we interrupt the scheduled hand-and-finger-resting to tie my brain into a pretzel trying to make heads or tails of the magical math in Ninefox Gambit

the first two chapters were certainly an adventure in "what do half of these words mean, what language is this, is any of this stuff edible and can someone hand me a dictionary"

it got better after that and now I'm about a third of the way through, I think

I am kind of charmed that I have just as much trouble trying to process the cover as I have with the text inside the book

in that, yeah, ok, I have a vague idea of what this is and I'm enjoying the ride but I am simultaneously melting into the shape of a question mark

I really like the character interactions though

this is even more fun since all I knew going in was that, quote from the friend who recommended it to me, "a captain from the magical space math army has to team up with the ghost of a traitorous general from 400 years ago who's now hanging out in her head to deal with rebels that use heretical calendars"

this is... not inaccurate

as far as I can tell

but it also includes adorable robot friends and at least one heretic who complains that the new calendar names use too many farm animals

so in short, I am not sure what I am reading but I don't mind?

what a truly fantastic cover

isn't is? I can totally see fox ears if I squint at it

I also love how pragmatic Cheris (the space math captain) is about the whole thing. Sure, she didn't know in advance when she proposed getting help from a ghost that this involved putting him in her body along with her own consciousness, but she doesn't particularly freak out about it either.

Like, sure, she gets some of his muscle memory too and that's used to work for someone with a different body type who's taller than her so the added clumsiness is annoying and yeah okay, her shadow has fox eyes now, wow, that's unexpected, but let's get down to business, shall we?

(and it's not like she's emotionless either. I love that she cares?? about people?? and about robot friends!! <3 <3)

also, I'm retroactively so glad we're spared an "oh no, oh no, he's going to see me naked, whatever shall I do??" reaction; the one thing Cheris is bothered by in this context is Jedao seeing her without her gloves on because of the cultural significance of a publicly glove-less soldier in this society)

(it's also nice because it's one of those stories where there are enough explicitly queer characters that I've lost count of them)

I'm totally checking this book out now, btw

I hope you enjoy it

(am now done with the book! its finale was pretty great, it comes with more warnings than I had initially expected and I am happy to report that both Cheris and Jedao are also queer.

and I want the sequel to be in my hands approximately now.)