Gideon the Ninth

Oh my GOD did I love this book! I didn't head into it with very high hopes even, as I've been let down by highly rated and recommended books before. While initially I was a little put off at some of the Marvel-movie-esque dialogue from the protagonist, I slowly settled into loving every bit of every single character written in this universe. To the point where "turbo cancer" absolutely took me out in the best way.

Muir has done an incredible job at crafting both an incredibly in-depth world and magic system. With such beautiful and ornate descriptions let you picture every single thing in remarkable clarity. As I mentioned prior, she's also crafted so many well rounded and intriguing characters that I wanted to know more about every. single. one of them. Even the assholes. I find most authors are either good at building worlds or building characters, Muir has shown to be so amazing at both I wouldn't be surprised at all if she was two people in one body!

I'm immediately moving on to the next in the series because I cannot bear to be away from this world and the characters a day longer.

I've seen a lot of people raving about this and I was curious to try it, so was glad when it came up as a text for a book club I'm in. Having now finished it, I can see why some people really love it, but it's not really for me. It plunges you straight into the universe and it's overwhelming and bewildering for a long time as there's nothing too familiar to ground yourself on and work out what's going on. It's very stylised, with a strong authorial voice, which I don't mind, but information is doled out very slowly, both to the characters and the reader, so it does feel like wandering around in the dark a lot. The ending does reveal a lot of things that help to make sense of what's gone on before, but you need to cling on in faith that it's going to be revealed when the time goes along, and I'm still not sure the rest of the universe here makes too much sense. I may read the rest of the series, but I'm not urgently arranging to get hold of them.

This book managed to be both pretty much what I was expecting and yet surprising at the same time.

Pop-Goth vibes. Science-Fantasy. Necromancy. Skeletons. Mysteries. WLW. Enemies to Lovers. Angst. Hurt/Comfort. Etc. Basically a wall of AO3 tags. I have been more or less aware of Gideon the Ninth for some time now, and from all of the fanart and mentions I saw of it I went in expecting all of the above. It had all of that and served it in plenty.

What surprised me about it was not the content, but rather how fresh and vibrant it was. It felt like the author loved what they were writing, loved the characters, and was just plain having fun. I found that tone to be infectious and charming, and by the end, I loved it all as much as the author did.

The characters were easily the standout elements. The main pair were wonderful, with delightfully contrasting and conflicting personalities that made their interactions great reading. The side characters also felt unique and well realized, and even the most minor characters felt like integral parts of the book’s tableau.

There was some stuff I had to get accustomed to - the dialogue, for instance, feels very contemporary, despite being set in a science fantasy world (which is, I theorize, or hypothesize, our solar system in the far future?), which makes it very accessible to a YA audience and fun to read but feels a little anachronistic to everything else.

I do wish a little bit of the sapphic parts had been more overt, because I am a romantic sap and want it shoved in my face. I have high hopes for the future, however. Also, the names of some of the characters were a little difficult to keep straight, particularly because I was listening to the audiobook.

I feel like it is the kind of book that you will either love or hate. Will the sarcastic banter and contemporary styles of speech, and overtly “cool“ settings and magic seem childish and annoying? Or are you not an uptight and prudish stick-in-the-mud?

Ultimately, this book pushed all of my buttons just right. I found the world fascinating, it was full of great atmosphere in its setting, interesting twists and turns that surprised me once or twice, and most importantly I characters I grew to love despite their myriad flaws.

If you think all that sounds like something you would like, then I hope, like me, you will. I highly recommend it.

I actually read the bulk of this over a couple of days, after starting but needing to put it aside. Once I returned to the story, it was difficult to put down. Part of that was trying to untangle the threads of mysterious and confusing characters and plot that wanders between horror and action - this is not a complaint! I will admit that some of the lesser characters take some work to keep straight, but there is a glossary in the back [which I actually didn't even know about until I'd finished] and the longer you read, the more defined the supporting cast becomes. Gideon herself is an amazingly fun MC to follow; her snappy retorts and underlying kindness won me over. And her background story is... well, I don't want to spoiler but there's a lot to make you uncomfortable and sympathetic. Speaking of uncomfortable, I've seen mention from others about how some of the relationships in this book made them uncomfortable, and I agree but I think that's part of what makes the reveals at the end so impactful. The Ninth House is filled with secrets and those secrets exact a terrible price. I have a feeling that the next book in the series will be dealing more with exactly how dear the cost is, and I am looking forward to reading it.

