Review: Revenant Gun

Revenant Gun is the last novel in Yoon Ha Lee's Calendaric Empire trilogy. In this last novel, we get an explanation of who the driving force is behind the empire's atrocities, and the fate of the characters introduced in the previous novels. What's interesting is the recurrent character General Jedao, who's been cloned, transplanted, and brought back to life. We also get to see that the star-ships used by the civilizations in the novel aren't really manufactured, but are living organisms that are grown and then harnessed.

The biggest failure of the story is that the ideas behind main plot point (exotic technologies that can only be used in terrain that subscribes to a certain calendar) aren't fully fleshed out: you could easily file all the numbers off and replace technology with magic and the story would still work.

On the other hand, the story reads easily, the characters sympathetic (except for the villain, who's also never fleshed out enough for you to have any sympathy for him), and the payoff, such as it is, has plenty of action and explosions. It's a light airplane read that serves its purpose. Mildly recommended.