G. Deyke reviewed Hexarchate Stories by Yoon Ha Lee (The Machineries of Empire, #3.5)
[Adapted from initial review on Goodreads.]
5 stars
Collections are hard to review! The first half-or-so of this book is short stories, ranging from short flash to longer stories, and for the most part these don't stand alone very well: they're excellent as supplemental reading for devoted Machineries of Empire fans (which, apparently, I am) but probably wouldn't hold up if you hadn't read the series. Snippets of extra worldbuilding lore, fun character moments without much arc, that sort of thing; generally more fun than deep.
The second half is taken up with a novella, The Glass Cannon, which serves as a sequel to the trilogy. It didn't need a sequel - Revenant Gun ended very satisfactorily - but all the same, The Glass Cannon doesn't feel tacked-on. It honours the ending of the trilogy, and it plucks at existing loose ends rather than inventing new ones.
Also it is awesome, and I gave the collection five stars …
Collections are hard to review! The first half-or-so of this book is short stories, ranging from short flash to longer stories, and for the most part these don't stand alone very well: they're excellent as supplemental reading for devoted Machineries of Empire fans (which, apparently, I am) but probably wouldn't hold up if you hadn't read the series. Snippets of extra worldbuilding lore, fun character moments without much arc, that sort of thing; generally more fun than deep.
The second half is taken up with a novella, The Glass Cannon, which serves as a sequel to the trilogy. It didn't need a sequel - Revenant Gun ended very satisfactorily - but all the same, The Glass Cannon doesn't feel tacked-on. It honours the ending of the trilogy, and it plucks at existing loose ends rather than inventing new ones.
Also it is awesome, and I gave the collection five stars pretty much on the basis of The Glass Cannon. (I wouldn't have known how to rate the rest anyway.)
Selling points: more Machinieries of Empire content! Lots of Jedao! Child Jedao! Teenaged Jedao! Child Cheris! Cheris and Jedao having adventures together! Cute robots! Worldbuilding! Beautiful prose!
Warnings: "Gloves" is sexually explicit, but is easily skipped if you have a problem with that; all the usual Machineries of Empire warnings apply, but if you've gotten through the trilogy okay you should be fine with this collection as well. If you haven't, don't even try to read this. Most of it will only disappoint and/or confuse you without context.
