[Review to go live on blog on the 5th of June — link won't work until that time]


Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee is the third and final book in The Machineries of Empire trilogy. I have previously read and reviewed Ninefox Gambit and Raven Stratagem. This is very much an overarching story told over three volumes and, even though each book introduces new point of view characters, the story depends very much on what went before. I do not recommend reading it out of order (start with Ninefox Gambit).

When Shuos Jedao wakes up for the first time, several things go wrong. His few memories tell him that he's a seventeen-year-old cadet--but his body belongs to a man decades older. Hexarch Nirai Kujen orders Jedao to reconquer the fractured hexarchate on his behalf even though Jedao has no memory of ever being a soldier, let alone a general. Surely a knack for video games doesn't qualify you to take charge of an army?

Soon Jedao learns the situation is even worse. The Kel soldiers under his command may be compelled to obey him, but they hate him thanks to a massacre he can't remember committing. Kujen's friendliness can't hide the fact that he's a tyrant. And what's worse, Jedao and Kujen are being hunted by an enemy who knows more about Jedao and his crimes than he does himself...

There are two main point of view characters in this final book: a servitor that spends a lot of time with the Cheris/Jedao that we've come to know and love over three books and a brand new Jedao constructed by Kujen and lacking most of his memories, which went with Cheris. Somewhat unexpectedly the book jumps forward nine years from the end of Raven Stratagem, which took a bit of getting used to. We do hear from Brezan but the mystery of what's going on with Cheris doesn't last nearly as long as it did in the previous book.

I really enjoyed getting to know more about the world of servitors and seeing further into their world. After the hints in the very first book that servitors would be important (when Cheris was the only one who bothered talking to them), I found this development very satisfying. Seeing the servitors from new!Jedao's perspective was also interesting since they didn't exist when he was human and he has no other memories of them. The other interesting piece of worldbuilding we get to see in more detail in Revenant Gun is the providence of their spaceships. I always thought it was cool that they were collectively called voidmoths (scoutmoths, needlemoths, etc) but now we finally learn that "moth" isn't just an affectation. The ships are bred and then modified. While living ships aren't exactly a unique idea, Lee does something new quite interesting with them that I won't spoil.

Revenant Gun was an excellent read. Being the last in a trilogy, of course this book brings the overarching plot to a close and, ends like any good dystopian series: with the overthrow of the oppressive regime. I enjoyed the whole series and I stand by the assessment I made in my review of Raven Stratagem: the first book has the steepest learning curve by far. The calendrical warfare stuff that took place near the start-ish of Ninefox Gambit was the hardest to get my head around and nothing in the later books really compares with that confusion. If you got through the first book and didn't like that aspect, but did like the characters, then I urge you to continue with the series.

Anyway, Revenant Gun was a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy and I look forward to seeing what Lee writes in the future. (And in the meantime, I still have a lot of his short stories to get to.)

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: June 2018, Solaris
Series: Machineries of Empire book 3 of 3
Format read: ePub/paperback
Source: ARCs from publisher

Just as confusing and frustrating as the first two books in the trilogy. Some interesting concepts, but too many other plot threads undeveloped.

This year closes out one of the most original and batshit crazy series I have ever read, The Machineries of Empire, by Yoon Ha Lee. The final book in the trilogy (I assume), Revenant Gun, wraps up our current story impressively well. If you haven’t read the first two books you should, and you can find their reviews here and here. The running theme in the series so far is having absolutely no idea what is happening in the book, but still having a good time anyway. I would say I understood approximately 10% of what was happening in The Ninefox Gambit, and maybe 20% in The Raven Stratagem. This is switched up in Revenant Gun, as Lee open the floodgates of knowledge and everything that has happened in the series becomes clear and understood.

I have already seen a few reviewers complain about this dynamic shift in Revenant Gun. They feel that a large part of Machineries’ charm is being completely lost, and don’t like that the third book pulls back to curtain and shows you how everything works. I feel the opposite. Machineries’ to me is a narrative masterpiece where Lee somehow found a way to do all the world building in the back third of the series, and make it work. His decision to show us how his tech works didn’t detract from its wonder, but instead shows that there was a method to the madness all along and helps provide context to appreciate the earlier books more. It also creates a weird reading experience, where I only understood the beginning of a series after I had read its end, and I always value weird reading experiences.

As for the quality of Revenant Gun, it still has all the good things that made its predecessors great. Strange characters with a lot of personality and depth to fall in love with, an exciting military plot that somehow feels brilliant despite you not understanding why it is, and a cool world with odd technology that makes you want to unlock its secrets. The plot follows a final stand off between all the parties that have been established in the previous books, as the three factions all look to defeat the others.

There was only one real negative in the book and that is there is simply not enough screen time of the best character: Mikodez. The perspectives that the book follows are spoilers, so I won’t announce them, but suffice to say none of them are Mikodez and I am outraged. Lee, you can’t just give us one of the best POV ever in book two and then take him away from us in the final book. I need my fix. Really though I don’t have anything negative to say about Revenant Gun, it was a very solid book.

