Ninefox Gambit
- 368
- Pages
- about 7 h
- Reading time
- Locus Award for Best First Novel
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Our view
“Ninefox Gambit” is inventive, tense military science fiction that drops readers into a world of unfamiliar rules and expects them to keep up. A disgraced captain must rely on an undead tactician who never lost a battle and once massacred his own troops, and that alliance drives the story. Many readers feel lost among its terms early on; some who press on find the later chapters and the ending much stronger.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
Captain Kel Cheris of the hexarchate is disgraced for using unconventional methods in a battle against heretics. Kel Command gives her the opportunity to redeem herself by retaking the Fortress of Scattered Needles, a star fortress that has recently been captured by heretics. Cheris's career isn't the only thing at stake. If the fortress falls, the hexarchate itself might be next. Cheris's best hope is to ally with the undead tactician Shuos Jedao. The good news is that Jedao has never lost a battle, and he may be the only one who can figure out how to successfully besiege the fortress. The bad news is that Jedao went mad in his first life and massacred two armies, one of them his own. As the siege wears on, Cheris must decide how far she can trust Jedao--because she might be his next victim.
Reading order · Machineries of Empire
Full order & progress →- Ninefox GambitThis book
7.57.5 / 10 - Raven Stratagem
8.08.0 / 10 - Revenant Gun
8.18.1 / 10
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.4 across 307 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 68% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Science fiction average of 7.8. That is how 7.5 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardcover | 7.4 | 307 | 100% |
Frequently asked
How long is Ninefox Gambit?
It has 368 pages — shorter than 67% of the ranked books in Science fiction.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
The same shelf — Science fiction — and a score of 7.5, the closest to this book.
