Ninefox Gambit: 1 (The Machineries of Empire, 1)

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Don’t get me wrong, it’s violent and tragic and mysterious, but the reading experience as such can only be described as utter fun.

The author applies the “sink of swim” approach to his world-building, by which I mean the author simply throws the reader into the midst of the world and leaves him or her to figure everything out on his or her own. Cheris has only ever had female lovers, Jedao has had both male and female lovers, and they’re also explicitly attracted characters of the same gender.This dichotomy in Jedao’s character is utterly fascinating, and the main reason why I am so drawn to him. What I loved about this, in addition to the crazy new world and complex societal structure, was the characters.

And that’s true for a lot of science fiction that verges on science fantasy, especially when you start throwing around nanotechnology and artificial intelligence.

And this, I think, is what I hope you focus on when you read the reviews, mine included, and decide if Ninefox Gambit is for you.

I still don’t understand (and I suspect I’m not meant to) how that translates into the efficacy of certain weapons and not others, how individuals breaking away from a calendar can cause “calendrical rot,” and how the importance of mathematics ties into all this. I don’t like the opposite approach the author could have taken much which would have been a Sanderson-like explanation of every detail of Calendars. Instead, this novel focuses on character development, and on laying down the groundwork for central themes of rebellion and revolution, thus setting the stage for the upcoming novels in the series.Besides, on the specific subject of Lee’s use of consensus reality—umm, have y’all seen the United States these days? It probably also helps that not a lot of the current generation of sci-fi fans have actually read it.