Revenant Gun manages to continue everything I loved about the previous two books in the trilogy—brilliant character arcs wrapped in tense military action, a cutting sense of humour, and a care for individual passions and nerdery that brings a whole universe to life—while still bringing new things to the table and offering a totally different book from the other three. Besides, it hasn’t escaped me how elements of Revenant Gun mirror or echo Ninefox Gambit, and how much the series as a whole has to say about how experiences and memories shape who we are.

One of my favourite things about the Machineries of Empire series is how everyone is, well, super queer. Revenant Gun is no exception, and it's incredibly refreshing to have a deadly, high-stakes space opera full of us, even if I no longer count the number of times I thought “boy i sure am glad I'm not allosexual”.

All in all, this is an impeccable conclusion to the trilogy, which switched effortlessly between robots that make AMVs of their favourite drama, intense space battles and politics, and disturbing moments of existential crisis. Everything is there, and this story promises to stay with me a long, long time.

Book contains tw for violence, death, dubious consent, mild body horror, mind control

It is a rare thing when the third book in a trilogy has a truly satisfying conclusion, let alone is the best book in the series. With Revenant Gun, I believe Yoon Ha Lee has accomplished this and then some! The novel tells the continuing story of Jedao and Cheris as they rebel against the Hexarchate and the action takes place nine years after the conclusion of Raven Stratagem. What I loved about this instalment was the pitting of Jedao against himself in another carnation. It was a genius move on Lee's part and the dual narratives are fascinating, full of depth and nuance without ever moving away from the plot. The world building is flawless and we see more of the servitors, more of the moths and get a true sense of just what the Remembrances entail. The political machinations are still present, as are the awesome battles, but this book is a character study in many ways. The personal conflict of Jedao in both incarnations serves as a microcosm for the war as a whole and the action left me breathless. This has been a truly astounding trilogy in its originality and intelligence and this conclusion is pretty much perfect. I highly recommend this to anyone with a love for military sci-fi or those who like their brains melted, just a little.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2380165766

Each of these books is an interesting POV shift from the others. The new Jedeo POV provided an interesting shift in perspective, though I wish we had spent a bit more time with Cheris. I still find her the most compelling part of the series, and she got a bit lost after book 1. Now that the world is much better established, it's nice to be able to focus more on the characters and less on the mechanics of the world.

I think this book provided a satisfying end to the series, and I think the diversity of the different books in the series shows that the author has room to grow. This book is not perfect, and I could nit pick on small things, but in general, I'd definitely recommend the series and look forward to seeing what the author produces in the future!

As unique a series as you can get, Revenant Gun is the sequel to trilogy of military space opera that masquerades as hard scifi, while actually being a soft scifi genre bender that postulates that since time is a construct, and a social belief, a system based on the mathematics of calendars and beliefs on a large scale actually give you space magic powers. And if that's not enough, the culture is Korean based, there are non binary,gender queer and trans characters all over the place (own voice) AND it relates a discussion on empire and colonialism through personal point of view characters at both high and ground level. Plus, robots and spaceships.
Sadly Revenant Gun let me down a little - I thought the complexity level for Raven Strategem was perfect, and this book seemed relatively straight forward compared to that. Aside from this, I love this world and characters, and really enjoyed this unique series.

My brain is yelling with pleasure at such an elaborate world-building, intricate schemes and superbly complex whole trilogy. The Machineries of Empire is a work of art, a masterfully written military science-fiction trilogy, so good that I get a state of glassy eyes when I start thinking about the awesomeness of it all.

From the first word of this novel, “Jedao”, I stopped breathing because yes YES finally we get to observe him being his own person, though, as much as he can. I had already read a short story featuring him while in the academy but it is different here because it’s in the present mess of things.

“No one shot Jedao in the back on the way out, always a plus.”

