SciFi books often take on the difficult task of inventing much of the world they inhabit. From the places and people to the technology and rules of society in the story. Maintaining a balance of explaining enough to make the world believable (or at least, plausible enough for the reader to suspend disbelief) while not over burdening the story with so much detail the story bogs down is a complex challenge.
Ninefox Gambit comes off as a book that received award nominations not for it's achievement of the challenge but rather for it's ambition. An ambition that is not fully attained. Much is invented, but fractional explanations are multiplied and (not a spoiler, but in the theme of the book) multipling fractions doesn't not yield whole numbers or, in the case of this book, complete results.
The result is a story that can feel long and disjointed. While gaps in explanation can sometimes be said to be left to the readers imagination, in Ninefox Gambit they are sometimes so large as to pull the reader out of the story entirely and left wondering what is going on.
More damaging to the reader experience is the question of why the story exists repeatedly going unanswered. Gaps can be overlooked if there's a bigger (and understood) plot still present and actively pulling the reader back into the book. At several points in Ninefox Gambit it appears the purpose and plot are clear only to have the text reveal there is something different afoot and the reader is left with the choice of abandoning the book or continuing a series of unexplained new inventions and abstractions riddled with jarring timeline jumps and blended characters so ambiguously defined as to leave the reader wondering not only what is going on, but also by whom it is being done.
My guess is the book, marketed as the first in a trilogy, actually serves as long prequel to a more defined story that may exist later in the series. I applaud the authors inventions as far as they've made it, but they needed to be taken further or presented in a more organized fashion to result in an enjoyable read.
Favorite Quotes (in no particular order, and not disclosing enough info to be spoilers):
Cheris had Dineng send for another Sparrow to verify that the light was fatal. The Sparrow dodged a ribbon of light too late and was transformed into a mass of parallel slices and metal shrieks.
He was as susceptible as the next Shuos to thinking up ways to assassinate people with unlikely objects.
Immortality was like sex: it made idiots of otherwise rational people.
The two ways to win at gambling were to read the situation and know the odds.
Water the color of sleep, or sleep the color of water.
I shouldn’t have shouted at you. That was the point at which the meeting degenerated past all hope of usefulness. One of my instructors used to say to me that if I was ever about to lose my temper, do something productive instead, like draw hanged stick figures on my tablet where no one can see them, or think up death-traps using office chairs and nail clippers.
