Raven Stratagem (Machineries of Empire Book 2) Kindle Edition

Although I am posting based on the audiobook edition of this book, I also received an ARC copy from Solaris and Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. I also bought the Kindle edition of this book.“What good is immortality if nothing has been done to repair the fault lines of the human heart?”At the outset I want to recommend to any reader of the Machineries of Empire series that they check out Yoon Ha Lee's extremely helpful Hexarchate Faction Cheat Sheet. Please note that the individual links he offers, which link to the Solaris website for his series, provide some extra information, especially about the Heptarchate Liozh faction.As much as I wanted to reread Ninefox Gambit before reading Raven Stratagem it was not possible, due to timing of completing my reading for voting on the Hugo Awards. Shortly before the publication date of Raven, Solaris had been kind enough to gift me with an ARC and I was already sooo late in getting a review out that rereading or even relistening to Ninefox seemed like a luxury I couldn’t afford, especially since I was sure I was going to end up wanting to reread this new book just as much. My feelings of the shock and awe of the immersion into the Hexarchate world of Cheris and Jedao in Ninefox still lingered. I felt like I had been tossed on a tempest for most of that book, much as I loved it. I wasn't sure I really understood it as much as I wanted to. So what to do before I embedded myself fully in Raven? (Which, btw, let's think about raven, shall we?) I felt like I needed a bit more grounding on the world I was reading about. Last week I spent a fair amount of time exploring the Machineries world on Yoon Ha Lee's website. I checked out the very useful cheatsheet he provides (as I mentioned above), plus I enjoyed reading some of the back stories of Jedao and Cheris. (Link with a full list of the short stories here, reviews of the shorts to follow on the weekend) And it's a result of especially one of those short stories that I found that maybe I had a leg up on a bit of the endgame in this, the second book in the Machineries trilogy.In contemplating the puzzling political world with mathematical zealots, exotic technologies, and the vast array of hexarchate terminology that gets thrown at us, at times it’s been all too easy to be lost in the details and not see the broad view of what’s going wrong at the heart of the world of the Hexarchate, and the ultimate reasons for Heptarchate’s fall. It is little surprise that calendrical heresy is at the root of all. There is an inextricable bond between the technological power of the Hexarchate and its reliance on a faltering, cruel system that places no value on life, while it perpetuating faith and formation instinct based on arcane rituals and the assumption that sacrifice is a fantastic destiny. While the reason for Jedao’s use in Ninefox Gambit was made quite obvious, I had puzzled over what Jedao’s goal or ultimate purpose would be as we move forward in the series. We knew that ultimately Jedao wanted a better world but how to create it? Certainly Hellspin Fortress wasn’t a great start and frankly, after a passage in this book, I'm still wondering about what the hell happened in the seeming fugue state Jedao was in at Hellspin. But, going back to basics, looking at Cheris and Jedao, we see characters that never fit neatly into their factions. Cheris, a Kel with reportedly stunning mathematical abilities that should have made her a Nirai, chose Kel. And then, that sneaky Ninefox Crowned with Eyes, Shuos Jedao, seemed to choose the Kel, as well. Why? Those that don’t fit their factions, in almost every sci-fi or dystopian world, are those who will broker the greatest change. (We could call them Divergent but this is so much deeper a world.) When making change on this scale, you're talking war and in a war, you need an army.Among new and equally rich characters, we finally meet Shuos Hexarch Mikodez in all his glory. Mikodez is a true delight, probably my favorite character of the new set. From his growing onions, to his knitting, Mikodez, is a character almost as compelling as Jedao. Mikodez is a wonderful addition to the Machineries series, as is General Khiruev. Even Brexan, a character I occasionally wanted to give a good, hard shake, is an interesting mirror reflection of Jedao’s path re: Kel, Shuos and crashhawk status. The depth, quirkiness and complexity of the characters that Lee gives us are a marvel. They are really a pleasure to read.Many have written about Lee’s masterfully smooth world with respect to gender fluidity and sexual orientation. The world he has built with respect to gender and sexuality feels so natural it just flows. There are horrors here, like attempted genocides to get the attention of Jedao/Cheris, or the Hafn, who horrifyingly use their children as energy sources. Where Ninefox Gambit introduced us to the failings of rigid political systems based on religion, Raven Stratagem offers us a world where, in spite of the slimmest of odds, hearts and minds prevail.Right now this is my top choice for nominations for best novel for the Hugos next year. Such a great read. Worth all the effort to dig into Lee's vision.Those wanting some insight into this book are directed to the short story The Robot's Math Lessons which you can find on the author's website.

Great story, read them all! I found my initial chapter or so I was a little overwhelmed by all the new terminology; however, keep going! Everything is explained in due time and this is now a keeper series I will read again and again. There are only so many of those on my bookshelves, so it is a high praise. Enjoy!