I loved to find Cheris again as well, even if she’s not really the same Cheris from Ninefox Gambit, her quest and empathy towards the servitors such a nice touch. I wish there’d been more of her, while I can find no fault to this book I do felt a little bit disappointed about the absence of her point of view, even if looking at the whole of it I understand why but still. I also wished for a team-up of some sort that didn’t happen but ha well, Revenant Gun still managed to impress and blow me away without it!

We find again most of the characters from the previous novel, nine years after Raven Strategem. It was a bit surprising at first but I got used to it pretty quickly. After all, these books are a go-with-the-flow kind of stories, where not understanding all of it at 100% is the norm. Still, by this third book I felt like I understood better the heresy, the calendar, the math and everything, which makes me excited for a re-read!

This book dealt a lot with the technology behind the ships, as well as the one behind the longevity of some characters. AND there were chapters from a servitor’s perspective, which might have been my favourites parts.
We also learn a lot more about Kujen, basically the villain in the shadows in the previous books but almost front and center this time around.

The Machineries of Empire is a masterpiece of violence, magic-math-science, devious and lovable characters. While it’s very dark and heart-wrenching at times, it’s still full of hope and characters trying to make it right, aware that the world can be changed, counting on lots of sacrifices and plotting.

This whole “the system is bad and we need to change it, also gender and bodies are seen in a whole new way in this far future galaxy and robots are good” reminded me of The Imperial Radch by Ann Leckie in a very good way as well, and Cheris and Hemiola’s love of tv drama reminded me of Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries ❤

“The girl was scrubbing at her face. Oh, no, she was crying. Crying was something it had only seen humans do in dramas, and in dramas they did it much more prettily, at dramatic moments, with swelling music in the background.”

Other stuff:
a kitten is named Jedao because of course
trippy and horrific technology
many “OMG” moments
staring in the distance when finished because this was B R I L L I A N T
many other things but I don’t want to spoil it!!
I hear there’s going to be a short fiction collection and you bet I’ll be there for it!


Content warning: suicidal ideations, suicide, death, torture, dubious consent, brainwashing, mind control, forced sterility, mention of genocide, mention of child prostitution

The third Nicefox Gambit book is out — the series is actually called Machineries of Empire, but I like Nicefox Gambit too much to resist using it. So before I get into this book, Revenant Gun, here’s a quick, spoilery recap of the story in Nicefox and Raven Stratagem. A rebellious foot soldier has the ghost of a dead traitor general installed in her head. The hexarchate — the ruling powers — intend for the general, Jedao, and the soldier, Cheris, to win a particularly challenging battle for them — they’ve used Jedao’s ghost in the past this way, to excellent effect. When Cheris and Jedao succeed, the hexarchate attempt to have them killed. Instead of dying, they meld into one person and topple the hexarchate entirely.

Revenant Gun picks up nine years after the end of Raven Stratagem, as the new government Cheris-and-Jedao founded tries to fight off efforts by the old The third Nicefox Gambit book is out — the series is actually called Machineries of Empire, but I like Nicefox Gambit too much to resist using it. So before I get into this book, Revenant Gun, here’s a quick, spoilery recap of the story in Nicefox and Raven Stratagem. A rebellious foot soldier has the ghost of a dead traitor general installed in her head. The hexarchate — the ruling powers — intend for the general, Jedao, and the soldier, Cheris, to win a particularly challenging battle for them — they’ve used Jedao’s ghost in the past this way, to excellent effect. When Cheris and Jedao succeed, the hexarchate attempt to have them killed. Instead of dying, they meld into one person and topple the hexarchate entirely.

Phew. That was a lot of words to say. If you’re able, I would advise reading all three of these books one after another. They contain a lot of names and concepts and weirdness, and it took me a little while to get back in the swing of things. (Big surprise, I know.)

The verdict? Revenant Gun is an exciting, suspenseful conclusion to the series. Yoon Ha Lee introduces a potentially serious complication in the form of a second Jedao awakened and embodied by Kujen to win wars to sustain the existing calendar. (There’s a very funny — to me — running gag about a third Jedao, a kitten owned by a minor character.) This means, of course, two Jedao-ish characters working against each other, which could have been too much of a muchness but in fact works out to heighten the pitch of both the emotions and the suspense.

