Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

Community Reviews
posted by on Wednesday March 29 2017, @04:26AM   Printer-friendly
from the book-review dept.

Alright - be warned - this is the lead book in a series. They want to sell you more books, LOL!

Science fiction? I don't think Lee's story is strictly SF. There is some resemblance to SF, and some to fantasy. Lee has written something different here.

There is no real attempt to explain, or to lean upon science. Lee has some almost magical force, largely based on numerology, or more accurately, the Calendar, which the characters manipulate in various ways. Space opera? Ehhh - maybe. There are only a limited number of characters that are truly developed. And, those characters don't get to meet each other very much, so it's not really opera.

I asked in the poll thread, whether this was likely to be a SJW's idea of science fiction. https://soylentnews.org/pollBooth.pl?qid=104&aid=-1 There is some of that, but it's not the purpose of the book to put across one of the currently favored SJW themes.

Mr. Lee is Chinese, and he seems to draw on Chinese mythology, legend, or maybe even history. Sadly, I'm not sure that I'm getting the full story, because I know so little of the Chinese culture. [Yoon Ha Lee is Korean.]

All the same, this has been a pretty action packed space adventure. The heroine is a military commander (captain of infantry) whose pastime is math. The math that enables and manipulates this mysterious force. As a military commander, her task is less to bring firepower to bear upon the enemy, as to keep her troops in formation. The formation is mathematically calculated to focus the force on the enemy, or to defend freindly troops. A "gun" may or may not fire a projectile, at all - and if it does fire a projectile, it is unlikely to be a solid, physical projectile. Call it magic - the gun merely focuses the magic that the commander intends to use.

Kel Cheris' math abilities help her to defeat an anemy in the opening chapter, which her colleagues have been unable to touch. This brings her to the attention of the high command, who has a far greater challenge to be met.

Enter the hero/madman/villian/anti-hero/traitor. Shuos Jedao can be described as a disembodied mind, kept as a pet of the Heptarch, and routinely trotted out of his "black cradle" to solve insoluble problems. Jedao will be "anchored" to Cheris mind, and body.

Cheris and Jedao are approved as the most likely solution to a rebellion on a Heptarch fortress that threatens the very existence of the Heptarch. The parameters defining "success" are pretty strict - the impregnable fortress must not be destroyed, if, in fact, they can gain entry.

There is plenty of intrique, with the Heptarch holding the end of a long leash, which Jedao must not escape. Cheris herself is also on a leash. But, the higher echelons don't understand the game that Jedao has been developing for the last four centuries.

This story is a wild ride, and just when you think you're nearing the end of the journey, you find that you have only just begun!


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 29 2017, @05:28AM (9 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 29 2017, @05:28AM (#485688)

    Not sure how thoroughly you checked but the author's name is clearly Korean, not Chinese. And although I have not checked what the book is about Ninefox is awfully similar to the well-known nine-tailed fox of Korean mythology.

    Not a very geeky review at all!

  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday March 29 2017, @05:58AM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday March 29 2017, @05:58AM (#485699) Journal

    And although I have not checked what the book is about Ninefox is awfully similar to the well-known nine-tailed fox of Korean mythology.

    The fox spirit (狐狸精) or nine-tailed fox (九尾狐) [wikipedia.org], having been originated from Chinese mythology, is a common motif in the mythology of East Asian countries.

    See also Kitsune [wikipedia.org] (Japan mythology) and Legend of Nine Tails Fox [wikipedia.org] (Chinese movie, 2016).

    Not sure how thoroughly you checked but the author's name is clearly Korean, not Chinese.

    Yoon Ha Lee [wikipedia.org] (born January 26, 1979 in Houston, Texas) is a Korean American science fiction and fantasy writer. When he was young, his family lived in both Texas and South Korea, where he attended high school at Seoul Foreign School, an English-language international school. He went to college at Cornell University, majoring in mathematics, and earned a master's degree in secondary mathematics education at Stanford University. He has worked as an analyst for an energy market intelligence company, done web design, and taught mathematics.[2]

    Not a very geeky review at all!

    This review and the bits of author's biography which I just quoted made me interested in buying/reading the book.
    Geeky or not, I'd say the review is successful, at least on my regard. Thanks for it!

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday March 29 2017, @01:50PM (3 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday March 29 2017, @01:50PM (#485885) Journal

    Alright - I blew it. Chinese and Korean are quite different. And, I actually read Lee's short bio. However - that 9-tailed fox has never had a place in my universe. As stated in the review, it's Asian, or Chinese, Japanese, as pointed out by c0lo. I'm happy that you know more about the foxes than I do, and you'll probably understand and enjoy the story better than I.

    • (Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Wednesday March 29 2017, @02:38PM

      by hendrikboom (1125) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday March 29 2017, @02:38PM (#485913) Homepage Journal

      I suspect that Tails, the two-tailed fox in the Sonic series of video games, is a lesser form of the nine-tailed fox.

      Foxes are traditionally messengers from the god or goddess (reports vary) Inari.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 29 2017, @05:03PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 29 2017, @05:03PM (#486018)

      A popular korean version: a fox lives for a thousand years, becomes a nine-tailed fox (kumiho). It takes up a form of super hot chick, lures a guy into the forest, and eats his heart out, literally ripping it out of the chest. Why? Probably was hungry.

      • (Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Wednesday March 29 2017, @07:03PM

        by hendrikboom (1125) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday March 29 2017, @07:03PM (#486100) Homepage Journal

        The versions of the story I heard are that the fox takes human form, seduces a human male, and lives with him as wife for many years, bearing his children and so forth. But at one point the male discovers he has mated with an animal, is completely disgusted, and banishes her. The stories go on, but don't end happily for any of the characters. Back and forth with unrequited love and resentment.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 29 2017, @01:53PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 29 2017, @01:53PM (#485889)

    i stopped reading the wall when I saw SJW in the text.

    if the reviewer can't find something a little more intellectual to use to describe a certain type of people... it's like SJW is the term for everyone that isn't a hard right conservative here.

    the term, as an insult, works when its used properly. when thrown about without proper context it just drags things down.

    i dont even know 'sjw' science fiction even is. what is conversative science fiction, so that I can see how scifi is properly done? it isn't star trek if the cast and economy in that future is any indicator.

    non-SJW is probably bladerunner I am guessing; I almost suggested early william gibson, but there are too many non-whites as major characters.

     

    • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday March 29 2017, @02:53PM

      by tangomargarine (667) on Wednesday March 29 2017, @02:53PM (#485925)

      the term, as an insult, works when its used properly. when thrown about without proper context it just drags things down.

      Why do you assume it was intended as an insult in this context?

      --
      "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 29 2017, @02:59PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 29 2017, @02:59PM (#485930)

      If you are that easily offended, I would presume that you don't read much.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 29 2017, @02:56PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 29 2017, @02:56PM (#485928)

    Clearly.