meganhueble's review against another edition
4.0
This world is so interesting - I love the investigation of technology, ritual/belief, control, etc. Definitely left me with a lot of questions, but not in an unsatisfying way.
ingamaloy's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
Må innrømme at jeg skjønte lite. Er usikker på om jeg fortsetter serien, men var et spennende premiss.
simlish's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars. I was recced this as similar to the Imperial Radch and the Baru Cormorant books and I can see why. I didn't like it quite as much as either -- the scifi was a bit dense for me, especially at the beginning, and I often found it difficult to understand what, exactly, the rules of the universe were, not to mention that it's a bit more viciously dark than I prefer. In that respect, I would compare it to the Altered Carbon books, which I had to give up because they were too cynical.
However, I did read it all in less than 24 hours so I can't pretend I didn't like something about it, and that something was Cheris and sometimes Jedao.
I will probably continue with the series, though I don't feel desperate to pick up the next book.
However, I did read it all in less than 24 hours so I can't pretend I didn't like something about it, and that something was Cheris and sometimes Jedao.
I will probably continue with the series, though I don't feel desperate to pick up the next book.
emmascc's review against another edition
3.0
woah that ending was WILD i need book two as soon as possible
(actual rating: 3.5 stars)
(actual rating: 3.5 stars)
ash2app's review
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
altlovesbooks's review against another edition
4.0
Hokay, I've sat on this review long enough. I finished the audiobook for this book yesterday, and I've been sitting here ever since trying to figure out how to rate this book. I feel like this is a book that you'll either find intriguing enough to want to continue, or you'll bounce off hard before you get started. This is a long review, so buckle in.
We meet the book's protagonist, Captain Kel Cheris, neck deep in keeping her troops alive capturing some point of interest for her command. The Kel as a whole (for "Kel" in Cheris' name indicates the society in which she was born, raised, and developed under) are very regimented, very militaristic, conditioned to react instantly to formation changes (orders, for lack of a better word) that were developed generations ago. Cheris herself is an incredible mathematician, something valued in this universe where math and mathematical calculations basically rules everything. Without getting too far into the weeds as to what calendrical society is, math governs the laws of nature, and the main struggle of this book is against a heretical order bent on pushing their own calendrical society and, essentially, rewriting the fabric of the universe as a result.
Still with me?
So Kel Cheris, by merit of being an incredibly good mathematician, gets an infamous strategist kept in cold storage (again, simplified) for hundreds of years implanted in her brain by Kel scientists and given a promotion allowing her to command several ships worth of people/servitors in order to combat this heresy. This infamous strategist is known for some evil things he did when he was alive, and they implanted him in Cheris' brain to augment her natural abilities with his. There's a bit of Cheris x Jedao tension there if you're looking for it, and Jedao himself shows some bisexual tendencies as well, which I thought was a nice touch.
This was a challenging book to read, not because of the topic necessarily, but the way things were integrated to carry the reader along. There's not a lot of hand-holding with respect to questions of "what does ______ mean?", and often I found myself shrugging my shoulders, assigning some arbitrary "x does y" meaning to it, and moving on. The ship names, the abilities, the station names, are very much "word salad", in that aside from being pretty and poetic, mean very little. I'm kind of in love with the pictures words and names like "Fortress of Scattered Needles", "Fortress of Spinshot Coins", "invariant ice", and ship names like "Unspoken Law" and "Sincere Greeting" conjured in my head while reading. I also recognize that this isn't everyone's cup of tea, and if you get hung up on what exactly some terminology means without explicit descriptions, you might have a bad time.
I struggled in the beginning until I basically just let the book happen, and then I enjoyed it immensely. This strikes me as one of those series where things make more sense the further in you get, and then if you go back and re-read, you'll get even more out of it. Really glad to have stuck with this, and I look forward to reading more in this series.
We meet the book's protagonist, Captain Kel Cheris, neck deep in keeping her troops alive capturing some point of interest for her command. The Kel as a whole (for "Kel" in Cheris' name indicates the society in which she was born, raised, and developed under) are very regimented, very militaristic, conditioned to react instantly to formation changes (orders, for lack of a better word) that were developed generations ago. Cheris herself is an incredible mathematician, something valued in this universe where math and mathematical calculations basically rules everything. Without getting too far into the weeds as to what calendrical society is, math governs the laws of nature, and the main struggle of this book is against a heretical order bent on pushing their own calendrical society and, essentially, rewriting the fabric of the universe as a result.
Still with me?
So Kel Cheris, by merit of being an incredibly good mathematician, gets an infamous strategist kept in cold storage (again, simplified) for hundreds of years implanted in her brain by Kel scientists and given a promotion allowing her to command several ships worth of people/servitors in order to combat this heresy. This infamous strategist is known for some evil things he did when he was alive, and they implanted him in Cheris' brain to augment her natural abilities with his. There's a bit of Cheris x Jedao tension there if you're looking for it, and Jedao himself shows some bisexual tendencies as well, which I thought was a nice touch.
