Thursday, July 13, 2017

Raven Stratagem (The Machineries of Empire #2), by Yoon Ha Lee (author), Emily Woo Zeller (narrator)

Recorded Books, June 2017

Our story begins where Ninefox Gambit left off: The mad revenant, Shuos Jedao, has seized control of the body of Captain Kel Cheris, and gone on to seize command of General Khiruev's swarm, relying on formation instinct and the fact that Kel Command is far away. He quickly offloads everyone who can't be controlled by formation instinct--the non-Kel, and Lt. Colonel Kel Brezen, who is a crashhawk, one of the rare Kel in whom formation instinct didn't take.

Jedao proceeds to do seemingly exactly what Kel Command would want him to do: defend the hexarchate against the Hafn invasion. Khiruev has, at least in theory, two problems. The first iw whether Jedao can really be trusted to defend the hexarchate as he seems to intend. The other is whether Kel Command can be trusted to let them do it, or will instead sacrifice the entire swarm to eliminate the problem of Shuos Jedao.

Meanwhile, Lt. Col. Brezen finds his way back to Kel Command and is sent out on a new mission: Promoted to High General, and sent out with an agent of yet another faction, able to enthrall the opposite sex, with the goal of taking back the swarm from Jedao--but not till after he's defeated the Hafn, if that's really what he's doing.

The question is, what is Jedao really up to?

This isn't just a great follow-up to Ninefox Gambit. It's a better, stronger, and at the same time more accessible book.

Highly recommended.

I bought this audiobook.

No comments:

Post a Comment