Revenant Gun

"This is classic space opera, with a mathematical twist. It is hard to describe, but the premise of the entire sequence is underpinned by what’s called ‘calendrical mathematics.’ So: a universe-spanning calendar that is never really explained, but basically allows the ships to work, allows all kinds of exotic weapon effects to be put into place. It’s a universe run by different factions that are always fighting amongst each other: the military, the departments that are looking after the mathematics and the calendars, and the secret service that seems to be behind everything. And, how do I say this? It’s not a difficult read, but it throws you in at the deep end. You have to navigate your way through a very bizarre but fascinating concept that leaves a huge amount to your imagination about how it actually works. (Although Yoon is a mathematician, so you assume it might work.) He wrote a lot of short stories based in this universe, before moving to the full novel sequence. As a sequence, it’s been multi-award-nominated. It is a revelatory space opera. People think that space opera is a tired part of the genre, but it continually reinvents itself. There’s the Machineries of Empire trilogy, and Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice sequence a couple of years ago. These are prime examples of just how innovative science fiction can be, even when it’s using the very familiar tools from the science fiction writer’s toolkit. Space opera for me is like rock music. It’s an attitude, a pose, a style, a set of chords, instantly recognisable yet always morphing and reinventing itself, and also entirely possible to be sneered at from both inside and outside the circle. You say ‘rock’n’roll’ and everyone knows instantly what you mean, and with luck you’ve found your tribe, but actually one rock fan might take pains to never see bands anyone else has ever heard of while another might never be happy unless they’re centre front in a stadium beneath the kind of light show that makes you think an alien mothership is touching down while a bunch of pensioners play hits from a time before they were born. Rock is dead, long live rock’n’roll, and so it goes with space opera. You should definitely start from Ninefox Gambit . It is very much the story of the central characters Cheris and Jedao, and it follows that narrative through. ‘Calendrical heresy’ is very hard to understand when you start from the beginning, so coming in at the end would be like doing it with half the equations on the blackboard."