Raven Stratagem

Rereading this series was the right decision, I’m so glad. Just like during my first read, I enjoyed the second book of The Machineries of Empire much more than the first. There are more memorable characters, the plotting is tighter, and the intrigues abound. It also helps that the reader is more familiar with this universe ;), and the world building is done more seamlessly. Thanks to the latter, you appreciate the details. I’ve been in other book universes with cool spaceships’ names, but Yoon Ha Lee’s should have one of the top spots: Hierarchy of Feasts, Beneath the Orchid… Also, how about space battle formations called Knives Are Our Walls or Mountains Never Whisper? Awesome!

Chapter one lands you right in the middle of the show more action. I like Brezan’s voice and his story arc is quite fascinating (I had also forgotten nearly all of it). Serving the hexarchate is not a great choice to make; yet I could understand Brezan’s reasoning:

“...it was that the hexarchate was a terrible place to live, but it would be an even worse one if no one with a conscience consented to serve it.”

You cannot help but love watching Cheris/Jedao being badass. There are so many great conversations with a twist in this book (not to mention space battles!). General Khiruev’s storyline was also something I managed to forget. How could I? It’s heartbreaking!

I find that I’m fond of Mikodez – meaning that when you are exploring a vipers’ nest you might say “they are all scary, but *that* scary viper is more interesting to watch.” So I need to put in some Mikodez quotes, obviously:

“I don’t object to atrocities because of ethics, which we are never taught at Shuos academy anyway… I object to atrocities because they’re terrible policy.”

“Are you trying to make me feel guilty?” Mikodez said incredulously. “That only works on people with consciences, so both of us are immune.”

About 40% in, I had an idea that Mikodez was this universe’s fiendishly twisted version of Cliopher. (Those in the know, do you agree? ;) It’s weird and interesting how completely different books end up shaking hands in your head.)
“I do my job,” Mikodez said, “because after all the trouble I went through to get it, it would be irresponsible not to.”

I loved how all the plot threads came together by the end, with the bigger picture revealed. I’m looking forward to my reread of book 3! show less

The deranged general takes over a Kel swarm and goes off to fight the hafn! Hilarity ensues! Having to strain fewer of the grey cells to work out the concepts involved meant that I got to apreciate just how good the writing is, as well as gain a better understanding of how the society works. I love space opera but generally don't care too much for milsif, but this is a fantastic read.

So this one managed to surpass the first book in almost every way that matters. And I loved the first book. But this one? This one is incredible. Trans and non-binary characters everywhere. Some opting for future sci-fi versions of HRT and Gender-affirming surgery, some not. All of them accepted and treated as their true gender without question.

And beyond that, the story is brilliant, the characters are full and interesting and have amazing arcs through the story. Reveals are handled beautifully and keep the story engaging and exciting. Everything about this is just so well done, I can't wait to pick up the 3rd one and see how this ends.

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 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 show more 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

A fun book, and certainly an easier read than Ninefox Gambit. Lee still makes the reader do a lot of the work, but the first few chapters do contain some strategic exposition to get us up to speed.

I thought the stratagem in question was pulled off pretty effectively, making for a tense and engaging read. The hexarchate is perhaps not the most menacing antagonist, and there were moments when I wish I had a better sense of the rules of the world, but it was still an entertaining mix of political and military strategy. Khiruev and Brezan, our protagonists in this volume, are competent and sympathetic, and I genuinely want to know what happens next to them.

I think I love the Kel, despite not generally being a fan of military SF. This entire show more book hinges on the fact that the Kel power structure is absurdly easy to hijack, and while I find this a bit silly, it's a flavor of silly that is extremely on-brand for the Kel. Really this series could just be one continuous Kel joke and I would enjoy it.

I did miss the elements of horror that permeated Ninefox Gambit. There are effective moments here—a man folding up like origami, the weird semi-organic constructs in the Hofn ships—but on the whole I did not have the same visceral sense of the brutality of this world. Mikodez, of course, is a bleak character, but I found his arc slow and difficult to engage with, and perhaps because I bounced off him, I just did not find the hexarchs very compelling.

