Ninefox Gambit

Yoon Ha Lee

Book 1 of Machineries of Empire Book

Language: English

Description:

To win an impossible war Captain Kel Cheris must awaken an ancient weapon and a despised traitor general.

Captain Kel Cheris of the hexarchate is disgraced for using unconventional methods in a battle against heretics.  Kel Command gives her the opportunity to redeem herself by retaking the Fortress of Scattered Needles, a star fortress that has recently been captured by heretics.  Cheris's career isn't the only thing at stake.  If the fortress falls, the hexarchate itself might be next.

Cheris's best hope is to ally with the undead tactician Shuos Jedao. The good news is that Jedao has never lost a battle, and he may be the only one who can figure out how to successfully besiege the fortress.

The bad news is that Jedao went mad in his first life and massacred two armies, one of them his own.  As the siege wears on, Cheris must decide how far she can trust Jedao--because she might be his next victim.

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Review

“Beautiful, brutal and full of the kind of off-hand inventiveness that the best SF trades in, Ninefox Gambit is an effortlessly accomplished SF novel. Yoon Ha Lee has arrived in spectacular fashion.” (Alastair Reynolds)

"A dizzying composite of military space opera andsheer poetry. Every word, name and concept in Lee's unique world is imbued witha sense of wonder." (Hannu Rajaniemi)

“I love Yoon's work! Ninefox Gambit is solidly and satisfyingly full of battles and political intrigue, in a beautifully built far-future that manages to be human and alien at the same time. It should be a treat for readers already familiar with Yoon's excellent short fiction, and an extra treat for readers finding Yoon's work for the first time.” (Ann Leckie)

StarshipTroopers meets Apocalypse Now – and they’ve put Kurtz in charge...Mind-blistering military space opera, but with a density of ideas andstrangeness that recalls the works of Hannu Rajaniemi, even Cordwainer Smith.An unmissable debut.” (Stephen Baxter)

"Astriking space opera by a bright new talent." (Elizabeth Bear)

“Forsixteen years Yoon Ha Lee has been the shadow general of science fiction, thecalculating tactician behind victory after victory. Now he launches his greatmanoeuvre. Origami elegant, fox-sly, defiantly and ferociously new,this book will burn your brain. Axiomatically brilliant. Heretically good.” (Seth Dickinson)

"Ahigh-octane ride through an endlessly inventive world, where calendars areweapons of war and dead soldiers can assist the living. Bold, fearlesslyinnovative and just a bit brutal, this is a book that deserves to be on everyawards list." (Aliette de Bodard)

“Daring,original and compulsive. As if Cordwainer Smith had written a Warhammer novel.” (Gareth L. Powell)

About the Author

Yoon Ha Lee is a writer and mathematician from Houston, Texas, whose work has appeared in Clarkesworld, Lightspeed and The Magazine Of Fantasy and Science Fiction. He has published over forty short stories, and his critically acclaimed collection Conservation of Shadows was released in 2013. He lives in Louisiana with his family and an extremely lazy cat, and has not yet been eaten by gators.