10 Books You May Have Missed This Summer

Crop of the cover of Ninefox Gambit, by Yoon Ha Lee. Image via publisher, Solaris

3. Ninefox Gambit

Our next entry on this list comes from Yoon Ha Lee, and, if the cover didn’t tell you, it’s a straight-up space opera with a heavy military influence.

Our heroine is Captain Kel Cheris, and her world happens to be a little different from our own. Her mathematical talent means she’s important to a world governed by math. More specifically, it’s described as calendrical, another word for complex math formulas that govern reality itself.

Altering the calendar or diverging from its expected parameters means you can alter the fabric of reality itself, and it’s heresy to do so, especially since belief in the calendars makes them more powerful. (It makes more sense with added context. We promise.)

Her task is to take back the Fortress of Scattered Needles, which contains heretics changing the rules so much that reality’s existence is threatened. It’s a nigh-impossible task, but she’s recruited the undead commander Shuos Jedao to help her, despite the fact that he’s gone mad in a previous life.

This universe is seriously complex, and it drops you into the thick of things. As Goodreads reviews put it, it’s just seriously mind-blowing. At least the page count is reasonable instead of being a 600-page behemoth that kicks off a trilogy.

Solaris; paperback, 384 pages.

Next: 2. The Obelisk Gate