Yoon Ha Lee

I completely bounced off Ninefox Gambit, the book to which this is a sequel, and picked it up with a feeling of undertaking a dreaded duty when it was revealed as a finalist for the 2018 Hugo Awards. Well, I don't know if it was me or the book, but as I read it, I found myself enjoying it more and more, and then once a nice twist came along around the two-thirds mark, I was definitely on board. Raven Stratagem picks up only loosely from the end of Ninefox Gambit: basically the dead genocidal show more general Shuos Jedao has taken over the body of naval captain Kel Charis, and outside of "them," no other characters recur between the two books. (As far as I noticed anyway; my memories of Ninefox are a little vague.) Jedao is never a viewpoint character; the focal characters of Raven are the general of the fleet Jedao takes over, a personnel officer from that fleet who defies his takeover, and the leader of the Shuos faction.

Whereas I felt Ninefox focused on space combat that might as well be magic, Raven focuses much more on character and politics. I especially really liked Kel Brezan, the personnel officer. The Kel, the military faction of the hexarchate, are all ingrained with "formation instinct," which causes them to obey any order given. But Brezan is a "crashhawk," a Kel whose formation instinct is very weak. So on the one hand, he can defy the unlawful orders of Jedao, but on the other hand, in doing so, he reveals himself as a failure of a Kel. Dutiful and loyal, but self-deprecating for not being dutiful and loyal enough: that's my kind of character. The flashbacks peppered throughout to the various characters' training are especially interesting, as they reveal both personality and the rules and customs of the six factions of the hexarchate.

There are two things I wish for more of: I like the idea that belief in an exotic math system allows you to use it to devastating effect (shades of Christopher H. Bidmead's block transfer computation there), but why belief in a math system is dependent on using a particular calendar remains frustratingly obscure. Though maybe spelling it out would be even less convincing! And also once the twist comes two-thirds of the way in, things proceed a little too perfunctorily; the ending wasn't quite climactic enough to live up to the twist. But still, I enjoyed it.

If you didn't like Ninefox Gambit, I recommend still giving Raven Stratagem a try. I don't know if Raven is actually better than Ninefox, or if I just acclimated to the world more. Or if maybe reading Ninefox near the end of my 2017 Hugos reading just meant I was burnt out by the time I got to it. I'd be curious to reread Ninefox now in any case, but I will also be ordering Revenant Gun to finish off the Machineries of Empire trilogy. show less

We need more books like this! Often, we see queer stories that revolve around queerness, but Phoenix Extravagant is a story with casual queerness where queer characters can exist without that being their soul purpose. The main character of this tale is Jebi, a non-binary artist. While there are sex scenes in the novel, they do not explicity reveal what body Jebi was born into, and for that I am greatful. Non-binary readers can see themselves in Jebi and imagine them in whatever way comforts show more them. Other than excellent gender and sexuality representation, this story reflects the Japanese occupation in Korea and the tensions and rebellion that came with it. Truly an artful tale filled with history, culture, and respect. show less

I’m usually not much of a middle grade reader, so this book wouldn’t have even been on my radar if my friend Dini had not recommended it to me for one of my 2020 yearly challenges, as well as it being chosen as a BOTM for our Stars and Sorcery book club. So, I was very excited to start this and have some fun, and that’s exactly what happened.

Like any MG novel, this one too was very easy to read and I just breezed through it in a few hours. The writing style is pretty lighthearted show more despite some of the deeper themes being explored, it’s very fast paced and everything happens so quickly that you never want to put the book down. The world building is also just perfect, giving us enough information about the different lands and star systems as well the government, without ever overwhelming with too much detail. As someone who is pretty new to the sci-fi genre, that’s very important to me and I was happy that all the scientific terminology and elements didn’t go over my head. And as always, one of my favorite parts of the book was how the author was able to integrate both Korean mythology and culture into the story and how seamless it was in context of the story. The representation is also quite amazing and very matter of fact, which is how it should be, and I just love that younger readers will get to read books with non-binary characters as well about the importance of using correct pronouns.

Min is such a delightful character to follow. She is a sweet girl who is a bit annoyed that she has to do so many chores at home and is bullied a bit by her aunts and cousins, but she also loves her family and will do anything to find her brother. The literal journey she goes on turns into a metaphorical one, with her finding herself, realizing what’s important to her and thinking about her future. In the meantime, she uses her intelligence, resourcefulness, wit and magical abilities to get through many tricky situations and I was just cackling at most of her shenanigans. She is just thirteen, so she does do impulsive and reckless things but she also quickly accepts her mistakes and figures out how to do better.

This journey is also about her making new friends outside of her family and it was nice to see her form such important relationships and planing trust in others. Both Sujin and Haneul are fun to be around and I loved the camaraderie between them. Even the characters we assume are bad guys are written with nuance and there is always hope for redemption.

In the end, this is a fun space adventure with characters you fall in love with and root for, and a world that you want to explore more of. But ultimately, it’s also just about friendship, family and having hope. If you love middle grade adventure novels or space operas, I think you’ll love this one. It’s also a Nebula award nominee for this year, so its a perfect choice if you enjoy reading highly acclaimed books. show less

I like it! It's not an easy read. The beginning has the potential to set the reader adrift in terms of how much novel information immediately starts getting thrown around, but it all ultimately comes together for a very satisfying conclusion in the end. You'd better enjoy the ultraviolence of future war, because there is a lot of it! The characters, who are rock-solid in terms of motivation and compellingly tortured, feel like a bonus tagged on to the similarly solid central story focused on show more the nitty-gritty tactics and politics of battle. Perhaps the most compelling element of the book for me is its exploration of the relationship between the structure of government and the technology it uses/develops in order to uphold itself and justify its rule--very amenable to historical materialist readings! show less