This was a challenging book to read, not because of the topic necessarily, but the way things were integrated to carry the reader along. There's not a lot of hand-holding with respect to questions of "what does ______ mean?", and often I found myself shrugging my shoulders, assigning some arbitrary "x does y" meaning to it, and moving on. The ship names, the abilities, the station names, are very much "word salad", in that aside from being pretty and poetic, mean very little. I'm kind of in love with the pictures words and names like "Fortress of Scattered Needles", "Fortress of Spinshot Coins", "invariant ice", and ship names like "Unspoken Law" and "Sincere Greeting" conjured in my head while reading. I also recognize that this isn't everyone's cup of tea, and if you get hung up on what exactly some terminology means without explicit descriptions, you might have a bad time.
I struggled in the beginning until I basically just let the book happen, and then I enjoyed it immensely. This strikes me as one of those series where things make more sense the further in you get, and then if you go back and re-read, you'll get even more out of it. Really glad to have stuck with this, and I look forward to reading more in this series.
holies's review against another edition
3.0
2.5 stars actually. Mostly because I didn't enjoy the book as much as I hoped, so the rating is more about that than anything else. Basically this got me hooked right from the start, even if quite a lot of the worldbuilding flew past my head (partly because maths is not my thing, and partly because that's exactly what the author intended, I feel). But then it turned out to be such a slog. What kept me going was a) the really great chemistry between the main two characters, Cheris and Jedao b) waiting for that moment when everything would magically fall into place and I would get the whole thing. Too bad the moment never came. Either I'm not smart enough for this book, or Yoon Ha Lee has taken the ' let the reader sink or swim' approach too far and it backfired on him. Given most reviews are extremely positive, the former is more probable.
nickgoe's review against another edition
4.0
Interesting story that builds as it goes. The story unravels from a relatively normal space opera to something bigger. The ending has me excited for the next part of the series!
danielles_reads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
It was important to acknowledge numbers, especially when the dead were dead by your doing.
I am kicking myself for not reading this book sooner!!! This is military epic space opera at its finest: truly alien with immersive world building, complicated and nuanced characters, and a tense story. The scope is so huge and intricate and the writing is so smooth that I can’t believe this was Lee’s debut!!!
Honestly, this is the sci-fi version of what I expected The Traitor Baru Cormorant to be like 😅 It’s also got political intrigue, morally grey characters, and overthrow of a government, but it was sooo much more intriguing with characters that were still sympathetic, even though at times it was just as confusing.
The first two chapters took me a few tries to read and understand. This book really just throws you into the deep end without any info dumping. The info that is directly provided is done seamlessly within the text, and is only what you need. Everything else is mostly implied, but the major concepts started to make more sense to me in chapter 3. I’m still a little confused on the whole calendar as math keeping society together thing lol, but I read an interview of Lee’s where he mentioned past real world civilizations starting wars over changing calendar systems, which helped me appreciate the concept more. I see a lot of reviewers say this book has too much math, but I don’t think that’s accurate. There wasn’t much direct math—it’s just that the world building starts out so confusing and happens to be based on math. This world is also subtly more Eastern-inspired than Western, which is very refreshing in a space opera. It also includes references to assimilation and language / cultural differences between different peoples of the empire. Despite the oppression, the society is queernormative and equal between genders, and both main MCs are queer!
The layers in this though!! I did not expect what ended up happening in the end, and I loved how it was done. Such a novel concept to show
Spoiler
flashbacks from Jedao’s past directly from Cheris’ eyes, as if she was Jedao. It really humanized both characters. I didn’t expect Jedao to be rebelling against the heptarchate but it makes perfect sense. Now I’m also thinking Hexarch Mikodez is in on it too? Somehow. And Kujen is an interesting character… wonder what he’s going to do next.I really liked Cheris as a character, and to see her wrangle with the effects of her commands was so good. Oh yeah, and her caring for the servitors when no one else even noticed them!! I’m a sucker for characters like that. I am really looking forward to learning more about her character separate from Kel Command and even Jedao. Lee also included short POVs of regular soldiers that really made me care for each person so quickly (must be from his practice of writing short stories). It was the same kind of thing Tasha Suri did in The Burning Kingdoms books, but frankly I think Lee did it better, as it flowed in the narrative better and didn’t take up as much space as hers did.
I considered giving this 5 stars, but ultimately it lost some points for essentially being one long battle scene until the last 10% or so. There were a lot of moving pieces, yes, but I think some of the middle portion could have been cut. It wasn’t clear where the book was going until the very end, and the constant battle speak and deaths started to get exhausting (which I think was intentional to prove a point but still). Regardless, I read half of this book while waiting in line for Anime Expo, and it was definitely a great book to keep me company.
I can’t wait to continue on in the series! I am so impressed by Lee already.
~Yours in calendrical heresy~
“Be more assertive. You tend to defer to Nerevor. The problem with authority is that if you leave it lying around, others will take it away from you. You have to act like a general or people won’t respect you as one.”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, and War
Moderate: Suicide, Rape, and Suicidal thoughts
jerseygrrrl's review against another edition
3.0
What's good: Innovative world building. Central premise of a mutually agreed upon mathematical and calendar system governing reality. Rebellion against that reality.
What's less good: You've got to love space battles, because this book is all space battles all the time. Lots of characters who are difficult to distinguish. Lots of death.
Am accomplishment, but not my kind of book.
What's less good: You've got to love space battles, because this book is all space battles all the time. Lots of characters who are difficult to distinguish. Lots of death.
Am accomplishment, but not my kind of book.