From a universe where necromancy abounds, comes Gideon the Ninth.Her home planet, the Ninth Planet, holds trials to determine who will inherit unimaginable power.

As the heir of the Ninth and the strongest necromancer on the planet, Harrow needs... a sword. Luckily, Gideon knows the sword.

Since they can remember, Gideon and Harrow have hated each other.

The moment Harrow dangles freedom in front of Gideon, Gideon knows she will have to follow through with the plan... even to the very end.

There’s just something about this book that doesn’t work for me. The first time I tried it, I wasn’t able to get into it. My second attempt was more challenging, but I got through it.

It is because of Gideon herself and the style of the book that I did not enjoy it. She sounded like she was trying way too complicated to be edgy and cool. I found the other characters to be one-dimensional - even Harrow doesn’t get much development until the end of the book. Oh, and if you are seeking a good lesbian romance, you will be disappointed. There’s nothing romantic about it.

The second problem was that it felt aimless. The start of the series seemed promising, and for a while it did. However, once it became apparent, it was going to be a pointless tournament arc with murder; I lost interest. There are no rules, only vague objectives, and it is impossible to follow the person solving the puzzle, so things just sort of... happen. The characters and style didn’t appeal to me, which would have been fine if I enjoyed it.

The third problem, I also found the world building to be vague. There was a lot of aesthetic detail on, with skeletons and bones and locked doors everywhere. Beyond that, it was hollow. Despite the brief spaceship journey at the beginning, it is not science fiction, rather fantasy.

What is the purpose of the Emperor? Are there any reasons becoming his servant is so desirable? Where do the other planets stand? What is the purpose of necromancy?

I’m not sure whether I’m going to continue.

You can also find this review on my blog: Click here

The sad thing is, this could have been the perfect and most awesome book. It could have even been my favourite book. It had everything, complex world, intense plot, innovative concept. tragic and dark aesthetic.

It was creative and innovative and felt fresh. Like it finally broke through an invisible wall in Sci-Fi Land to create a new exciting thrilling story, with a new world to explore.

But there were issues for me.
First of all, the action scene were no fun. They were badly written. I was not able to follow the movement. If you write action scenes you need to be precise, but this is what the book is most lacking in, detailed precision. I zoomed out all the time and just flew over the words until things calmed down and I knew what was going on again. There was not any content to be missed in the action scenes anyway, because you just needed to know the consequences. The stakes were not high in that regard.

Additionally, there were plot holes. Worst case for me was the set up with the set up for the Ninth House and certain actions of characters in the book. If there is no clear motive for the characters and they just act according to what you want your plot to go like, it feels like cheap writing, hidden away by big words (pretty regular concept of writing books in my native language and there is nothing more hateful and bad then doing that). So it might seem like super smart plotting, but really it wasn't. The writing was moulded so it fit, so you could not call on the plot twist. But it could have been everything in the end, whatever fitted the author the most. That is not well done plotting.

Additionally the writing is so vague at points, that you have no idea what the author meant. Did the character do something by their own free will or was it something they were forced to do. That drove me nuts. It was suggestive and let on to a lot of speculation on my end, which then did not deliver and it turned out to be the most easy option from the very beginning and would not have needed to waste so much time thinking critically about.

Nontheless, it was a great book. And an exciting read and it deserves the 5 stars for the entertainment and the innovation. I am thrilled to read on, and i hope that all the above points are mostly debut author mistakes and Muir will grow with the series as an Author. I love that she was bold enough to bring something new on the table. I has so much good content mixed in, especially with the magic, that i would not want to miss any of it. And i cannot wait until i want to reread again and find all the little easter eggs I missed the first time.

The first couple of chapters of this book didn't really grab my attention, but I persevered as it was lent to me and my opinion was expected. It picks up considerably during the middle, when the political machinations start to play out and you get a clearer feel for each of the main characters (of which there are many - perhaps too many). I'm usually pretty good at working out who the primary villain is, but with this book the ending left me surprised (my guess was incorrect) and a bit disappointed (my favourite character was killed).

Despite enjoying it, I'm not sure I'd put it on my re-read list or pick up the next book in the series. It's good, but not quite good enough to take precedence over a bunch of other books (4 stars is that tricky area between "really liked this book" and "will definitely re-read/continue the series").