'Extracurricular Activities' is a little titbit of the backstory of Shuos Jedao, a major protagonist of Yoon Ha Lee's continuing 'Machineries of Empire' series. It is certainly a less immediately immersive (and so more easily accessible) installment than 'Ninefox Gambit'. Perhaps earlier experience with sulky Kel, exotic mathematics, mutable sexuality, lots of tea, calendrical rot and heresy makes for an easier entry.
Jedao already has a formidable reputation when tasked with an undercover mission to recover a missing merchant vessel, its crew and its commander (Shuos Meng, a fellow cadet from Jedao's Academy days). Oh and he is to do a spot of spying whilst at Du Station in the Gwa Reality. A promotion is the dangled incentive for success.
A simple and light story which is a swift and easy read. The interactions between Jedao and his undercover crew reveal a few more features of the worlds of the Heptarchate before it splintered.
Jedao already has a formidable reputation when tasked with an undercover mission to recover a missing merchant vessel, its crew and its commander (Shuos Meng, a fellow cadet from Jedao's Academy days). Oh and he is to do a spot of spying whilst at Du Station in the Gwa Reality. A promotion is the dangled incentive for success.
A simple and light story which is a swift and easy read. The interactions between Jedao and his undercover crew reveal a few more features of the worlds of the Heptarchate before it splintered.