If you liked the other two books, you will like this one. If you are a holdout on this series, you now know it ends strongly and should definitely pick it up. Revenant Gun, and The Machineries of Empire, and some of the best science fiction books in the last decade and will likely make it into my all time favorite books. You are doing yourself a great disservice by not reading this weirdness, go check it out.

Rating:
Revenant Gun – 9.0/10
The Machineries of Empire – 9.0/10
-Andrew

Revenant Gun marks the end of one of the most intriguing series I've read to date. Full of calendrical warfare, heretical populations and sentient robots, there are a lot of different things going on here. Despite a few choices in the structure of this last novel, I still think that Yoon Ha Lee has delivered something great. A solid 8/10.

As per the last two novels, the writing is fantastic. The characters all feel fully fleshed out and realised, and for the most part you understand where they're coming from and why they have chosen the path they take. At some points, this became a little hazy, but I think that was more from deliberate story choice than anything else.

While the characters are wonderfully done, I do feel like (And talking to others, they agree) the story should have centred more on a certain character rather than try to have three independent POVs happening throughout. There's definitely one main view, but I would have liked more time devoted to him. Cheris is great as always, but perhaps should have had less screen time. And more screen time to Mikodez, because he's the best.

As for the actual story line, I have no complaints. While I didn't predict where it was going to go, and some turns weren't really explained, I enjoyed myself. I think the only thing that bugged me, and this is because I didn't understand how the characters got there, was towards the end when they were dealing with Kujen. That's my single complaint with the novel. That and more Mikodez please. Maybe a spinoff side story? Days of Our Lives like? (Not that I actually know what that show is about, but still)

This copy was provided by NetGalley for an honest review.

Compared to the gloriously bewildering Ninefox Gambit and it's sequel, Raven Stratagem, which occasionally doled out information in a begrudging kind of way, Revenant Gun practically holds the reader's hand. This isn't a slight against the book, because it never dips into the realm of infodumps, but more something that made me affectionately roll my eyes. Like, really Yoon? Now you decide to explain your shit? We made it this far only barely grasping the mechanics of this world, we could have made it all the way with you man!

But, no matter. A deeper understanding of exotic effects and moths was like a nice little bonus that I didn't expect, but understanding everything was never what I loved these books for. No, I loved these books for Jedao, and Revanent Gun has two of them! Cheris!Jedeo, and a new, painfully young Jedeo made up from whatever memories Cheris didn't get. A wide-eyed Jedeo who keeps asking if anyone knows what happened to his best friend from four centuries ago. Still brilliant. Still dangerous. But just, like, you want to hug him?

Two Jedeos, but barely even one Mikodez. I can forgive that in Ninefox Gambit, because I didn't know he was the best yet, but I swear I almost knocked a star or two off for his absence here. He was sorely missed. If I'm being totally honest I wavered a little between four and five stars. This book lacked the glittering edges of the first two, maybe because Lee was better about making sure the reader understood everything, maybe because it lacked a really cutting POV, a role filled by Jedeo in book one and Mikodez in book two. It was still fantastic, don't get me wrong, but I suspect I loved it a five-star amount because it had the benefit of the groundwork laid down by the first two books.

I think, maybe, if we had stayed solely in baby Jedeo's head, with maybe some corrospondance between Brezen and Cheris!Jedeo ala the 'yours in calandrical heresy' asides in Ninefox, it would have been different. But sometimes the book felt a little spread thin across POVs and there wasn't enough time for the emotional moments, and fuck did young Jedeo have some really excellent ones, to properly land.

But, minor gripes. Such minor gripes. This really was a fantastic end to one of the finest trilogies I have ever read.

It’s always hard to conclude a trilogy that broke new ground. Lee here brings us two Jedaos in order to do so—Cheris, and a newly resurrected entity with the rest of Jedao’s memories, tasked with restoring the high calendar (which will include torture-“sacrifices”) on behalf of one of the remaining hexarchs. The storytelling was as twisty as I could have hoped for, but did introduce a whole new category of atrocities being committed with only a partial resolution—which perhaps is part of Lee’s point; there will never be an end to history, or to pain, only a series of choices for better and worse.

