The novel “Ninefox Gambit” by Yoon Ha Lee was published for the first time in 2016. It’s the first book in The Machineries of Empire series.

Captain Kel Cheris won a battle against the heretics but is disgraced because she used an unorthodox strategy. In the Hexarchate, everything follows precise rules and their violation can even be considered a betrayal and punished with the inclusion among the condemned during the rituals of torture to death.

Kel Command offers Cheris a chance for redemption by demonstrating her allegiance to the Hexarchate. Cheris’s proposal is to retake the Fortress of Scattered Needles, a space fortress that was conquered by the heretics, using the advice of Shuos Jedao, a general who lived centuries before who never lost a battle. Jedao is considered a traitor whose conscience is kept available, and for Cheris working with him is a very risky task.