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.