Enter Raven Stratagem: opening with Kel General Khiruev, who is about to go fight the Hafn when her vessel is boarded by Cheris/Jedao. I was super curious to see where the story would go. Cheris always wondered whether the Hexarchate was even a good thing, and those who read Ninefox Gambit will know the answer is a resounding no. But the Hafn are no good either – and our heroes find themselves in a position of having to fight off an outside enemy that needs to be destroyed while simutaneously planning a revolution from the inside. Jedao was inserted into the mind of Kel captain Cheris, a mathematical genius who struggled with Kel formation instinct, the groupthink conformity strategy that the Hexarchate and the Kel rely on to keep things going. The Hafn have been trying to invade Hexarchate territory, and all that stands between them and ruin is the suicidal Kel, as well as the Hexarchate’s weapon of mass destruction (which was deployed in Ninefox Gambit): the resurrected General Jedao. Talk about reinventing a successful work! Raven Stratagem is the sequel to Yoon Ha Lee’s phenomenal Ninefox Gambit, a sequel that is as mind-blowing as its predecessor but in a completely different way. And then twist everything around half way through. How do you follow-up a breathtaking, multiple award-nominated debut that combined world-changing technologies, interesting reality-altering mathematics and awesome characters?

Ninefox gambit review