With the hexarchate fractured, it is time for those left to regroup and attempt to rebuild their world. Or conquer it.
When Shuos Jedao comes to, it is only with his memories as a teenager cadet intact, and not as the unsurpassed tactician, the notorious Immolation Fox, once responsible for mass genocide. Yet the tyrant, Hexarch Nirai Kujen is relying on him to apply his skills as a great general to clear a path to Kujen’s ascendency as a supreme ruler.
Worse still Jedao must pit himself against someone who knows his own mind better than he does.
This last in the Machineries of the Empire series signals a change of pace. There are still the Machiavellian conspiracies and epic space battles, but this is an in-depth examination of the internal emotional landscape of Jedao, rich with intense desire, intrigues, countermoves and betrayals.
All this is achieved in a very novel way, through not only the newly conscious Jedao as he slowly connects with what he would become, but also by following Kel Cheris, a military commander with mathematical capabilities, who has been imbued with everything that was Jedao before he was captured, executed and his mind contained within the black cradle by Kel Command. This thought-provoking and novel approach to backstory in no way slows the pace, cranking up the sense of anticipation of the outcome, which once again leaves you hanging in there right up to the last minute.
Cheris’s relationship she built up with the servitors (service AIs who move around in the background largely unnoticed) in the previous book Raven Stratagem is developed further and is very much an integral part of the plot. The spaceships, called moths, which are part organic and sentient also play an important role this time as more than simple, obedient tools of war.
The new Jedao might be finding his way in this unforgiving world, but as it is one of gender fluidity, the essence of relationships is stripped down to the core, revealing Jedao at his most raw and vulnerable.
What happens when Jedao’s older self, combined with Cheris’s knowledge, and the new Jedao having to learn on the fly, come up against one another is truly fascinating.
Although, apparently, the last in the series, there is a potential relationship in here, revealed right at the end which is tantalising to say the least and begging to be taken further. If I could put such a request to the author.
Having finished Revenant Gun I went back into the first book Ninefox Gambit and began to see all sorts of previously unappreciated nuances fall into place that, without my current knowledge, I had not fully appreciated at the time. This enriched re-reading experience makes me think this series just has to become a long-term classic, due to the sheer breadth of possibility this intricate world provides. Yoon Ha Lee has certainly become an author whose every new book will be something I must have on my bookshelf.

Revenant Gun es la última entrega de la aclamada trilogía Machineries Of Empire, cuya primera entrega me fascinó continuada por la acertada pero de menor valía Raven Stratagem. Sentía curiosidad por saber cómo iba a finalizar el autor la historia, porque tenía los mimbres para una gran space opera.

Me costó entrar en el libro. La acción se sitúa 10 años después de Raven Stratagem. aunque tiene algunos episodios de flashbacks dedicados a rellenar los huecos de la narración. Como una novela con varios puntos de vista, el tono de cada personaje está muy bien definido, pero me parece que falla en otro aspecto también crucial, la importancia de cada uno de ellos. El peso de la novela lo tiene Jedao, en sus varias encarnaciones (no voy a incidir más en este punto para evitar caer en el spoiler), pero me temo que Kujen se come cada una de las escenas en las que aparece. Volvemos a encontrarnos con Cheris, Brezan y otros miembros del elenco de la trilogía pero sus interacciones son un tanto torpes o tal vez excesivamente coregrafíadas. No se nota que la narración fluya, avanza a trompicones.

El humor que ya vimos en Extracurricular Activities también está presente y es algo que se agradece, ya que alivia algunos de los pasajes de espera entre escenas. Pero no compensan algunas escenas de dominación y de pura subyugación que resultan bastante duras.

Vuelve a hacerse especial hincapié en las matemáticas que se usan para la guerra, en esos calendarios que funcionan como magia y que según el número de "creyentes" influyen en la realidad cuántica de los alrededores. Me gusta también la aparición de un nuevo personaje, bastante inesperado, que entabla conversaciones importantes con Jedao. Sin embargo, se desaprovecha su potencial.

El autor se guarda en la manga algunas bazas para sorprendernos y las juega en el momento adecuado. El final parece bastante equilibrado y respetuoso con el resto de la trilogía, pero aún así Revenant Gun me parece algo floja en comparación con las anteriores entregas, sobre todo con la brillante Ninefox Gambit.

I wish I could stop caring. And the day after that, scrawled in the margin in jagged, shaky letters almost entirely unlike his usual handwriting:
I know how to do that.
- from the journal of Inhyeng Kujen

One of the greatest trilogies of hard science fiction comes to close with plenty left over for more.

What was well done:
The origin story of Nirai Kujen.
The rise of the servitors.
A shock or two.
Calendrical Warefare, obviously.

What could have been better:
Some threads, they dangled.
The special refrigerator. How can you make a big fuss over a refrigerator in a space opera and then completely forget to make it mean something cool later?
The sex switches and binary individuals. If you can make up calendrical warfare you can make up a third pronoun that isn’t plural.

Overall it was a good story that had me tense and guessing but failed to live up to the shock and awe of Raven Stratagem.

Let's be clear, there is no point reading this concluding volume if you haven't read the previous two books. It throws you in at the deep end, with little recapping or concessions to new readers. But if you have read them, you can rest assured that this is a worthwhile conclusion to one of the most different and interesting SF series in a long time. If you ever wanted a set of books full of esoteric blood drenched mathematics, calendars that affect reality, and eldritch technology, I've got good news for you....

I received a kindle format version of this book at no cost, in return for promising to write an honest review. I have previously read Yoon Ha Lee’s exciting debut novel Ninefox Gambit, but was disappointed with sequel Raven Stratagem. Together, these three books make up a space opera trilogy called Machineries of Empire. If you have not read the first two, stop now and go read them, before continuing with my review, as they are sequential, and tightly connected. I also recommend that they be read without large gaps of intervening time, as the characters and concepts carry over, without re-explanation.

