Raven Stratagem by Yoon Ha Lee

Raven Stratagem by Yoon Ha Lee is the second book in the Machineries of Empire series, the sequel to Ninefox Gambit, which I reviewed last year. I enjoyed Ninefox Gambit, which has been short listed for pretty much all the awards and won a Locus for best debut novel. In my opinion, Raven Stratagem is even better.

War. Heresy. Madness.

Shuos Jedao is unleashed. The long-dead general, preserved with exotic technologies and resurrected by the hexarchate to put down a heretical insurrection, 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 incursion by the enemy Hafn, has fallen under Jedao’s sway. Only Khiruev’s aide, Lieutenant Colonel Kel Brezan, appears 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?

I think Raven Stratagem benefits from a lot of the more bonkers worldbuilding having been explained in the first book in the series. You don't have to remember all the details from the first book (indeed, I didn't) but a familiarity with the general ideas is certainly helpful. There is also less focus on actual battles, which we saw a lot more of in Ninefox Gambit and which were, in my opinion, the weirdest bits and certainly the hardest to follow at first.

In Raven Stratagem we are introduced to some new point of view characters, who I quickly grew to like. From memory, pretty much all of Ninefox Gambit was told from Cheris's point of view, but in Raven Stratagem the story is split between a few key characters. There's the two Kel into whose careers Jedao throws a giant wrench — a general and a lieutenant colonel — and the hexarch of the Shuos faction, all of whom made for fascinating reading. This is a very character driven book and we get to know and care about all the characters (well, some more than others). I am very much looking forward to reading more about them (hopefully) in the final book in the trilogy.

This is a book filled with excitement, tension and other reasons to keep turning the pages. I was hooked as soon as I started reading and inhaled it in only a few days. There's no release date yet for the third book, but I will be awaiting it keenly. I highly recommend Raven Stratagem to fans of character-driven, hard science fiction. It is, however, very much a sequel and I can't recommend it to readers who have not yet read Ninefox Gambit. Happily, that's also an excellent book and I recommend both without compunction.

5 / 5 stars

First published: June 2017, Solaris Books
Series: Machineries of Empire trilogy, book 2 of 3
Format read: ePub
Source: Publisher via NetGalley