Ninefox Gambit: 1 (The Machineries of Empire, 1)

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But if you push through, it will all make sense and the book will teach you how to read it as you go along. I have the give the narrator credit, she did a good job and if not for her, I might not have bothered to finish the book at all. Reading about the unveiling of his character and motivations, the peeling back of the layers of myth and history to reveal the truth, is an utterly compelling story – probably the story of this whole novel. I enjoyed how well women were represented - I was shocked at myself when I realised how many times I assumed a character was male until he stated their gender was female.

The rebels’ leader escaped to Hellspin Fortress, which was guarded by predatory masses and corrosive dust, but the heptarchs expected that Jedao would capture the fortress without undue difficulty. If you had asked me to list out my most anticipated books of 2021, The Galaxy, And The Ground Within certainly would have made the list.We can read into their work themes and connections that aren’t there because it allows us to feel more secure in our critique: oh, look at us, aren’t we so knowledgeable of other cultures? It is the result of heretical forces allied against this world's rulers, and someone is going to have to go in there and purge the non-conformist thought from the system. Throughout the novel Cheris deals with questions of compliance: complying with what those under her command want her to do, complying with what her faction expects her to do, complying with the other faction she knows is pulling strings – all so she can win, because the hexarchate runs on compliance to the calendar, and without that compliance, everything fails.

And that something — maybe all things — begun with the best, truest of intentions can go terribly wrong once the gears of reality begin to churn. This is compounded by the fact that the setting is decidedly very ‘out-there’ and wildly imaginative, so it can be really had to find your bearings. While Cheris may be a mathematical marvel, she is not considered that highly ranked and does not have many resources at her disposal.All this would have been helpful to know from the start, but I can understand why the author might not want to add a whole section explaining the world – it often makes the beginning clunky and unrealistic. While Star Wars certainly has its own merits, I prefer Star Trek because it offers a vision of a reality that might actually come to pass.