Gideon the Ninth

That I'm writing a review is a positive thing. I liked this book. But while there were things I liked, there we other things that bugged me. I've marked none of this as "spoiler" because I'm not talking plot, but I discuss some things about characters and story points. Stop reading if you don't want to know any details — critical or not.

THE COVER

The cover — probably one of the best cover art pieces I've seen in a long time — is gorgeous! And it's representative of the story, which I really appreciate. For the life of me, I can't find any reference to Tommy Arnold in the book, which makes me sad. He did a phenomenal job on this and the Harrow the Ninth cover too.

However, the blurb on the front "Lesbian necromancers explore a haunted gothic palace in space!" is somewhat disingenuous. The lesbianism consists entirely of Gideon saying "she's hot" a few times or getting angsty at seeing a little skin. (And she's not even a necromancer.) I wasn't necessarily looking forward to lesbian sex, but it appears Tor decided to add this blurb to the cover simply for shock value alone. I don't think the concept of lesbianism really came from the author.

Would I call this "epic" as the cover describes? Not really. Epics are sweeping and broad. Here, "epic" is used to mean "a handful of people from eight planets are summoned to the first planet". There is history and a background to all of this, but it's not explored very much.

THE WRITING

This is [a:Tamsyn Muir|6876324|Tamsyn Muir|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1543423040p2/6876324.jpg]'s debut novel and for the most part, her writing is engaging and the storyline is well laid. But I did have a few problems with parts of it.

The main character Gideon is 18, but she has the brashness and smart aleckyness of someone a few years younger. That's fine. Much of her dialog and attitude reflects that. It's what makes Gideon Gideon.

But a lot of the writing itself has that same quality. Assuming the story takes place in the distant future (our distant future?), terms like "pizza face", "DOA", "a whole lotta nope" are really out of place. Does Gideon know what pizza is? Doesn't seem so based on the foods she's described, yet she uses the term once. Muir seems to include a lot of immature phrasing like that throughout the book and every time it made me wince because I suddenly felt I was reading an immature teenager's writing. It's there for shock and humor, but really displaced.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

I'm trying to understand why the supplemental material at the end of the book wasn't simply incorporated into the book itself.

Some of it contains the histories of the characters, which would've been useful while reading not afterward. Most of the peripheral characters remained flat and two-dimensional. And the character pronunciations could've been added to the Dramatis Personae at the beginning instead of telling us after the fact how the author intends names should be pronounced. At least I had most of those right without referencing the guide.

If the author had chosen to spend time world-building, then this material might be interesting background information. But there was no world-building. Or sweeping character-building for that matter. There were so many characters and events, there simply wasn't time. But I did appreciate allowing Gideon to make direct connections with many of the characters to at least get to know them better.

My rating for Gideon the Ninth was four stars. Had there been more depth to Gideon or attention to the world Muir created, it could've easily been five stars.

Count me as one of the people who really can't stand the author's extremely strong authorial voice. Sometimes it was genuinely funny and I loved it but it was SO omnipresent and overbearing that eventually it felt like I was being told a pretty interesting scifi/fantasy story by someone who desperately needs me to find them hilarious.

I love the world it's set in, I love the whole goth cultists in space thing. I don't like the protagonist and I don't like that most of the characters are emotionally confused teenagers. It feels like I was tricked into reading a mislabeled YA novel. And like, YA is fine, but I like to know what I'm getting into ahead of time?

I think that if your sense of humor aligns with the author you might love this novel! But if you don't, you might hate it.

Wow.

Just... wow.

This was a hell of a fun ride. I love stories which just throw you into the world, and expect you to figure it out as the story goes along. That is, as long as the author can give you enough clues and description and character development to show you the world she's building.

And Tamsyn Muir is more than capable of doing just that. She is a wonderful writer, and I would read anything else she chooses to write, no matter the genre or material. Hell, even the Acknowledgements at the end of the book were entertaining.

I won't give the plot away, except to say that this is a great twist on the traditional swords-and-sorcery fantasy genre, with a bit of a sci-fi element. Her characters are modern and smart and three-dimensional. The dialogue is crisp and funny and sometimes poignant and always moving forward. The characters are well developed and in full 3D, and while you have to be paying attention, it is sooooooo worth it.

There's a reason why this book was nominated for a Hugo and a Nebula. There are a million worse ways to spend your reading time and dollars, and while there may actually be one or two better ways, I can't think of any.

This book is the most original fiction I have read since picking up The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin. It's not as flawless as the previously mentioned book, but it's different for sure.

Theoretically it's science-fiction, but the science part only comes up in passing. There is mention of planets, shuttles, spaceships, a galactic empire, but that's not what we experience in this novel. Instead we get a necromantic version of And Then There Were None by Agatha Cristie, the seven heirs to the necromantic houses of the Empire, and their respective cavaliers stuck in an ancient building, trying to figure out how they can ascend to the role of Lyctor, an important position to the Emperor. While they explore the crumbling ruins, there are mysterious deaths and scary bone monsters.

Our protagonist is the somewhat unwilling cavalier Gideon the Ninth, who is an orphan in the Ninth House which excels at bone magic. Her necromancer Harrowhark and Gideon kinda hate each other since their childhoods, and the whole cavalier gig is Gideon's ticket to freedom from the Ninth. Gideon herself is a delight. She's queer, foul-mouthed and extremely good at swordfighting.

The book is uneven. The pacing of the first third before the arrival at Canaan House is not great, and the world-building is confusing. Yet the rest of the book kicks so much ass and is so fascinating, in a unique writing style that I can't but love it. There are glimpses of a bigger world at the end of the book and I want to learn more. Can't wait for the next book, Harrowhark the Ninth.

Wasn't sure if I liked it in the first few chapters, started enjoying myself a quarter of the way through, couldn't put it down after the halfway mark. I see what everyone is raving about it.