NineFox Gambit and the Tactics of Modern Calendrical Warfare
A reader @Amazon commented that reading NineFox Gambit feels like You have entered a movie, late by half an hour … I can attest to it and add that … You don’t even know the language … !
The fun is piecing together what you missed while formulating the vocabulary, based on making inferences as you read ! … And, that is fun ! In short, an essential read …
Slightly different from what I have been reading lately [Here]
“ .. The learning curve on Ninefox Gambit shouldn’t be underestimated, ... it’s a challenging story … layering on purposefully obfuscated but compelling twists“ — Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog
“… Readers who don’t mind being dropped in the deep end will savor this brilliantly imagined tale” — Publishers Weekly Starred Review
“The story is dense, the pace intense, … Readers willing to invest in a steep learning curve will be rewarded with a tight-woven, complicated but not convoluted, breathtakingly original space opera… “ — N. K. Jemisin, The New York Times
Lee, Yoon Ha. Hexarchate Stories (Machineries of Empire Book 4) (pp. 2–3). Solaris. Kindle Edition.
“Beautifully Alien ‘Ninefox Gambit’ Mixes Math And Magic” says Jason Sheehan in his NPR review [Here]
“Military science fiction for people who love mathematics” says ArsTechnica[Here]
The main character has this feeling that “There was something wrong with the inside of her skull, as if someone had rewritten all her nerves in a foreign alphabet. She could barely form coherent thoughts …” You will feel exactly the same way as you read the book and literally can sympathize with her !
The story arc is all about Modern Calendrical Mechanics & Calendrical Warfare. Of course, you don’t know what it is , but are eager top learn about it ! If so, I have a series to suggest — The Machineries of Empire Series by Yoon Ha Lee !
Of course, you also need to know that the high calendar didn’t just include the numbers and measures of time, but the associated social system … It is a a techno-political system that relies on rigid belief in order to function …
- The Good News : All these will be child’s play for you; in due time you will be an expert in Calendrical Minutiae viz. rigid doctrine of the Hexarchate and the irresistible formation instinct of the warrior Kel faction.
- Lee, Yoon Ha. Hexarchate Stories (Machineries of Empire Book 4) (pp. 5–6). Solaris. Kindle Edition.
- The Bad News : It won’t be due for a long time, until you are ~13/16 th of the book !
Interestingly, the story arc makes an excellent game environment — I have an idea to develop a game based on the book — very fertile imagination !
Couple of quotes:
- “if you like your universes with a dark sense of humour and a wonky moral compass, Lee may be the best thing to happen …”
- “Ambitious. Confusing. Enthralling. Brilliant. These are the words I will use to describe Yoon Ha Lee’s utterly immersive, utterly memorable novel”
- “ .. love Yoon’s work! Full of battles and political intrigue, in a beautifully built far-future that manages to be human and alien at the same time” — Ann Leckie on Ninefox Gambit
Probably this blog doesn’t make much sense either … Read the book and then this blog, it will be crystal clear (even this is a pun …) !
Tell me if I am correct ….