I mention the introduction of a second Jedao as a kind of synecdoche for Yoon Ha Lee’s relentless talent for inventive complication. It would have been easy (for me) for Revenant Gun to operate with the players already on the board, building to a climactic battle and a success for Cheris’s new calendar. Instead Lee continues to throw new ideas and complexities at the reader and the characters right up to the very end, requiring a constant re-sifting-through of loyalties and ideology. The result is a distinct lack of clear villainy or clear heroism. Everyone here is trying to correct wrongs they’ve perceived in the past, with the inevitable result of introducing shiny new wrongs that new people will have to launch assaults against.

Obviously, I love this series. It continues not to be for the faint of heart, and readers will probably benefit (I did) by not worrying too too much about sorting through and perfectly understanding each and every detail. But it’s superb and weird and strange and absolutely worth the effort you’ll invest.

A solid 5 Stars

Reading this series has never been facile but it has always been satisfying. While Ninefox Gambit was an often disorienting immersion experience, the fascinating world in which Jedao awakens in rewarded the reader with a novel of the scope and scale that truly defines the Space Opera genre. If the first Machineries book was Jedao's and the second, Raven Strategem, was Cheris's, Revenant Gun belongs to Nirai Hexarch Kujen. We finally learn more about this shadowy, or might I even say shady, character. Prepare yourself. If you had qualms about Jedao, Kujen is the most challenging (repellant?) character in a series in which our shifting paradigms defined the moral ambiguity of the Machineries world. I can firmly say that very reservation that I had about Kel formation instinct, or what happened to Jedao every time he reawakened since his execution, or my thoughts about the relative benefits of calendrical heresy were borne out by this final volume. Lee finally lets us see more of the backstory and the underpinnings of this world. He graciously leaves us at what will merely be the beginning of the latest iteration.

Moving almost a decade forward in time from the end of Raven Stratagem, we find that Nirai Kujen has come up with his ingenious/diabolical plan to regain control and restore the high calendar which Cheris fractured at the end of the second book. His plan involves use of that well-known mass murderer, who was executed four hundred years before. Yep, that's right. How, you ask? Well, he is a Nirai, and those STEM guys are wicked clever. Thus, in Revenant Gun we get two Jedaos. One is the early life fragment of Jedao's memories at age seventeen, a revenant reawakened in the beaten up body of a forty-four year old man who is not a man (to explain would be a spoiler but, once again, communication with servitors leads the astute reader along the path of insight into just what's going on here) while the other Jedao is the Cheris-Jedao hybrid. Cheris, holds the many memories, and especially the strategical mental database, of everything that happened (and a lot of it was no-bueno) to Jedao after age seventeen. She doesn't really make her appearance, along with a few interesting servitors, until more than halfway through the book and I had missed her voice. Cheris-Jedao still want the world to be a better place than it has been. The status quo Kujen and his Jedao are working to return to pose a powerful opposition, however. How these two Jedaos evolve over the course of this story, since both have essentially the same starting material, is absorbing reading. In occasional looks backward to the period just after Cheris creates exotic calendar chaos, we see how the rebellion struggles following the decimation of the hexarchate leaves only Nirai Kujen and Shuos Mikodez standing on opposite sides of calendrical heresy. (Cheris had disappeared at that point.) As the reader parses the two Jedaos, Nirai Kujen comes to fore in the book. Stepping much farther back in time, we begin to see the truly creepy and abusive relationship Kujen has had with Jedao. How did the world end up in this mess of cruelty, violence, rigidity, submission of self to power? Just as in our world, the seeming best of intentions for social order so often go astray. (Of course, sometimes our best intentions are also just those convenient lies we tell ourselves to get what we want.)