I do enjoy the tone of these novels—not exactly grimdark, as the novels have a pretty clear sense of morality, but certainly a world where there aren't good choices available. I'll be interested to see how the trilogy concludes. show less

Ninefox Gambit blew me away with its relentless purity of vision, and the very alien realism of the Hexarchate empire and their exotic technologies and politics run on a half-mathematical, half-magical High Calendar powered by mass atrocity. Themes of games, redemption, and identity ran through that book.

The sequel pulls back the focus a little bit, and sets the setting up for a crisis much bigger than the collapse of a major border fort. Revenant General Shous Jedao has seized command of an entire swarm of combat starships, which he is inexplicably using to fight the Hafn invaders, another human stellar empire somehow even more horrifying in their use of human lives as weapons than the hexarchate. Khiruev is the former commander of the show more swarm, a devoted officer who finds herself following the cause of the person who usurped her command. Brezan is a crashhawk, a Kel soldier who lacks the dictates of formation instinct and so chooses to follow orders rather obey them instinctively. And Shous Mikodez is a faction leader, wryly commenting on events as he manipulates grand strategy and politics towards a complete collapse of the Hexarchate. The goal here is nothing less than successful heresy on the grandest scale, and the end of the immoral High Calendar system.

Raven Strategem is very good, but it lacks the razorwire tautness of Lee's other work. A lot of pieces are being revealed and set in motion, but the pattern how they'll fall out is still unclear. A first scan says the big theme is if redemption is possible for any of these people, or if their active participation in the crimes of power forever dooms them. A level below is a question of cosmic nihilism: can anyone be saved? Is there such a thing as a good act in this world, or just varying shades of evil? Second books are hard, and I'm worried that the answers to these questions are less interesting than asking them.

***

On a reread of the whole series, and Raven Strategem is a lot less interesting. The Hafn invasion that takes up most of the book is in retrospect a feint. The real story is the assassination of the hexarchs and breaking up of the empire. But neither Brezan or Mikodez have the essential quality of a protagonist--making a character defining choice, and the story coasts on momentum from the last book. show less

I read [b:Ninefox Gambit|26118426|Ninefox Gambit (The Machineries of Empire #1)|Yoon Ha Lee|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1446557461s/26118426.jpg|46065520] more than two years ago, so was concerned that I would struggle to follow ‘Raven Stratagem’. Thankfully, the 'Machineries of Empire' series is gentler with the reader than [b:Terra Ignota|38608229|Terra Ignota (3 Book Series)|Ada Palmer|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1542736521s/38608229.jpg|60217700]. In fact, I was reminded of [b:Ancillary Justice|17333324|Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch, #1)|Ann Leckie|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1397215917s/17333324.jpg|24064628] and sequels, another sci-fi trilogy with excellent world building and dialogue set in a show more predominantly military context. A great strength that both share is that their plots are, essentially, office politics writ interstellar. The details of each series are very different, though. Yoon Ha Lee’s universe relies upon an oppressive calendar system to impose military hierarchy and enable the use of strange technologies. Although ‘Raven Stratagem’ picks up where the previous novel left off, I had no trouble diving back into the Hexarchate. Detailed recollection of prior events was not necessary. I may have missed some nuances, but still rapidly became immersed and read the whole thing in an evening. Lee is particularly skilled at pacing, such that meetings to debate political questions never pall and space battles do not become overwhelming.

Of the point of view characters, the only one I recalled from the previous book was Jedao. Khiruev, Brezan, and Mikodez provided an excellent range of alternative points of view, both within Kel hierarchy and without. Their perspectives raise interesting questions about what it means to be loyal to an irrational collective hivemind. The world-building was consistently great and depicted an appealing interplay between technology and culture. I was not expecting the twist that Jedao was in fact Cheris, but liked it very much. Her calendrical revolution seemed quite sudden, although the hints may have been there had I been paying closer attention rather than rushing to find out what happened next. It was very neatly done, though, and a satisfying payoff for several hundred pages spent wondering what the heck Jedao was up to.

I’ve no idea where the third book will take the story as, unusually, this second volume ends on a note of resolution rather than a cliffhanger. I want to read it, though, of course. I seem to run through books in this series very quickly, as they are exceedingly readable, exciting, and plot-led. show less