Science
Fiction is a genre which tends to encourage originality and weirdness in equal
measure. Space is very big, which means that creators have plenty of room to
try out the strangest of ideas. Yoon Ha Lee’s Nine Fox Gambit is an excellent
example of this; it is big in every possible way. It’s a space opera story with
ghosts, social commentary, epic battle, but it’s also much more than that.
One of the novel’s central ideas is that entire civilisations are run on an
calendrical systems. This means that the beliefs, calendar, and observances of
society create topologies that in turn alter the fundamental laws of reality
and allow the use of strange and exotic weapons. The story centres on Kel Cheris, a brilliant
captain who happens to be down on their luck. The only mission they’re allowed to
embark upon is an insanely hard one; They must recapture the impregnable space station,
the Fortress of Scattered Needles. Her ally is tactician Shuos Jedao, the only
person to ever get into the station. This might sound like a standard sci-fi
trope, but Lee adds their own twist to it. For a start, Shuos is sort of dead.
And insane.
The writing is superb and clever. The ideas are strong and constantly
fascinating. The pacing is a quite bumpy,
however. In order to cram in so much world building, something has to suffer
and in this case, it’s a consistent speed to the action. We go from space
battle to personal drama to really cool exposition pretty quickly at times, and
though all these elements are great on their own, they can be a little jarring
for those of us who like to read at more than a leisurely pace.
Though this is, at its core, a pulp sci-fi page turner, it’s also intelligently
written in a way that would appeal to fans of Hannu Rajaniemi and Ian M Banks. That said, don’t be afraid of the complex
ideas here; the super science blurs into magic pretty quickly, lending to the
space opera stylings of the book. Yoon
Ha Lee is a powerful talent, and one to watch out for.
NINEFOX GAMBIT / AUTHOR: YOON HA LEE /
PUBLISHER: SOLARIS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
