Reading: Hexarchate Stories
Jul. 27th, 2019 01:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
white_hartYoon Ha Lee's new short story collection, Hexarchate Stories, is entirely made up of stories set in the universe of his Machineries of Empire trilogy, set at various points before and after the trilogy. (I really liked that the stories were in chronological order, with the first set before the foundation of the original heptarchate and the final one being a sequel to Revenant Gun.) Most of the stories had previously been published elsewhere, although I think the only one I'd read before was the novella 'Extracurricular Activities', which I very much enjoyed the first time round and was happy to re-read.
Many of the stories in the collection are very short, and seem to have originated as flash fiction on Lee's blog; there are scenes from both Jedao's and Cheris's childhoods and later lives, as well as a few vignettes of other characters. I thought some of them worked better than others; I really enjoyed the glimpses of Jedao as a child, seen from the perspective of his brother and sister, and also liked the vignettes of Cheris's childhood, but some of the other stories did less for me, in particular a couple which dealt with various characters visiting zoos. There was also one story, 'Gloves', which turned out to be just a very explicit sex scene and which I would quite honestly have preferred not to be reading on the bus.
Interspersed with the flash fiction are five longer pieces. 'The Chameleon's Gloves' is probably the most standalone story in the collection, a nicely-done heist story set in the days before the foundation of the heptarchate. 'Extracurricular Activities', which I'd read before, is about as close to an entertaining space romp as anything featuring Jedao could be. 'The Battle of Candle Arc' is also set during Jedao's first lifetime, showing him as a military commander in action, achieving one of his great victories while also wrestling with his moral discomfort at the regime he works for. 'Gamer's End' is set-post canon, and tells the story of a Shuos training exercise which may or may not be all it appears, and manages to pull of a second-person narration. And finally, the previously unpublished novella 'Glass Cannon' takes up the last 40% of the book. 'Glass Cannon' revisits Jedao and Cheris two years after the end of Revenant Gun; it moves both their characters on, resolves some of the threads that were left loose at the end of the trilogy, and also feels like it's setting things up for potential future adventures (or at least, I certainly hope it is, as the end is definitely a cliffhanger!).
I wouldn't recommend this collection to anyone who hasn't read the Machineries of Empire trilogy; so many of the stories revisit characters and events from the trilogy that I think it would be hard to understand them without having read it, but as someone who's read and enjoyed it I really liked returning to that universe and getting to see a bit more of characters I'd liked and fill in some background. I also really enjoyed reading Lee's author's notes on each story, explaining a bit about the inspiration behind it and his writing process; I felt that they added a lot to even the shortest stories in the collection.
(Thanks to Rebellion Publishing for a free review copy via NetGalley.)
Many of the stories in the collection are very short, and seem to have originated as flash fiction on Lee's blog; there are scenes from both Jedao's and Cheris's childhoods and later lives, as well as a few vignettes of other characters. I thought some of them worked better than others; I really enjoyed the glimpses of Jedao as a child, seen from the perspective of his brother and sister, and also liked the vignettes of Cheris's childhood, but some of the other stories did less for me, in particular a couple which dealt with various characters visiting zoos. There was also one story, 'Gloves', which turned out to be just a very explicit sex scene and which I would quite honestly have preferred not to be reading on the bus.
Interspersed with the flash fiction are five longer pieces. 'The Chameleon's Gloves' is probably the most standalone story in the collection, a nicely-done heist story set in the days before the foundation of the heptarchate. 'Extracurricular Activities', which I'd read before, is about as close to an entertaining space romp as anything featuring Jedao could be. 'The Battle of Candle Arc' is also set during Jedao's first lifetime, showing him as a military commander in action, achieving one of his great victories while also wrestling with his moral discomfort at the regime he works for. 'Gamer's End' is set-post canon, and tells the story of a Shuos training exercise which may or may not be all it appears, and manages to pull of a second-person narration. And finally, the previously unpublished novella 'Glass Cannon' takes up the last 40% of the book. 'Glass Cannon' revisits Jedao and Cheris two years after the end of Revenant Gun; it moves both their characters on, resolves some of the threads that were left loose at the end of the trilogy, and also feels like it's setting things up for potential future adventures (or at least, I certainly hope it is, as the end is definitely a cliffhanger!).
I wouldn't recommend this collection to anyone who hasn't read the Machineries of Empire trilogy; so many of the stories revisit characters and events from the trilogy that I think it would be hard to understand them without having read it, but as someone who's read and enjoyed it I really liked returning to that universe and getting to see a bit more of characters I'd liked and fill in some background. I also really enjoyed reading Lee's author's notes on each story, explaining a bit about the inspiration behind it and his writing process; I felt that they added a lot to even the shortest stories in the collection.
(Thanks to Rebellion Publishing for a free review copy via NetGalley.)