As excited as I was about the creativity of Ninefox Gambit, I was disappointed with Raven Stratagem. It was a story of imperial intrigue and of a new battle, in the same highly segregated society, and without any puzzle about the nature of reality. Raven Stratagem ends with the consolidation of power from six Hexarchs to one, but no true change. Revenant Gun opens nine years later, likewise in the same setting. But the central conflict, once it is finally exposed, is potentially transformative. In my evaluation, that brings it back from the realm of witty characters in an endless space opera franchise, to a work that might possibly be trying to say something.

Revenant Gun opens with a new POV character, a new version of Jedao, made up of the memories left behind when his infallible military skills were grafted into general Cheris in the last book. Those memories are very incomplete, and the storyline where Jedao learns what is the situation into which he has been created, and relies on memories he does not actually have, is the most compelling. There is also a storyline set nine years earlier, when Brezan is appointed head of state of The Compact – a successor state that has been attempting to impose its new calendrical system, and is armed with a faction of the Kel military. The Compact is a rival to The Protectorate, a rump of the former Empire, which is attempting to preserve the old calendrical system, and is armed with a different faction of the same Kel military. The third thread involves Cheris/Jedao, who is researching the origins of the key technologies and social constructs with which the entire trilogy is populated. Pay close attention, as I feel there were inadequate markers for the narrative switches between time frames and storylines – especially with more than one Jedao. But it all does come together at about half-way.

One of my complaints about Raven Stratagem, was the sheer volume of meaningless word-candy pretending to be concepts. That is not a problem here. While still overly magical, the effects of the calendrical systems and the formations are well explained. The weapon systems are explained well enough. The diverse gender relationships are explained well enough. I wish Lee could go back and fix Raven Stratagem, but Revenant Gun has pulled the trilogy as a whole back from the abyss.

I enjoy a challenging read. Just being able to recall enough of the earlier books, and to comprehend the fairly complex and artifact-laden story, made me happy. But beyond the joy of comprehending a difficult puzzle, is there anything more? The young and inexperienced Jedao is still able to be shocked by the immorality of the culture that has developed, and to choose actions within his very limited range of freedom. While those who are deeply invested, including the more mature Jedao within Cheris, accept it all as inevitable, optimizing their own gain within the corrupt system. Ah, the wisdom of age.

So, read this book. I even recommend wading through Raven Stratagem to get here.

The Revenant Gun is the third and final entry in Yoon Ha Lee’s “Machineries of Empire” series. The first two books were imaginative work with cunningly crafted characters, desperately eldritch technologies, high stakes plot and some top-notch world building; to get it out of the way, this finale does not, in any of those categories, disappoint.

The world…well, the world has changed. The Hexarchate, that sprawling empire, ruled by elite castes, with exotic technologies that persist based on calendrical observances, is over. Politically, what was once the Hexarchate is split – between those holding to the old calendar, their technologies powered by pain and torture of dissidents and heretics, and those who say that observance is now a matter of choice. The external factors are still there – other political entities which are either alien, or have different enough views to be considered so – creeping around the edges of the Hexarchate borders, looking for an excuse to pull chunks off it. This is what keeps the factions from all out war – but space is an imbroglio of barely suppressed tensions, one swift trigger pull away from devastation.

There’s a lot of really clever social structures work here; the different castes – the militaristic Kel, constrained by their ingrained need to follow the orders of those above them, the fey Shuos, artists and intelligencers limited by their own need to scheme against each other…and all the others – feel distinct, and ever so slightly strange. They’re human enough to be sympathetic, with edges which feel strange and unfamiliar. That strangeness is backed by the exotic technologies which tie the galaxy together. There’s weapons which work in non-Euclidean space, with descriptions which hint that detail might drive the reader mad, the servitors – near human creatures whose society and culture is limited by the perception of those who see them and there’s the Moths, ships with internals which rearrange themselves dependent on who is inside, the ability to leap distances and some seriously terrifying firepower.

It’s a strange, sharp edged, bloody world, once ensconced in systems which are often uncaring or broken. But it’s a fascinating universe, filled with the odd and the unknowable, a place where the liminal becomes the real, often painfully. It’s an often disturbing space, with a razor edge. But that’s counterbalanced by hope, in the form of its meticulously crafted characters.

Jedao, who we’ve seen a lot of in one way or another, is probably the most obvious of these. Jedao is whip smart, ready with a swift analysis and a smart mouth, letting his intelligence run the game for him. But here he’s also damaged, unsure of himself, trying to anchor to a sense of identity in a swirling morass of contradictions, some of which might end lethally. The mind behind the eyes is always three steps ahead, but always struggling against a lack of understanding. In contrast to the older, more focused Jedao, this is an individual with a sense of optimism. Often thwarted, often backed by a sarcastic remark or the odd bout of gunfire, but this Jedao isn’t ground down. That said, he carries a certain amount of baggage, both clear and subtextual. There are meditations on authority and consent here, as in previous novels, as Jedao struggles with to square his personal feelings with duty, and both with larger concerns of ethics. His is a love story, of a sort – just one which delves into the more occluded corners of the soul, and is unflinching in its exploration of those.

