Ninefox Gambit (The Machineries of Empire, #1) by
October 2017
In tone and overall feeling (and even, to a certain extent, in its handling of gender), this reminded me of Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie—and that is definitely compliment. You’re thrown in at the deep end here and immediately immersed in a strange, brutal world with unfamiliar terminology and incomprehensible technology. Nothing is ever really precisely explained, so the feeling of strangeness persists through the whole book. It is absolutely not SF for beginners, and if you don’t like the sense of disorientation that comes from generally not knowing what the heck is going on, then this might not be the book for you. But if you like your SF dark, intriguing, packed with ideas, and refreshingly gender-balanced, then check it out. I’m already reading the first sequel…