Ninefox Gambit (The Machineries of Empire, #1)

by Yoon Ha Lee

“The point of war is to rig the deck, drug the opponent, and threaten to kneecap their family if they don’t fold,”

You can’t leave advantages lying around, either, or people will use them against you.”

The banner was a white wheel with seven spokes, not the hexarchate’s six, and a golden flame in the center.

The high calendar day was 1.21 of the heretics’ days.

The firing pattern should sketch the Web of Worlds.

Surely the heretics weren’t really thinking of reviving a dead faction?

the shields were based on an exotic technology and that the heretics had simply designed their calendar to enable them to continue using it.

How long have you been suicidal?”

The operator can’t sustain the shield inversion – look at the scan. They’re disabling the entire Fortress to get us.

Jedao had claimed to fear being executed by the Shuos hexarch, but he was also suicidal. Something didn’t add up.

We’re still convincing your citizens of the importance of adhering to the new calendars and participating in this newfangled voting thing.

“games are about behavior modification.

She claims to be sitting on a nascent democracy.” “A what?” Jedao sighed. “An obscure experimental form of government where citizens choose their own leaders or policies by voting on them.”

The universe ran on death. All the clockwork wonders in the world couldn’t halt entropy.