Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - Ninefox Gambit

Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee

21 reviews

hevs's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-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

4.75

Czekałam na taką książkę chyba dekadę. Jest łogiń, nie czekam na polskie wydania dalszych tomów tylko lecę czytać w oryginale.

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qteabeans's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This is my second time reading this book, which is saying a lot as someone who almost never re-reads things. A thoughtful space opera that is both a self-contained book and also an intriguing launch point for the trilogy that I'm excited to read. This book covers expansive themes of selfhood, loyalty, and memory all while still telling a story of intrigue as the main storyline.

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talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

can't tell if I just have no brain power at the moment or if the worldbuilding and plot legitimately are never explained in a way that makes sense. want to maybe give it another shot in the future to see if my feelings change, but for now, just kind of impenetrable

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bbbarttt's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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ofbooksandechos's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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bluejay21's review

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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eegah's review against another edition

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challenging dark 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

3.75

Quite challenging to get through - took a while for me to get oriented and by the end of the book I still didn't fully grasp the concepts this world is built on.

However, worth it for the little vignettes of war seen from different points of view, and the discussions on the brutal maths of conflict. The ending was also really rewarding.

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nico_asteri's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I don't read a lot of sci-fi these days, so this book was a little out of my comfort zone. At first, I was really not sure about it. It had a lot of the things I find off-putting about sci-fi, namely it's a dystopia future riddled with war, death, and corruption. I don't hold that against the book, by the way, it's just something that I don't tend to seek out.

However, I enjoyed this book much more than I thought I was going to, especially the last third or so.

Spoiler

Even though I really hated all the death, and I reached the end of the book still not really understanding how the formations or the calendar works, I really liked Cheris and Jedao. I feel like it's not really that important to understand the calendar and the formations completely. It's more about seeing how Cheris starts to break out of that instinct and understanding that perhaps Jedao isn't the madman it seems like he is. I think Cheris' pivot is really well done. She doesn't just immediately turn coat upon seeing the first sign of corruption. It takes a lot of time. I'm anxious to know what happened to Jedao and if he still somehow survived. Or if he and Cheris are just one being now? Either way,

I'm really looking forward to the next book!

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lucystolethesky's review against another edition

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challenging tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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reebeee's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Good book if you enjoy sci-fi warfare and military strategy—as other reviews mention, it requires a tolerance for a wide array of made-up terms. Also as other reviews have noted, Cheris could have used some more development—we don’t get much of a backstory, or motivation, or relationships for her. She’s mostly a foil for Jedao and a stand-in for the reader in her reactions. She’s not annoying though, and I appreciate that one of her defining features is loyalty, which is fun to play with when so many narratives start with rebellious protagonists.

The side characters are vivid and interesting, but ultimately don’t play large or long-lasting roles in the narrative

Spoiler

not least because practically all of them die at the end of the book

. I appreciated the way that Lee emphasized the brutality of war and the abruptness of death—some of the passages reminded me of the Iliad in that sense.

Spoiler

But a book is a narrative, after all, and it would be nice for at least one interesting side character other than Kujen to have lived. Not every side character has to be gun-fodder to demonstrate the futility of war, and any plot- or world-building potential of characters like Nerevor, Vahenz, and Zai remains unused.

I enjoyed this book's premise and characters, and I'll probably end up reading the sequels, but in the end, Ninefox's potential was more promising than its actuality.

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