Ninefox Gambit, a mini-review
Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee (
yhlee) is frickin' amazing.
I am really, really tired and brain dead but I want to write this now so that I don't forget *_*
I place a really high value on the lack of holes in a story in all the places that matter (worldbuilding always fades out at the edges where you no longer need them, that's great and how it should be, I hate Tolkien) -- and this book was flawless, guys. All the homework was done, all the pieces slot together. It's stunning.
The book beautifully executes one of my favorite things-to-explore-in-fiction: memory vs. experience vs. identity - how do all these play together when they disagree? AND GIVEN THE ENDING, I EXPECT THERE TO BE MORE OF THIS. YESSSSS.
I love competent characters, and this book is chock full of them. Everyone is great at what they do! In wonderfully believable ways! And they also have weaknesses that make sense and are plot relevant and yessssss Jedao's WAS SUCH A GREAT REVEAL aglhsggdjg
The aesthetics were, frankly, my aesthetic: the poetic names of equipment and locations, the calendar!
The magitek (if I may call it that) was also really, really fun. I'm not sure I really have it all figured out (I'm not sure it entirely matters if I figure it out - maybe in book three?) but I am going to hold out hope for some kind of, I don't know, universal identity matrix bomb ... but oh my god MATH AS MAGIC, I need all of it. *______* I don't get all of it, but I get enough to love how clever it is. (Right now in my head, it's something like - the magitek operates on something like linear/vector algebra, and every different calendar is a different basis/set of bases, which inevitably yields different results.) (I had thought, perhaps, "invariant ice" operated on all the reals + imaginaries or something like that, which would be a big deal because such a huge domain means huge processing power is required.) ANYWAY, BEST/COOLEST MAGIC SYSTEM I HAVE SEEN SINCE FOREVER.
In short, oh my god the next book, I need it. <3
But in the meantime, I will reread (to catch all the things that I inevitably missed the first time) and then join the threads if they're not over yet ...
yhlee) is frickin' amazing.
I am really, really tired and brain dead but I want to write this now so that I don't forget *_*
I place a really high value on the lack of holes in a story in all the places that matter (worldbuilding always fades out at the edges where you no longer need them, that's great and how it should be, I hate Tolkien) -- and this book was flawless, guys. All the homework was done, all the pieces slot together. It's stunning.
The book beautifully executes one of my favorite things-to-explore-in-fiction: memory vs. experience vs. identity - how do all these play together when they disagree? AND GIVEN THE ENDING, I EXPECT THERE TO BE MORE OF THIS. YESSSSS.
I love competent characters, and this book is chock full of them. Everyone is great at what they do! In wonderfully believable ways! And they also have weaknesses that make sense and are plot relevant and yessssss Jedao's WAS SUCH A GREAT REVEAL aglhsggdjg
The aesthetics were, frankly, my aesthetic: the poetic names of equipment and locations, the calendar!
The magitek (if I may call it that) was also really, really fun. I'm not sure I really have it all figured out (I'm not sure it entirely matters if I figure it out - maybe in book three?) but I am going to hold out hope for some kind of, I don't know, universal identity matrix bomb ... but oh my god MATH AS MAGIC, I need all of it. *______* I don't get all of it, but I get enough to love how clever it is. (Right now in my head, it's something like - the magitek operates on something like linear/vector algebra, and every different calendar is a different basis/set of bases, which inevitably yields different results.) (I had thought, perhaps, "invariant ice" operated on all the reals + imaginaries or something like that, which would be a big deal because such a huge domain means huge processing power is required.) ANYWAY, BEST/COOLEST MAGIC SYSTEM I HAVE SEEN SINCE FOREVER.
In short, oh my god the next book, I need it. <3
But in the meantime, I will reread (to catch all the things that I inevitably missed the first time) and then join the threads if they're not over yet ...