War. Heresy. Madness.

Shuos Jedao is unleashed. The long-dead general, preserved with exotic technologies as a weapon, has possessed the body of gifted young captain Kel Cheris.

Now, General Kel Khiruev’s fleet, racing to the Severed March to stop a fresh enemy incursion, has fallen under Jedao’s sway. Only Khiruev’s aide, Lieutenant Colonel Kel Brezan, is able to shake off the influence of the brilliant but psychotic Jedao.

The rogue general seems intent on defending the hexarchate, but can Khiruev—or Brezan—trust him? For that matter, can they trust Kel Command, or will their own rulers wipe out the whole swarm to destroy one man in Raven Stratagem.

I received an eARC of Raven Stratagem from Netgalley courtesy of the publisher, Solaris, in exchange for an honest review.

I need to put this up top – there should be trigger warnings for suicide and consensual incest for Raven Stratagem.

I have a confession to make: I went to download this novel and realized it was the second in a series and I hadn’t read the first one, so I clicked over to amazon and bought Ninefox Gambit.

Well, I fell head over heels in love with the mathematical space opera that was Ninefox Gambit. I actually wound up buying it on ebook and audiobook, because I didn’t want to put it down, but needed to do my day job. How annoying, right?

Ninefox Gambit throws you into the middle of a mission and keeps you guessing with every turn of the page. Raven Strategem is when we finally start getting some answers, but not nearly enough of them, since he added even more questions to my brain.

If I were to compare this series to anything it would be the Warhammer 40K books and the Binti series.

We learn so much more about the hexarchate in this novel, and it really shows how the group works, while showing why Jedao is trying to take it down. This is hard sci-fi, yet also brings us to care about each of the characters, and even the servitors.

The incestual relationship is between two brothers, and is pretty unavoidable. If this is a trigger for you, I highly recommend you avoid the book.

Yoon Ha Lee has a mystical power that made me fall in love with a story that is so mathematically based, yet has math that we literally never see. It was amazing.

If you get a chance, I loved Ninefox Gambit on audiobook, and hope we’ll get a chance to have Raven Stratagem as one as well.

This was a four star book for me, and if it sounds like a series for you, I hope you enjoy it and come talk to me about it! You can pick up a copy on Amazon or Indiebound!

Disclaimer: All links to Indiebound and Amazon are affiliate links, which means that if you buy through those links, I will make a small amount of money off of it.