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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!
(Score: 2) by darnkitten on Tuesday April 18 2017, @11:38PM
I started this during the Nebula thread, but never posted it:
Ninefox Gambit, the Nebula-nominated debut novel by by Yoon Ha Lee, is the first volume of a military space opera set in a universe where Asian-style astrology is actual, practical science. In other words, a person's astrological sign and that of any organization he belongs to actually influences the way he thinks, and his beliefs, attitudes and behaviors.
The government of the series, the Heptarchate, in a time long past, mathematically designed a zodiac/calendar specifically around population loyalty and control, complete with festivals and bloody sacrifices, and subjected everyone within their territories to it. The symbolism of the calendrical elements can be used to power magical weapons of mass destruction, called "exotic effects," which can be used within any area subject to the calendar.
Unfortunately, at some point more recent, there was a faction fight within the Heptarchate, and the victors erased the part of the zodiac representing the defeated faction. This erasure unbalanced the calendar, and though the underlying mathematics have been adjusted to account for it, this instability allows rebel groups to form and to design and implement their own versions of the Calendar. The government, now styled the Hexarchate, must re-establish control in a rebel territory before its heretical zodiac takes effect, permanently alters the populations and stops their superweapons from working.
Enter Cheris. She comes from a recently subjugated territory, and, though personally, she should have been governed by a creative, mathematical sign, the Ninefox, she nonetheless enlisted in the Kel (infantry), which is governed by a more traditional, straightforward and disciplined Ashhawk. When her unorthodox use of tactics, on the edge of what is allowed to the Kel under Doctrine, places her under a cloud, Kel Cheris is offered a chance to escape disgrace: she must command a force tasked with taking a rebel stronghold, with her mind bound to the brilliant mind of a long-dead general-turned-mass-murderer, the Ninefox-governed Shuos Jedao, balancing the probable deaths of her former comrades in straightforward battle against the very real possibility that allowing Jedao to guide her to victory will also allow his mind to subsume her own.
I found the conceit of the book intriguing, putting me in mind of Richard Garfinkle's Celestial Matters, (which used Ptolemaic philosophy as the basic "science" of its world). The idea that beliefs and culture might have an influence on the physical and social sciences of a group and its territories is common to both, as is a clash between rival groups with different philosophies and mutually incompatible sciences.
Where Celestial Matters, however, uses exploration of the "weird sciences" as the basis for world and story, Ninefox Gambit, uses it more to give an feel of otherness to the technology and culture of an otherwise fairly standard MilScifi novel. The epistolary glimpses of the rebel leaders, with their debate on the symbolism of farm animals and complaints about the new calendar changing the quality of daylight, gives some background as to the power of the calendars, but, for the most part, feels like window dressing. The Kel military culture was well-thought out, with a good feel for hierarchy, loyalty, ritual and tradition, especially when balanced against the gamesmanship of the Shuos faction (I assume the other factions will be covered in future books). The addition of the "exotic effects" to the battle scenes added a touch of weirdness and horror to what felt otherwise like late twentieth-century warfare.
The heart of the story--the internal conflict between Cheris and Jedao--while well-written, with intriguing elements of betrayal and personal sacrifice, feels like a set-up for the coming "real story" by the end of the novel. The pair do not form any lasting outside attachments during the story, rather becoming increasingly removed from any past and present connections, and character development takes place more in flashback than in forward movement.
All in all, while an enjoyable read, I get the feeling that Ninefox Gambit will be better read as part of a longer narrative, and I am looking forward to the release of Raven Stratagem in mid-June.