One of the biggest challenges in any genre, including science fiction, is keeping it new and fresh. That's a difficult thing; if one accepts the statement that Mary Shelley's FRANKENSTEIN is the first science fiction novel, we realize that science fiction has now been around for 200 years. I'm not a scholar of the field by any means, but I'd be willing to state that the field really didn't pick up steam until the early 20th century. Even taking that into account, the idea of keeping science fiction fresh, new, and interesting is tough for a genre that has been going strong for well over a 100 years.Back in 2016 Yoon Ha Lee gave the world RAVEN STRATAGEM, Book One of the Machineries of Empire. Yes, it was military space opera, which certainly wasn't new, but it had a different idea - that of, for the lack of a better term, calendrical mechanics - which governed the way people lived their lives. As I said in my review of NINEFOX GAMBIT, "It is a way of life, a belief system, a way to hold moral fabric together. And it can be a weapon." With RAVEN STRATAGEM, we see Lee take that idea and ultimately change the way the world operates.Mad Shuos Jedeo has taken over the body of Kel Cheris, a genius at mathematics who was having difficulties with formation instinct, a way of keeping things in order and focus, a way of getting things done. Think of always doing what you're told, always deferring to someone in authority. Jedeo/Cheris board the ship of Kel General Khiruev, who is about to go into battle to try and defeat the Hafn, who are trying to invade the Hexarchate. Jedeo is of higher rank than Khiruev, so formation instinct kicks in and she defers to him. Jedeo claims he is after the same thing that the rest of the Hexarchate is after: the defeat of the Hafn.But no one knows if that's really true or not. There are factions within the Kel that are trying to kill Jedeo because he is indeed a rogue operative that they've lost control of and no longer want to deal with. He is a madman who has killed his own troops and they feel he can no longer be trusted. And yet, all signs point to him doing exactly what the Kel want anyway.So, what's up with all that anyway?The novel is much more complex than what I've described above. Really, all that is just a starting point for all the political intrigue and espionage that takes place. And yes, there's action, as you would think there should be in a military science fiction novel.But what's really going on under the covers is much more insidious, and when the big reveal is made the reader almost has to stand up and take notice. The reveal not only involves a character we thought we were following all along, but a shift in the nature of the Hexarchate. I can tell you that I did not see it coming and I do so enjoy when a novel surprises me. Yet, the change is internally consistent and while it wasn't telegraphed by any means, I think that if you put the two novels together and recall what happens back in NINEFOX GAMBIT, you should have been able to see it coming.So, yeah, keeping the genre fresh and interesting. Yoon Ha Lee has done that in the first two books of Machineries of Empire. I'm betting he can do it in the third as well, REVENANT GUN, which will be released later this year. I'm looking forward to seeing what he surprises me with next.

It's taken me a long time to get around to reading the second book in this series and there are a couple of reasons for that; the first and perhaps most important is that whilst I enjoyed Ninefox Gambit, I found it very difficult to follow. It was heavy going and hard to read and so I kept putting off moving on in the series. And of course, once I'd put it off enough I then couldn't remember anywhere near enough of the plot to be able to jump into this one and so had to re-read it.Raven Stratagem is actually a far easier book to read than its predecessor though and that really works in its favour. It's a far more character driven book than Ninefox Gambit, and whilst it does suffer from some of the same issues - a large cast of characters, complex and often similar names and a reliance on maths magic - it is far easier to fall into the story. You see events from three main character perspectives, dipping between the past and the present at times, and it's significantly easier to follow that Ninefox Gambit.What I really liked about the book though was that I didn't have a clue where it was going until the penultimate chapters. And it wasn't because I didn't understand half of it, which was half the problem with its predecessor. It's just twisty and unexpected in all the right ways. I got attached to the characters and sometimes even thought I knew what was coming next, only to be blown away by what actually transpires. I thought I had a handle on Jedao's personality and possible motivations, only to be proven wrong. I thought I knew what the Shuos leader was up to... and I was proven completely wrong. It's a book full of twists and turns, steering the plot in unexpected directions whilst drilling into the characters.All in all, it's a pity I didn't get to this book sooner as I actually enjoyed it far more than Ninefox Gambit. Ninefox is clever, don't get me wrong, but it's almost too complex and the author doesn't bother to explain things to mere mortals. Here there's a little more exposition and a lot more character focus and it works brilliantly well.

As the sequel to the amazing Ninefox Gambit I went into this novel with high expectations that were mostly met. I read this book with my book group so I’ve spent more time discussing the story and how it’s put together than I usually do. All in all we liked it but there were a few divisive issues.The first oddity of this novel is that we don’t get the same Point of View as the first book. The main character, Jedao, is there but we don’t see events from his perspective. Arguably this was also the case in the first book but Cheris was a lot closer to him than the characters in Raven Stratagem. It’s always a problem with great tactician characters that they have to be a little mysterious but in this case it might have gone too far. Anyway, I personally thought it was really well done but one of my friends thought it was a bit of a bait and switch.This is maybe exacerbated by the fact that in general we don’t spend as much time around him as in the first book. In that one we were in mostly the same location throughout. In this one we are jumping between a number of different characters in different locations. This lets the world develop and gives it more depth, while letting us know more about what’s going on. However, the action in the book falls off towards the second half. There’s a lot of plotting and manoeuvring from several different people in reaction to Jedao but as we don’t know what he’s plotting in any way, because he’s not telling anyone, it mostly boils down to people making probing strikes at him.The characters are all good and interesting. The action we see is on par with what we got to enjoy in the first book. The world is fascinating. But the slow down towards the end kind of takes away from this.All in all I think that this book depends a lot on the third novel, which is a general weakness of second books. Either it’s set everything up amazingly or it’s wasted a hundred odd pages. I have the upmost faith that it’ll turn out to be the former and I can’t wait to read it

