I am an outlier I want the author to confuse the hell out of me. Most readers want some sort of guiding narrative hand that explains world-specific terms and alleviates confusion. Now, that's not going to work for many people. And the best part, for me at least? Lee doesn't explain anything. Clarke's Third Law - any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. (You can see now why they want to retake a fortress being held by heretics so badly). Unfortunately, there are heretical calendars out there, and any space where a heretical calendar holds sway will cause their calendrical technology to stop working. It's all powered by a highly complex system of mathematics, which Lee doesn't go too deeply into except to say that there's lots of math involved.
The belief behind the calendar fuels all their best technology. They rely on calendars - the importance of dates, festivals, etc.
That in and of itself isn't particularly unusual, but the way they rule and power their technology is. (The hexarchate used to be a heptarchate, and we find out more on how they lost a faction as the story progresses). The Kel, for example, are the warriors and military. The hexarchate is made up of six factions, as the name implies, each specializing in something different. We all know I'm a sucker for good worlds, and Lee has created something truly unique here. I'm going to start with what really got me about Ninefox Gambit: the world. Cheris must use his knowledge of tactics to take the fortress, while guarding against any deceptions that might get her whole army killed. They like her plan, but it means binding herself (quite literally) to the most notorious war criminal in hexarchate history, a madman who never lost a battle but deliberately killed his entire army. When she is disgraced by using heretical tactics on the battlefield, the higher-ups give Cheris a chance to redeem herself: retake the impregnable Fortress of Scattered Needles from a heretical faction. Ninefox Gambit tells the story of Kel Cheris, a captain in the military forces of the hexarchate. I finally bought it and then figured I'd cram it in quickly between Waking Gods and Skullsworn (which will be my next review) since it's short. On the other, it seemed like harder sci-fi than I usually enjoy. So I'd been debating buying Ninefox Gambit for a while on the one hand, the reviews were pretty spectacular and it was nominated for the Hugo. I tend to gravitate more toward fantasy in books, sci-fi in TV.
I don't normally read a ton of science fiction (she says, three of her last four reviews being science fiction). I have found my new favorite science fiction novel.Īll right, let's back up.
0 kommentar(er)
