Raven Stratagem

> "*Did it ever occur to you that if you'd been a standard-issue happy-go-lucky sociopath like the rest of us foxes, instead of a Crowned with Eyes visionary, a lot more people would be alive and a lot less evil would have been done?*"
> ― Shuos Mikodez
>
>

**Raven Stratagem** is the second book of the Machineries of Empire series by Yoon Ha Lee. It was published in June, 2017, by Solaris, with cover art by Chris Moore.

## Back Cover Blurb

**War. Heresy. Madness.**

*Shuos Jedao is unleashed. The long-dead general, preserved with exotic technologies as a weapon, has possessed the body of the gifted young captain Kel Cheris.*

*Now, General Kel Khiruev's fleet, racing to the Severed March to stop a fresh enemy incursion, has fallen under Jedao's sway. Only Khiruev's aide, Lieutenant Colonel Kel Brezan, is able to shake off the influence of the brilliant but psychotic Jedao.*

*The rogue general seems intent on defending the hexarchate, but can Khiruev -- or Brezan -- trust him? For that matter, can they trust Kel Command, or will their own rulers wipe out the whole swarm to destroy one man?*

## Synopsis

The following content contains plot or ending spoilers. Read with caution!

After fleeing the Fortress of Scattered Needles in the body of his anchor, Brevet General Kel Cheris, the undead arch-traitor Shuos Jedao exploits Kel  formation instinct to hijack General Kel Khiruev's swarm of warmoths. Jedao's first act is to offload non-Kel personnel whom he cannot control -- and one Kel, Lieutenant Colonel Kel Brezan, whose faulty formation instinct makes him an unreliable crashhawk. However, instead of using the swarm against his former captors, Jedao follows its original orders and pursues the invading Hafn force it had been assembled to oppose, clashing with the enemy near the Fortress of Spinshot Coins and following them further into the hexarchate.

Jedao's freedom, coinciding with the disappearance of the secretive immortal Nirai hexarch and a bid by some of the other hexarchs for technological immortality, leaves the hexarchate's already toxic leadership in turmoil. Despite logistical objections by Hexarch Shuos Mikodez, the other hexarchs order the destruction of Cheris's people as a message to Jedao. They also strip Jedao of rank to break his hold over the swarm, but General Khiruev, having seen Jedao treat her soldiers more honorably than Kel Command, condemns herself to a slow death by breaking her new orders to hold the swarm's loyalty for him, hoping that his hints of a plan to fix the hexarchate's flaws might somehow bear fruit.

As Mikodez weighs Jedao's destructive potential and inconvenient propaganda drops against the ongoing danger posed by the invasion, Brezan is assigned to assist Agent Andan Tseya in retaking the swarm and killing Jedao. Reluctantly promoted to high general to outrank even Khiruev, Brezan accompanies Tseya to his old swarm's command moth, struggling to analyze Jedao's unpredictable behavior. They approach during a final battle near Minang Tower and witness a spectacular victory on Jedao's part, despite startling new technological developments from the invaders. But the unexpected failure of their own mission forces Brezan to rethink everything he knows about Jedao, the hexarchate, his duty, and himself, and as the hidden plan to change everything approaches fruition, Mikodez must weigh the ever-ossifying status quo -- and his brother's life -- against the chance that the arch-traitor's plan might actually work.

## Development

* *Raven Stratagem* was originally titled *Scavenger General*.
* Revisions included changes to Khiruev's gender, Kujen's involvement, and plot strands involving General Kel Inesser and Devenay Ragath.

## References

1. ↑ TheBookSmugglers interview: Oops, I Accidentally Wrote A Trilogy
2. ↑ ?
3. ↑ TheBookSmugglers interview: Oops, I Accidentally Wrote A Trilogy