This series has been an interesting case for me. I have enjoyed the first two books quite a lot, they have neat ideas but I feel like the author Yoon Ha Lee doesn't actually know how to communicate them to the reader leaving them feeling like a missed opportunity of something far greater.The Raven Stratagem continues not that long after the first book as Kel Cheris/Jedao arrives at a Kel Swarm in the midst of chasing down heratics and seizes command. The Kel, being indoctronated to follow orders as perfect loyal soldiers nearly all immediately fall under command leaving Cheris/Jedao with an entire swarm. The Hexarcharte tried to kill her, what will she do with it?Pretty much nothing to be pretty blunt. This book meanders with no real plot is the problem. By the end I don't really feel like a huge amount happened to push the overall story. It suffers from the same issue as the first book where the calendrical system (appears to be that working out a calender by math somehow changes the physics of the universe?) is the keystone of everything that happens yet it's barely explained in two books. It's practically magic based which in a sci-fi is a real crux in my opinion. I'm just not a fan of his writing style, i'm all for letting the reader fill in the blanks when reading but there is just far too much of that, the universe it's set in has very little exposition as do many of the characters which outside one or two feel like throw away fillers. It's weird as I feel the book focused on too many unimportant aspects yet still explained very little which is one hell of a talent.As afore mentioned though, I enjoyed reading it anyway. I still like the Cheris/Jedao set up and the way she is written in this book, often from other peoples perspectives was a really nice touch. There are some really interesting revelations as well towards the end of the book but it just took far too long to get there.+ Some clever moments.+ Cheris/Jedao are still great.+ Universe has some great ideas...-....that are barely explained or hand waved away.- Too many characters are simply filler.- Story takes too long to get anywhere.

Although Ninefox Gambit made my head spin, I ultimately enjoyed it. Enough, at least, to continue with the rest of the series.Cheris is presumed dead, her body inhabited by the undead general, Jedao. He’s apparently after a new enemy, the Hafn, and hijacks an entire swarm in order to go after them.Khiruev was the highest in command until Jedao came along. After attempting to thwart the madman, she accepts her fate and starts to feel loyalty towards Jedao. Khiruev was a strong character: she risks everything to try and stop the threat, then risks everything to help. If you want a woman on your side, Khiruev is the one: she certainly commits to the cause.Not everyone is controlled by form formation though. Brezan resists and tries to stop Jedao. He’s both kicked out from the swarm and promoted far beyond his comfort in order to stop Jedao. Brezan felt the most human to me: he is deeply uncomfortable with the situation and determined to make things right.Mikodez was my favourite. He’s a politician (for lack of a better way of describing him) but you seem him love and loss, function the way an over-worked politician would and have a sense of humour. You experience Mikodez’ emotions, especially when the stakes are high.It was towards the end when an event reveals how human Mikodez’ emotions are that made me realise that’s lacking from the other characters: their Kel instinct means you never truly know what they are feeling. It’s why connecting with them was challenging.I made a big mistake with the second book: I left it too long after reading the first to remember the intricacies of how this world worked. It meant that I spent a good chunk of the first half of Raven’s Stratagem wondering what on earth (or not, as the point might be) was going on.That meant the second half was stronger as I felt the stories were coming together, the characters interacting and the pace picking up. I understood what was going on, who was where and whose loyalty belonged to who.During the first half, however, the story felt fragmented: there was different story arcs taking place as the characters developed, but I couldn’t connect them as a whole; I didn’t have the sense of the full story.This is a really hard review to write because I was lost for quite a lot of the book. When the stories started entwining, however, I really enjoyed it. Part of me guessed the twist, but I wasn’t certain; it wasn’t a surprise, but I wouldn’t have put money on it happening either.The characters grow on you, despite the lack of emotions, and there is so much going on that you do get absorbed. I’d say the pace and tension felt quite low for the first half, but then pick up nicely in the second half.My only suggestion would be make sure you read the series close together.

I'll say up front that Yoon Ha Lee is an excellent author. The characters are immediately credible and well rounded. The dialogue is witty and economic and rarely distracting from the storyline. There are many, many small touches to enjoy alongside the drama and emotion. I admit to one 'but', which is Yoon's absolute refusal to provide any context (and certainly no explanation) of the 'Calendrial effects' concept which underlies the operation of both technology and apparently physics in the imagined universe. You'll have to read the books to get any feel for it, but at times it seems so random that the otherwise excellent space battles feel more like a Hogwarts duel with spells and counter spells. Having got that off my chest, I'll finish by saying that I can't wait for the 3rd book.