I understand the desire to cut on needles explanations and keep the mystery at some points. I do. At least I try to. I almost gave up a few times, and I probably would have if not for the VBC meeting on Saturday.

I would have really appreciated at least some information of basic notions like calendrical mechanics, invariant ice, composite writing, day-to-day belief parameters, calendrical rot and so on. It's like the author took common words, gave them some other meaning, but couldn't be bothered to give at least some points of reference, so that the readers would be able to understand what the hell is going on.

I felt like I went some 20 years back in time when I just started reading books in English and didn't understand about 15% of what was going on, so I had to guess from context or just ignore some parts. At tat time I at least had dictionary as an option. Here even Wiki site was useless, because it had little to none explanation and seemed long deserted.

Overall, instead of enjoying the book I felt annoyed and incompetent most of the time. Definitely not the kind of escapism that I'm looking for in my books. I'll need to be positively convinced to continue the series.

This took me forever to read due to the fact that it ended up being way more of a military sci-distort than I anticipated. It was really creative and my biggest problem is that the author drops you into the action in medias res - which I generally like - but then never really gets to the exposition parts. I spent half the book not understanding anything and by the time I was starting to get it it was over. It's one of those stories where I bet I'd like the second book because I have some background knowledge but I may never get around to reading it.

Convoluted back stabbing political(religious?) structures! Heresy! Spies! Betrayal! “Strong military culture” as a backhanded compliment. Sentient robot collective (wasted I thought but maybe will come up later in the series?) Strong “burn this the fuck down” vibes. I read this straight through and was completely book-hungover after. Content warning for uh war crimes, and a sexual assault.

Currently on the Nebula and Hugo shortlists for best sci-fi novel this is an unforgivingly difficult bit of military sci-fi that throws you in to the deep end and forces you to try and catch up quick. It's a dense, next level work that I found difficult to immerse myself into - sci-fi newbie that I am.

It's calendrical rot, the hexarchate, threshold winnowers and more. Lee doesn't slow down the story with infodumps and simply chugs ahead, giving you credit to tease out the finer details for yourself as you go along. (I did appreciate the Kel's love for space kimchi though) It's no doubt exciting for the seasoned sci-fi reader but I often found myself trying to find footing and keep my head above water. It's the same feeling that I had after reading Ancillary Justice that was much lauded in the sci-fi community.

It's also a punishing war saga that talks of death by the millions while detailing the grisly end of individual soldiers. It's gory, bloody and unforgiving but written so well, balancing the horrors with the human.

... Cheris, through Jedao, realises that...[t]here is no single, correct way to deal with anything, whether it is potential insubordination in the ranks, or cracking open a supposedly impenetrable fortress. A price must be paid, yes, but who is being asked to pay that price, and by whom, and more importantly, why? Just as in the real world, Cheris must ask these questions about the entire system she is supposed to uphold, and must come up with her own answers. And it is something that we, in the real world, must do as well. We need to look at all the violence, the oppression, the suffering we see around us, and ask: Is holding on to what we have worth what is being paid to maintain it?

Full review here: https://wp.me/p21txV-Fj

This book is BANANAS in all the best possible ways. Yoon Ha Lee literally shoots his readers out of a cannon into this complex, nonstop world with no explanation or chance to catch your breath. I had to read the first several chapters multiple times just to figure out what the heck was going on. But once I found the groove - holy cow, what an amazing ride. This one takes some persistence, but is SO worth it!

ReRead January 2021
(Original review to follow, followed by my original DNF review. This book and I have been through the ringer.)

You know, I forgot a lot about this book. Anyway, liked it more on reread. In fact, if I wasn't quite adamant about not changing my rating for rereads, I'd raise this from four stars to five. (As it is, I'm still very tempted.)

The world building is inventive and unique and, a first read, has a huge learning curve ahead of them, but it's not a nice world. I've heard some complaints about the world building not being hard sci-fi enough - but I come from a background of reading fantasy and...it really puts me in mind of some of that stuff.

The characters...you get Cheris and Jedao. If you don't like one of both of them, I find it hard to believe you could like the book. Cheris is pretty okay. She gets better later in the book, for reasons that should be obvious if you know me. Jedao, I love. I'll have to finish the series first, because this is a character that could go badly off the rails, but he looks to be going on my list of favorite characters.

Final note: I like how this is the first book to a sci-fi trilogy - instead of a 16 book series (that still might never end) - and the book is just over 300 pages - instead of an 800 page doorstop. I need more of these.


Original Review

...Have you ever played Dragon Age: Inquisition? (There's a reason for this question.) Did you ever have a nice long talk about the Qunari with The Iron Bull?

I actually tried to read this book before, made about 80 pages and marked it as dnf. (Recently, when I was going through some of my books, I found this one and several others that I wanted to give another go.) Really, the only thing about this book I remembered was that it was so different than anything else I've ever read. And it is, so it took me awhile to read it because this wasn't a simple read.

However, another reason I dnf'd it was because of the world. Now, after reading it and having played Dragon Age: Inquisition, I realize that, at the very least, the Kel remind me of the Qunari. A society that is, essentially, brainwashed into doing exactly what they're supposed to, each person given a job for life, under the Qun (the Qunari religion/government thing-y) no one has a name, rather their name is their job description/title and in this book, when someone decides on a path, they loose their family name and are given a faction title before their first name. (Such as Kel Cheris where Kel is the faction the given name Cheris belongs to.) Oh, and if the brainwashing doesn't take the first time you can be ‘reeducated' under the Qun and, I don't know, returned to fledge-null in this world.

Honestly, the whole world is one that I find disturbing and very unsettling, but it is still an interesting read. And this is definitely a book that needs to be read in full. Which, it turns out, wasn't really a chore, because it is also a book that gets progressively better as it goes.


Original Review to follow:


DNF - PG 79

Why?

Because I'm already reading one book that's turning into a chore to get through, I don't need to make that two. Now, specifically about this book:

Nothing happens. The last time I saw anything remotely resembling action was before page twenty. But, the big thing? I can't connect to the characters because I can't understand them. Which also plays into the world building. This book is super heavy on the world building - something I'm already not a fan of - but the world building also makes no sense. I've heard several people call this a fantasy story, and it's more that than sci-fi, because we're dealing with things like magic ‘exotics' that only work when the ‘Kel' are in the right formation, something that also only works when there is no ‘calendar rot'. As best as I can figure, humans train at an academy for a prestigious position and the teachers recommend what faction they join (all of a sudden, this sounds REALLY familiar...) but the human has last say. Once they decide on their faction, they get...implanted with something? Something that, basically controls them and brainwashes them.

‘Someday someone might come up with a better government, one in which brainwashing and the remembrances' ritual torture weren't an unremarkable fact of life. Until then, he did what he could.'

Sorry. I really, really can't deal with a culture where brainwashing and ritual torture is seen as ‘unremarkable' and NO ONE thinks things need to change/the government needs to be overthrown.