Raven Stratagem

Yoon Ha Lee

Jun 2017 · Machineries of Empire Book 2 · Solaris

About this ebook

NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR – NOMINATED FOR THE 2019 HUGO AWARD FOR BEST SERIES – WINNER OF THE 2016 LOCUS AWARD – NOMINATED FOR THE HUGO, NEBULA AND ARTHUR C. CLARKE AWARDS.

WAR. HERESY. MADNESS.

Shuos Jedao is unleashed. The long-dead general, preserved with exotic technologies as a weapon, has possessed the body of gifted young captain Kel Cheris.

Now, General Kel Khiruev’s fleet, racing to the Severed March to stop a fresh enemy incursion, has fallen under Jedao’s sway. Only Khiruev’s aide, Lieutenant Colonel Kel Brezan, is able to shake off the influence of the brilliant but psychotic Jedao.

The rogue general seems intent on defending the hexarchate, but can Khiruev—or Brezan—trust him? For that matter, can they trust Kel Command, or will their own rulers wipe out the whole swarm to destroy one man?

Ratings and reviews

Raven Stratagem is as good as its predecessor, but very different from it, with a much wider focus that doesn't concentrate on only one battle. Which means that the clockwork efficiency the first book had in its pacing and plot is lost, but so much is gained from this multi-PoV approach: a new perspectives on the Hexarchate, more details on key players, and wonderful characters. If Ninefox Gambit was about a siege on two layers, Raven Stratagem is a war playing on many fields at once - in the form of battles just as much as in the form of mind games. I loved every moment of it, and every time I reread it I notice new details that make it even better.

A unique universe I would never want to live in, but is a great place to visit. The prose is so good I had to look up several words and mathematical concepts to see which were real and which made up. Spoiler: some of each. :) I can't wait to go back for another visit!

An excellent sequel to Ninefox Gambit, although readers should really read them in sequence as the world crafted for these novels is rather complicated, and highly interesting.

About the author

Yoon Ha Lee is a writer and mathematician from Houston, Texas, whose work has appeared in Clarkesworld, Lightspeed and The Magazine Of Fantasy and Science Fiction. He has published over forty short stories, and his critically acclaimed collection Conservation of Shadows was released in 2013. He lives in Louisiana with his family and an extremely lazy cat, and has not yet been eaten by gators.