Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee

Ninefox Gambit (The Machineries of Empire, #1)

by Yoon Ha Lee

New York Times Best-Selling Author – Nominated for the 2019 Hugo Award for Best Series – Winner of the 2016 Locus Award – Nominated for the Hugo, Nebula and Arthur C. Clarke Awards

When Captain Kel Cheris of the hexarchate is disgraced for her unconventional tactics, Kel Command gives her a chance to redeem herself, by retaking the Fortress of Scattered Needles from the heretics. Cheris’s career isn’t the only thing at stake: if the fortress falls, the hexarchate itself might be next.

Cheris’s best hope is to ally with the undead tactician Shuos Jedao. The good news is that Jedao has never lost a battle, and he may be the only one who can figure out how to successfully besiege the fortress. The bad news is that Jedao went mad in his first life and massacred two armies, one of them his own.

As the siege wears on, Cheris must decide how far she can trust Jedao – because she might be his next victim.

Reviewed by wyvernfriend on

4 of 5 stars

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This is one of those stories that afterwards lingers and makes you rethink how you see the world. It took me a while to get into the story but then it flew.
Captain Kel Cheris is disgraced by unconventional tactics; her chance to redeem herself is to host the mind of long-dead tactician Shuos Jedao normally this would subsume the original mind but together these two work on the siege and form a new alliance that will change things.
It's an interesting read and I'm glad I read it, I didn't continue reading this series when reading the Hugos as I felt I needed some breathing space between me and the next book in this series..
I have to admit that I found it a bit difficult to get into but compelling once I was there.

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  • 11 October, 2019: Reviewed