Yoon Ha Lee

3.5*. Had trouble reading this due to being incredibly gory and authoritarian, and thus pretty depressing! I will probably read the next one when I'm in a better frame of mind for it.

Lee is great at naming things. Battleships called the Sincere Greeting, Higher Higher Highest, and Coiled Stone? Yes. I was also really impressed and excited by the use of math---proofs, axioms, search-spaces, etc---as the 'rules' of the universe and the science and the weapons that do horrible things to human bodies.… (more)

I had this one on a TBR list for a while now. Even from the cover illustration it is visible this is SF that aims for some concepts that are more out-of-this-world than usual and for this I need to be little bit more focused. And so, since I needed to read some SF, I decided to pick this one up and see how it goes.

And what a book. First I would say that this is one of those books where it is a merit not to know about the author (something I truly try these days to maintain as rule number one, because I am interested in books not in lives and life decision of authors). Same as for Star Wars Ronin any additional information on the author would have a negative effect. Which would be a shame since this book (and Ronin mind you) are very interesting and unique SF stories.

So, the story...... Now, in general my opinion on the story is divided on action and character interaction aspect of it.

Lets start with action. If anyone understands what is going on in action scenes (and have read just this book, nothing else in the series) I call it bollocks. All action scenes are akin to crossover of starship troopers and Hogwarths - people are dying all around, explosions show up, some weird energy weapons do terrible amount of damage, shield technology is also present, but in general everybody uses belief to fight (yup, belief) and explanation how things work is completely unavailable. This is such an enigma that .... I do not know, lets say it is weirdest setting I came across so far. Entire setting is based on strict control of pretty segregated, cast based society where entire technology is based on calendar mathematics (yup, you read that right). Basically due to the overwhelming belief discipline enforced on the society so called calendar mathematics (using the numerical theory) is the tool for development of various technology marvel. And this mathematics is weird, with fantastic effects on both space and time. Downside is that it can be affected by loss of belief in official calendar (yup, you read that right) and this is where non-calendar based weapons come in (called exotics :D) and these are as deadly as calendar based ones, although rare.

This belief system is so predominant that all military efficiency is lost if people go through what is called Doctrine correction - reason being that they become hollowed out and thus lose capability to use this belief system to fight effectively (I guess message here is that you can force people to believe into something but they will always know something is wrong in the venerated object or society).

It says a lot about the author when above technological aspect is used, nobody can figure out how it works, but in overall it does not stifle the book. As a matter of fact even when you go through land and space combat (an try figuring out what is moth ship?) even while totally unaware of how things work, incredibly everything works out just fine. Truly. You might not believe me but author's style is great, making very strange and unbelievable things play out in readers mind's eye like scenes from Star Wars.

That being said , the main, juicy part of the book are characters. Kel Cheris (Kel meaning armed forces caste) is asked in a think tank working on a solution for hijacking of important space station what would be her solution. She says I would activate Shuos (spies/assassins/troubleshooter caste) Jedao to solve the problem. Now, this Shuos Jedao is general several centuries old, that gets unfrozen and activated (merged (?) with the living person) when situation is dire. And he is good at what he does - never lost a fight although whether he is good in the head is question that puzzles many. And this is part where we find out that not every caste is happy with him - Kel's are keeping him as secret weapon but rest of the castes would be equally good with him being blown up, or, you know, run-over while crossing the street. And there are six (or maybe seven? ;)) castes [each dedicated to military, spying, philosophy, technology etc] and they are more in conflict than it might be assumed through all all-is-good public relations campaign.

Interaction between Cheris and Jedao and rest of high command and troops on the ground is what makes this a truly excellent book. Soon secrets will come out that will change Cheris' opinion on Jedao, but road to these revelations will be a bloody one (and I mean bloody, Event Horizon style). I wont go into details because it would be spoiling the story but Count Monte Cristo would not show this level of ruthlessness. We are talking about a completely different level of not caring how goals are achieved.

All in all, excellent book. Author's style is great, truly gets you immersed (those weird emails that are scattered throughout the chapters are hilarious) and book ends on a high note (truly wonderful cliffhanger). I am now definitely on a lookout for other books in the trilogy.

Highly recommended.… (more)