Ninefox Gambit is the first book in the Machineries of Empire trilogy. After this trilogy Yoon Ha Lee would pivot to writing Young Adult fiction, a genre which has proven more financially lucrative for her/him/they.
I use the "her/him/they" above because Yoon Ha Lee is a trans man. Wikipedia uses "he/his," but I'm not sure if the author would agree with how the personal and possessive pronouns ought to be used in his/her/their biography. No, I'm not trying to get all "woke" here, but in the context of someone's life story these details do matter.
Besides, Yoon Ha Lee's status as a trans man is very relevant to the book under discussion, given that it involves a lesbian (or perhaps bisexual) character living with a bisexual male character "implanted" in her consciousness. It's not hard to see questions of gender and sexuality explored in Ninefox Gambit, and it's easy to speculate on the author's own orientation with regard to his/her/their gender.
Other pertinent details from the author's biography are his/her/their experiences as a Korean immigrant (or near-immigrant) in the United States, his/her/their background in mathematics, and his/her/their presence at several Ivy League institutions. All of these details play into the novel, and all of them make Ninefox Gambit feel both extremely autobiographical and extremely metaphorical at the same time.
In the novel Cheris, a psychologically conditioned soldier in the service of a galaxy-spanning empire, is promoted to the rank of brevet general and tasked with the recapture of a distant fortress held by a heretical organization. As part of her promotion she is outfitted with the consciousness of Jedao, a disgraced general who's there to advise her. The dynamic between Cheris and Jedao is very interesting, and the inner dialogues shared between the two characters add a lot of pathos to what would otherwise be a very, very dry novel dealing with military engagements and the human cost of war.
Most of this book would fall more under the heading of Speculative Fiction rather than Science Fiction. Aside from glancing references to mathematical concepts, there's really no way to differentiate the technology in this book from magic, and in place of starships this novel could have easily taken place in a far away kingdom, where characters travel on horseback.
It's an excellent book, however. In 2017 it won the Locus Award for Best First Novel, and yes, in comparison to most of the other first novels I've read this one is truly on another level. I'll be sure to read the other two books in the trilogy if I happen upon them this summer. I'm eager to see how Cheris proceeds against the Empire in those other two novels.
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