If those aren’t big enough issues, framed in personal relationships, there’s others. Brezan, for example, the Kel staffer-turned-general-turned-reluctant-revolutionary, shows his face again, trying to construct a political entity which will weather the storms of battle and time. I’ve always loved Brezan, for their combination of exhausted running-out-of-craps-to-give, and barely visible idealism. They’re determined to both look at the big picture and try to understand at least some of the minutiae, and are also smart enough to know that this may be impossible. Fortunately, they have Mikodez to help out; once a Hexarch one of the great powers in the universe, Mikodez now helps guide this universe toward a hopefully better future – but is rather fey about it. Clearly horrifiyingly intelligent, and a giver of small gifts to others, Mikodez’s backchat with other key players always makes me smile, and his emotional undercurrents in discussions with Brezan are enough to make one weep.

There’s also a lot more time spent with Kujen, the arch-mastermind of the Hexarchate. Kujen is, to put it mildly, odd. They seem to have an affection for Jedao, but it slithers gently around the borders of the acceptable. They also seem capable of all sorts of atrocities to achieve their goals. But there are hints of a different person there, one not yet dragged through the hedges of life, one who made the wrong choices for the right reasons. In my reading – and it’s a mark of how impressive the prose is that yours may differ – Kujen is an old, old monster. But also an indicator that any of the characters could become such a thing, given time and motivations. The abyss has looked back into Kujen, and it’s possible that all that separates them from the other characters is time, and appalling decisions.
It's a subtle book, one which approaches complex questions. There’s the politics of empire, to be sure.

There’s an examination of authority, of love, and of trust and what that means. There’s love, and the different forms it takes. There’s duty, and what it drives us to do. There’s more time with the servitors, that minority group whose agenda is debatable, but whose segregation and marginalisation is not. All of this is wrapped in a story filled with laser fire, with pistols, ticking timers and bloodbaths. There’s some wonderfully esoteric space battles which also have all the immediacy of a punch in the face, and some emotionally fraught scenes which felt like I was being torn apart.

It’s thoughtful, character driven sci-fi in a highly original, terrifying universe, with a plot that kept me turning pages until far too early in the morning. If you’re not reading the series yet, go and give Ninefox Gambit a try. If you’re all caught up, then yes, this is storming conclusion to an excellent sci-fi series.

Yoon Ha Lee wraps up his stunning Machineries of Empire trilogy much in the way he has preceded it. Both the eye-opening Ninefox Gambit and its satisfying sequel Raven Stratagem were shortlisted for the Hugo Award (Lee’s debut was shortlisted for pretty much every award going). And it will be no surprise if Revenant Gun joins them. The third book of the trilogy takes the universe and characters that Lee created in these earlier books and once again twists them into new shapes, like the mathematician that he is, Lee seems to be constantly finding new answers to the same equation.

At the end of Raven Stratagem the status quo of Lee's universe has been seriously upended. The calendar-based system which powered the universe had been overthrown, many of its architects (the hexarchs) were dead and chaos was threatening to flow into their wake. Revenant Gun jumps forward nine years from that point – the empire is split in two, and an ancient enemy is rising keen to see the status quo re-estbalished and the universe go back to the way it was.

Saying too much more about the plot would invite more spoilers. Suffice to say that Lee uses the book to once again reset his two main characters Shuos Jedao and Kel Cheris. Each book of the series has dug into a these two characters in a different way. In Revenant Gun there are two Jedaos, working for opposite sides. The Jedao working for Hexarch Nirai Kujen , an ancient, seemingly unkillable force with no respect for other lives, has been given the body of the grown man but only has the memories of the seventeen year old original Jedao. While the other Jedao, out of favour with the new regime that he helped establish, is on a mission to stop Kujen. But Lee also has plenty of time for a number of other point of view characters including Kel Brezan, introduced in Raven Stratagem, and a robot servitor character called Hemiola who goes on her own journey of discovery.

Revenant Gun, like its predecessors has war at its heart. The main characters are soldiers and the narrative revolves around the political and tactical manoeuvring around a couple of major campaigns. The Kel are soldiers, bred to serve and strictly follow command in order to keep formation. Those under the young Jedao's command hate him for crimes that he committed but that he has no memory of but are bound to serve him. Despite its military styling, Lee never shies away from the human cost of battle, and the consequences of being forced to blindly follow orders.

Revenant Gun has all of the trappings of modern space opera that have been wielded so effectively recently by exponents like Iain M Banks and Ann Leckie – including complex politics, a reconfigured society, snarky independent robots and sentient space ships. And like these authors, despite all the strangeness of the setting, there is a deep humanity to the characters and their concerns. And Lee’s mathematics-driven universe combined with the way he tells these tales has its own uniqueness which sets him both apart from these and other authors.

