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.
This series may be labeled as military science fiction but it’s truly unique. Yoon Ha Lee throws the reader into a fictional universe that’s strictly regulated in the use of what are called esotericotic technologies, which work according to precise mathematical rules that require the citizens’ faith. It seems a case where sufficiently advanced technologies are indistinguishable from magic since the only descriptions mix numbers and faith.
The uniqueness of this fictional universe can make this reading difficult because no explanations of those exotic technologies are given. Yoon Ha Lee just includes reference after reference, sometimes in great detail. The author allows the reader to understand the meaning of all this from the context and from the characters’ comments. The characters’ actions and language are determined by that frame of reference full of rules and rituals that takes for granted foundations that are not explained.
The rules of the Hexarchate are never described as a religion but the rebels are described as heretics. Some activities are reminiscent of theocracies, in particular the treatment of people who are considered traitors, which reminds of the most brutal witch hunts. The rigidity of rules and rituals certainly makes them very similar to a religion, with all the consequences.
The clash between the Hexarchate and the rebels concerns different systems of mathematical rules, and the resulting metaphor is that of a card game in which the players try to prove that their rules are the best. From the reader’s point of view, the clash may seem meaningless but in a system that works thanks to the agreement of its participants, the rules must be shared and can never be questioned. It’s a situation in which any difference of opinion is unacceptable because it undermines the foundations of any activity.
Jedao’s situation is another case that has a more fantasy than science fiction flavor. The general is described as undead and is a kind of ghost who uses someone else’s body, in this case, Cheris’s body, as a medium to communicate with others.
All of this is used in a plot that would be even trivial if it wasn’t developed within a very particular system with a language derived from that system. Even the protagonists are built above all on some clichés but they act in that unique fictional universe. There’s tension in the story because Cheris is gambling everything in a difficult task and she knows that she can’t trust Jedao.
Depending on how involved the reader gets in the story, “Ninefox Gambit” can be a very intriguing exploration of everything about the Hexarchate and its factions or a very heavy and incomprehensible reading. Take it or leave it. The novel has an ending open to developments that will come in its sequels, so you must be open to an immersion in that fictional universe to read the whole series. It’s available on Amazon USA, UK, and Canada.
