The Mermaid Astronaut, by Yoon Ha Lee

This is what you would call a "pretty" story--the point of it is not explored through conflict. In fact, everything works out as well as it could, though there is some foreboding. But it's told like a fairy tale, and not one of those Grimm ones that's really a horror story. Hard to pull off, so the award nominations are deserved. This is the first thing by Yoon Ha Lee outside of the Machineries of Empire series that I have read, and I enjoyed it.

David Shontz’s review of The Mermaid Astronaut | Goodreads

The Starship and the Temple Cat, by Yoon Ha Lee

The Starship and the Temple Cat by Yoon Ha Lee

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This story is a tribute to the fealty of cats--odd for me, we own 3 and I believe their fealty to be much more ephemeral than what is depicted here. But the story itself is a nice fable, a good example of Lee's talent. I enjoyed it.



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Revenant Gun, by Yoon Ha Lee

Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


With each book in this series, I figured out a bit more and liked it better. I could hardly get a grip on the first book at all, but at this point I got into the characters and began to care about it.

The K-drama perspective adds depth in a way that you just don't get in standard David Webber military SF. Everyone, no matter where they line up, is concerned with aesthetics and allows themselves distractions. It comes off as people living very intensely, fighting for their lives but also over calendrical calculations and art arrangement. The characters go beyond real into a sort of technicolor.

Jedao is a pretty amazing protagonist--he has lived all of this more intently than anyone, including being dead and placed in suspended animation, then versioned for this final episode.

Pacing is still an issue--the book takes about 100 pages to get going, and then gets weird at the end. Calendrical effects come off much more as magic than anything scientific, and I never figured it out to any greater depth than "If a certain system of time measurement, including holidays and observations, is adopted it will grant powers within its influence". Meh. But the twist that makes so much fall into place is worth all of it. So many books don't end well, and this one does. Lee says the series is complete, but there's room for more if he ever changes his mind.



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Raven Stratagem, by Yoon Ha Lee

Raven Stratagem by Yoon Ha Lee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am with many others in liking Raven Stratagem much better than Ninefox Gambit. It could be that I'm just a bit more used to his highly tongue-in-cheek style, but this book is just a lot more focused and less hinky. Granted, the ideas are still a stretch and it is challenging to read in places, but really it is better all the way through. I especially loved the ending, there's a definite sense of progress but he's got a lot of possible directions to take the series. Shuos Jedao is a character he can wring a lot of side stories out of. Calendrical technologies are still central to the story and not very clear, so I'm hoping he can do more with how calendar observances enable advanced technology. But this time he really centers the experiences of people in high places and lower ones trying to get by in an empire that is becoming increasingly dysfunctional. I was only mildly enthused about reading this one after Ninefox Gambit, but I'm definitely looking forward to the next one.


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Extracurricular Activites, by Yoon Ha Lee

Extracurricular Activities by Yoon Ha Lee

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This prequel centers around Shuos Jedao when he was alive, early in his career. It's a lot more madcap than I remember the novel to have been, and much more action-oriented. There's a lot of fun in here, but I still found it very disjointed and hard to read in places. Somebody else mentioned the hair thing--yes, it's frustrating not to know what was up with that. I have not read The Raven Stratagem yet, but plan to, hopefully it gets more coherent as the series goes along.



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Foxfire, Foxfire, by Yoon Ha Lee

My review on LibraryThing.

Ninefox Gambit, by Yoon Ha Lee

I have not heard of Yoon Ha Lee, but plenty of people have.  The basis of his SF is math, and he is now devoting most of his time to the Machineries of Empire universe, of which Ninefox Gambit is the first full length novel.

The technology here is the calendar--the regulation of life by holidays and appointment.  The calendar can be used as a weapon, and rebels against it make use of those properties as well.  It's a sort of magic, though never discussed as such here.

There's lots of action and intrigue, and much to enjoy.  Yoon Ha Lee has plenty of fans.  But I have to say I found the book hard to read, and it never really took off for me.  It could be a lack of familiarity with the cultural context--it is apparent that Lee is making different assumptions from what Westerners would.  Still, I spent a lot of my time reading this book confused.  I don't think that's how action novels are supposed to work. 

I guess this reminds me of Aliette De Bodard's work--confusing when it should be transparent.  It still sort of works, but I can't say I favor it for an award.  A weak 3 stars from me.