So that once again, on top of all of the verbal and descriptive flourishes and the military science fiction styling Lee has delivered a deeply humanistic tale that furthers the concerns of the previous volumes of the series but does not feel repetitive. Revenant Gun wraps the up Machineries of Empire series well. While there are possibly more permutations Lee can put his main characters through it is probably time to let them settle even if the future of this universe remains ambiguous. Because life, even in a mathematics driven universe, does not always have easy answers.

This wasn't the finale I expected - not least for shifting the focus from the grand stage to the personal stage even as it depicted what is effectively a civil war - but it was a satisfying conclusion to a fascinating trilogy. As with Ninefox Gambit and Raven Strategem, Revenant Gun is political / social / personal space opera masquerading as military SF, because in the end it's really not that interested in the battles it is structured around - they're the pivots, not the point.

If the sequences off the Revenant felt a bit more like filler than necessary context (sorry Brezan, there was a _really_ interesting storyline about setting up a new government / rule of reality, and you didn't get to show us much of it), Jedao was riveting, as ever. Seeing him young and idealistic was a bit of a shock - and watching him grown up through exposure to Kujen and the consequences of his own actions was heart-breaking. The unerring and merciless take on his interactions with Dhanneth were particularly shattering, and excellently played out.

I was utterly delighted to get a servitor protagonist, and I will never cease to be amused by the mileage to be had out of the proposal to give any incarnation of Jedao access to threshold winnowers. Add in a nod to the most outrageous aspect of Extracurricular Activities and Revenant Gun neatly makes relevant everything that has gone before.

Good stuff.

If you love Leckie's Ancillary Justice books, you should read Lee's Machineries of Empire trilogy. But don't read Revenant Gun until you've read the first two books; it will make zero sense. To be honest, I *have* read the first two and while I (mostly) always understood *what* was going on in Revenant Gun, I sometimes had no idea *why*. (For example: why was there a nine-year time jump? If the reason was in there, it went over my head.) Sometimes I suspected the reason was simply "because it makes for a fun story." And...you know what, I'm okay with that. I love these books for the characters and the way Lee makes them suffer. And for things like this:

"Don't be crass," Mikodez said. "I already have enough public relations problems without being seen to be assassinating *more* people. As it stands, I'm getting blamed for all sorts of petty theft my agents had nothing to do with. Which is a crying shame, because my budget could use any revenue streams that happen to be lying about."

When Shuos Jedao wakes up for the first time in Revenant Gun, several things go wrong. His few memories tell him that he's a seventeen-year-old cadet-- but his body belongs to a man decades older. Hexarch Nirai Kujen orders Jedao to reconquer the fractured hexarchate on his behalf even though Jedao has no memory of ever being a soldier, let alone a general. Surely a knack for video games doesn't qualify you to take charge of an army?

SOON JEDAO LEARNS THE SITUATION IS EVEN WORSE. THE KEL SOLDIERS UNDER HIS COMMAND MAY BE COMPELLED TO OBEY HIM, BUT THEY HATE HIM THANKS TO A MASSACRE HE CAN'T REMEMBER COMMITTING. KUJEN'S FRIENDLINESS CAN'T HIDE THE FACT THAT HE'S A TYRANT. AND WHAT'S WORSE, JEDAO AND KUJEN ARE BEING HUNTED BY AN ENEMY WHO KNOWS MORE ABOUT JEDAO AND HIS CRIMES THAN HE DOES HIMSELF... (VIA GOODREADS)
I RECEIVED AN EARC OF REVENANT GUN VIA NETGALLEY IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW.
Revenant Gun is the final book in a trilogy that has quite frankly blown my mind. I have been a fan of science fiction since before I can remember. The entire series has kept me on the edge of my seat. I reviewed Raven Stratagem last year. Even expecting all of that, Revenant Gun was a constant surprise.

Like both of the other books, Revenant Gun needs some really heavy content warnings for death of main character, suicide of important side character, death of many side characters, body horror, mind control, removal of memories, violence, broken limbs, suicidal ideation by MC, clones, dubious consent relating to mind control, mentions of genocide, mentions of sensory deprivation, sentient spaceships, sterility, and probably some more things that I'm missing. This is a very, very heavy read. Please take that into account when looking into this series.

One thing I love about Yoon Ha Lee's writing is this. No matter which character he's focusing on, they are all morally grey and they are all intensely human. In Revenant Gun, we get to see the world through several different perspectives including Cheris, Jedao 2, a servitor named Hemiola, and General Brezan. Each perspective offers an important piece of the puzzle that is this story and its background. So much happens in Revenant Gun, but I came out of it feeling like I know each and every one of the characters and their hobbies. It's really astonishing.