Among the many things I've enjoyed in this trilogy was the diversity of gender and orientation that was threaded seamlessly, and without labor, in the Machineries universe. We see straight, gay, bi, and ace, and trans/nonbinary characters, all of which reflects the real world we live in. (The sensitivity of language and pronoun usage in this series is terrific, by the way.) The issues of abuse of power, consent, personal will and freedom presented in this book made me better understand some of the dynamics of the first two books. What an amazing finale. While I missed some of the characters from the second book (want. more. Mikodez.) the exploration of Kujen and Jedao, locked into their centuries-long morality play, was fascinating and satisfying. The vast and complex world that Yoon Ha Lee has created will be hard to leave behind. In fact, I am likely to listen to the entire trilogy, all over again, on audiobook shortly. (And the audiobook of Revenant Gun is forthcoming soon?) I hope Lee continues to give us occasional short works from this world. Whether more about Cheris and the Mwennin or once again bannering the deuce of gears in some new adventure, I'd be an eager reader.

I read this book courtesy of NetGalley in exchange for an honest review; nonetheless, I also bought a paper copy with my own money (and it's reportedly on its way to me already).

It's difficult writing the review of a next or last volume in a series! So much of what might be said is a spoiler for earlier volumes, or might make little sense for those who haven't read them; in addition, it's not as though I am attempting to convince anyone to read this particular book - it is the whole series that I am recommending.

So what I can say is that this was a great way to start my #pride reading month. Yoon Ha Lee writes a complex and fascinating world that is in itself queer; he conceives of ways of being that are both strange and familiar. This volume brings the series to a staggering and logical conclusion; it gives protagonists fitting endings and it's poignant and tragic but also hopeful.

I must confess I wish it had been longer. It gives us more clarity and explanations than volume 2 (and particularly - more than volume 1, which could be occasionally abstruse) but at the same time, its quick pacing meant we didn't linger as long as I would have loved to with some characters or plotlines. It was good, but maybe not enough of a good thing--or perhaps I'm merely being greedy. I could keep reading about some characters, including new ones, for a hundred more pages.

I think this was a powerful conclusion to a great trilogy of novels; I expect it will lend itself well to re-reading. Take this as a strong recommendation - even if this genre doesn't seem like your thing, Yoon Ha Lee's posthumanist military sf novels are full of heart, soul and humanity.

I have received an advanced e-copy of the book from the publisher via NetGalley

... BUT I also bought myself a paper copy of it (pre-ordered back in December and waiting for it to arrive) because I just love these books so much.



What an amazing read. It's an engrossing book, from page one until the very end. The one caveat: it must not be read without the knowledge of the previous two volumes, because it just won't make too much sense. For this reason, it is also impossible to provide a summary of the plot -- too much hinges on the events from the preceding volumes. What I can say, though, is that there are so many amazing characters in this book, both human and non-human. In fact, the robot servitors take center stage here and are the source of much readerly joy.

In some ways (although not all) Revenant Gun actually worked better for me than the previous books. I found the worldbuilding more cohesive this time: the pieces of the puzzle are all on the table and coming together in this novel.

And aside from being such a joy to read (and utterly gripping), the book also does some very clever things with regards to the construction of characters, the human and the non-human. As in the previous volumes, we have here the "transplanted" personalities (which I started to regard as uploading a (partial) save of a personality), and their presence can be, at times, as confusing (in a thought-provoking way) as it is fascinating. And in addition to the humans and the servitors, there is a new, previously non-speaking species, ready to claim their subjectivity.

And the humans are (almost) all so queer!

Much recommended. A great conclusion to one of my favourite cycles.

Very much enjoying the great writing of Yoon Ha Lee. An extraordinary universe with anew take on the science fiction intrigue.

A great end to a great space opera trilogy! Although the ending was not what I expected, the more I thought about it, the more I liked how Lee tied up the character arcs. I look forward to reading more of his work in the future.

[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.

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....