The next thing I would like to talk about is Kujen. You will hate him with every fiber of your being AND you'll probably want to borrow some fibers to hate him some more. If you're looking, Mikodez probably has plenty you could borrow in his yarn stash. Kujen is The Worst™. And yet, you can almost understand why he is the way he is, from the history we learn through his archives and what he reveals to each character. While he was a monster, he was also entirely, horribly human.

Revenant Gun was a great finale to the trilogy. It was solid, it was blazing, and it was real. And most of all, it was satisfying for both Cheris and Jedao in their own way. If you loved the first two books in the series, Revenant Gun won't let you down. Pick up a copy on Amazon or Indiebound!



DISCLAIMER: ALL LINKS TO INDIEBOUND AND AMAZON ARE AFFILIATE LINKS. IF YOU BUY THROUGH THOSE LINKS, I WILL MAKE A SMALL AMOUNT OF MONEY OFF OF THE SALE.

Yoon Ha Lee's "The Machineries of Empire" trilogy offers something truly unique: dense world building in terms of which society and technology are based on the strength of the shared belief in the calendrical mathematical system.

As Jedao postulated in Ninefox Gambit: "all calendrical war is a game between competing sets of rules, fuelled by the coherence of our beliefs. To win a calendrical war, you have to understand how game systems work."

It has been said before, but to truly enjoy this series, you are going to have to let go of trying to understand the science and just accept its function as the operation of magic - a mystical, incomprehensible power - utilised in a military sci-fi setting.

While Ninefox Gambit may have offered the purest form of mathematical military sci-fi in the series and Raven Stratagem expanded upon this unique blend of mathematical mysticism and socio-political systems, both previous novels are, inescapably, the ultimately set up for the concluding Revenant Gun novel.

The question is: "Does Yoon Ha Lee deliver in his maiden full length series?"

The answer is a nebulous yes and no. The unique characters and character building is exceptional and in this regard the finale does not disappoint. However, a resounding epic "Saving Private Ryan" battle is simply not on the cards, despite a 300 page setup for the ultimate faceoff.

Instead of adrenaline filled blood, sweat and tears with a magical blend of math, we have certain pacing issues and obscure mathematical stratagems that fail to fully ignite the imagination.

Don't get me wrong - this is still a truly unique series that is worth pursuing, with incredible characters and a fair share of revelations that add to the mythology and methodology of the series as a whole, but Revenant Gun could have taken it past Einstein and defined a new gold standard.

Revenant Gun takes place ten years later and follows a few characters. One is a young Jedao with a fractured memory who is working alongside Kujen. Another character is Cheris who is helped by a servitor Hemiola. Initially I wasn’t sure where the novel was going with Kujen but he quickly became a favorite character of mine. He is such a fun addition to the novel was he is the perfect portrayal of a brilliant mad scientist.

Out of all three novels in the series I found this one the easiest to read. Most of the background information such as formation theory, calendars and their importance, moths and the different factions was already explained. This novel did go into more details about the moth ships and their origin. Although the name hints at their origin I was still a little surprised.

What I really love about this novel is how many non-straight relationships there are. Most of the characters are either gay or in a relationship with multiple wives. Sex isn’t viewed as a taboo thing and everyone engages in it at will (except between grunts and their commanders which is punishable by death). This was a nice change from most books where most/all characters are in a straight relationship with a boring traditional sex life.

In conclusion, this was a good conclusion to a fun series. This novel was the best out of the three however as I found it the easiest and less confusing of all of them.

Thanks to Solaris and Netgalley for this ARC.

I received this book as an e-arc from Rebellion Publishing in exchange for an honest review, for which they and Yoon Ha Lee have my undying gratitude.

Revenant Gun, or, as I like to call it, Ninefox’s Eleven, is the third in Yoon Ha Lee’s Machineries of Empire trilogy, which began with Ninefox Gambit and Raven Stratagem. If you haven’t read those books, be warned that what follows is going to spoil them pretty thoroughly, although I’m going to avoid spoilers for Revenant Gun itself. I highly recommend putting down this review and picking up Ninefox if you haven’t already. Even if you have read the first two books, Revenant Gun launches straight back into the plot with very little recap, so it would benefit from being read straight after a reread – although my distinctly average memory for plot caught up within a few chapters, so it’s not a necessity.

In-universe, the book actually picks up nine years after the events of Raven Stratagem, with the remains of the Hexarchate divided between the Compact, running on the revised and distinctly more liberal calendar set up by renegade soldier Cheris, and the Protectorate, which aims to uphold the old system. Each of these factions is effectively being led by one of the Kel soldier faction: the Compact has our old friend and rebellious “crashhawk” Brezan (with the leader of the Shuos faction, Mikodez, in the background); while the Protectorate is being run by a senior general. Cheris herself, having revealed that her “takeover” by disgraced genius general Shuos Jedao’s personality was not as complete as everyone assumed in Raven Strategem, has disappeared, leaving the Compact effectively alone in defending her new calendar. Also in the mix is the functionally immortal secret-Hexarch Nirai Kujen, the architect of basically every awful technology in the galaxy, who is about to unleash his secret weapon: another iteration of everyone’s favourite disgraced genius general…

New Shuos Jedao is, on the surface, a rather odd introduction, because this version has no memories beyond being seventeen, despite being born into a body with the age and alleged capabilities of his much older self. Turning the enigmatic, all-knowing general of the last two books into a naïve POV character in the third act (indeed, he’s the most used POV for what I believe is the first time in the novels) feels like a big risk from a narrative standpoint, but it ends up working on multiple levels. It fits in thematically with the other ways the trilogy has played with personal identity as well as leting the book explore the weight of Jedao’s actions from a new, heartbreaking angle (although thankfully it doesn’t spend too long going over Candle Arc), and the mechanics of his resurrection also fit neatly with the foregrounding of some of Kujen’s other technological horrors, particularly the creation of the Moth spaceships.

For me, however, the most effective result of baby Jedao was the introduction of a character with the urgent and visceral knowledge that the Hexarchate’s society is unnecessary and wrong. As an audience, we are aware at this point that the Hexarchate has become progressively more brutal and oppressive since his original lifetime, to the point where an entire ruling faction – the Kel – are now brainwashed into mindless obedience and the very basis of technological progress and social cohesion is likely to fall apart if they don’t conduct regular ritual torture sacrifices. Plenty of other characters also believe this is wrong, and the older iteration of Jedao (and later Cheris) also has memories of things being different, the vast majority of time we are seeing events from the perspective of characters who have never known anything different and have no sense of what the alternative would even look like. Young Jedao embodies the shift in narrative from the hopeless fight against an awful system with no clear alternative in the first two books, to a world where of course things don’t have to be done that way, because all he knows it a reality where they weren’t. Even without the details of the new calendar system which makes this revised reality possible (details which would be meaningless to the audience anyway), young Jedao does a lot of work in making the new perspective in this time skip plausible.

In terms of action and worldbuilding, Revenant Gun builds very well on the existing work done in the previous two books: if you liked those, you’ll like this. Alongside young Jedao, we also spend significant amounts of time with Brezan and Cheris, and while I was disappointed to not have POV chapters from the latter, we instead get her story through Hemiola, a Nirai-aligned servitor who ends up following them from a space station, who is a very welcome addition. Like Raven Stratagem, there’s not as much focus on the space-magic battle mechanics as there was in Ninefox, which I still miss, but I accept that the story has grown past those scenes and the wider focus on revolutionary change, as well as the continuing glimpses of life outside the top military and political echelons, are interesting in their own right. There’s also a strong presence from the servitors – the effectively invisible robot workers of the Hexarchate – and honestly I could read a series of just soap opera-loving robots (I mean I am, thanks to Martha Wells, but I could read one written by Yoon Ha Lee as well). Disappointingly my most pressing question about Servitor Hemiola, and whether she gets to watch the last two seasons of A Rose in Three Revolutions, was left unanswered, but perhaps this is making room for a sequel.

Despite throwing me in the deep end in terms of plot recall, Lee’s style makes this a very easy and enjoyable read once you’ve recalled all of the terms and factions. I certainly wouldn’t mind a handy glossary and character list in future editions of the books, but I did well enough on my own. With the landing successfully stuck, this series has firmly entrenched its spot on my favourite space operas, and I’m very glad I stuck out those first mildly confounding chapters of Ninefox Gambit to make it this far.

Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This series continues to be one of the most unique trilogies I've ever had the pleasure to read, and that's saying a lot.

It took me a little bit to get into the new direction this novel takes, but if any of you folk were creeped out by Kujen in the previous novel with all his psychosurgery and inventions, you're going to love this book. You might say that this last book in the trilogy is all his.

Jedao has yet another large role again, and believe me, it's not what I had expected. He's a 400-year-old immortal general who has a talent for getting things done, but in the first book, being uploaded into Cheris's mind took a rather odd turn and despite the fact he's known everywhere for being a mass murderer and a psychopath, he sacrifices himself to let Cheris have his memories. The second book has Cheris playing a long game pretending to be the general that everyone is deathly afraid of and she manages to set off a fractured calendar. (Consensual reality math-magic that can perform some super-powerful stuff.)

This book picks up after that. A decade later. And now two sets of fractured Jedao memories in two different bodies are running wild.

I love the mirroring and the way this particular novel feels like an inversion of the first. It also feels like Jedao is a puzzle piece, two halves of his soul, his memories, are fighting each other in an epic battle that reflects just how morally and ethically GRAY this entire series is. Who is right? Who is wrong? Who knows?

But the fact is, it's brilliant. I love the vast worldbuilding, the magic maths, the alien species that are subjugated by the humans, the servitors (AI robots), the sheer number of people, and the social building throughout.

I won't say this is an easy read, but it is easily one of the most rewarding. I've read the first two books two times and this one a single time, and I keep discovering new things in each. I'm also more invested. I recommend this very highly for any of you true fans of original and fearless SF. :)

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC, too!