Gideon the Ninth

I've listed this book as fantasy, which seems the consensus, but it's a little harder to classify than that. It's set in a far future solar system where power is in the hands of necromancers, so there are spaceships and signs of high technology, but most of the latter has been abandoned and the necromancy is never explained as anything other than magic... so fantasy is perhaps the closer vibe.

The story concerns a deadly trial being undertaken by representatives of each of the solar system's planets (including Pluto, from which the title character hails... I mean, it's never called ‘Pluto', but it obviously is). The fact that necromancy is the only form of magic anyone practices, and that the two central characters spend most of their time with skulls painted on their faces gives this a distinctly goth vibe and it can get pretty gloomy - and viscerally violent - at times. This is offset by Gideon's irreverent attitude, often bringing in more present-day sensibilities and speech when things threaten to get too highfalutin'.

At times, the large size of the cast becomes a little overwhelming, and it becomes confusing who exactly is who and which of the Nine Houses is which, but this does become easier as the book progresses. (There's also a glossary and a guide to the characters and houses, but these aren't so easy to access in the Kindle version I was reading as they would be in a physical book). The result is on odd book, but one that feels worth it by the end, and that does some good worldbuilding as well as providing us with a memorable title character. And, to be honest, a fair amount of Gothic gore alongside the splashes of humour.

My interest in this came and went, there were moments where I really got into it and moments where my attention drifted and I ended up having to reread paragraphs and pages because I hadn't retained anything at all. I'm still not sure if it's a case of right book, wrong time or just wrong book.

Enjoyed the concepts and characters! The narration in the audiobook made the sassiness of Gideon and the other characters entertaining lol

Like a 4.5? I had some issues with it but I'm excited to continue. I might roll it up depending how I feel in a week...

A friend sent me this, and I felt so seen when it arrived and the blurb on the bottom of the cover is, “Lesbian necromancers explore a haunted gothic palace in space!”! Totally my jam! I've been doing this a lot lately, but this book might become a 4-star review later. It's not yet because my feelings are currently about the end (don't worry, no spoilers here), which I understand is both PERFECT and also SAD and I am leaning into SAD WHYYYYYY right now. Muir is laugh-out-loud funny as a writer, especially with her dialogue full of zingers (I didn't know I needed a just-post-adolescence protagonist who makes the occasional well-timed “That's what she said” joke, but I did!), and this book is clever, poignant, and campy in excellent proportions. I could have used a little less plot complexity (bones, so many ways of using bones, sometimes in ways that are hard to transmit the visual idea of via writing) for more explication of Gideon's very complicated relationship with her peer/dictator/it's complicated Harrowhark, although the (SAD) ending still rang true. Will read the 2nd for sure, but will give myself time to get over the ending first.

(Still thinking about this weeks later! My feelings are less hurt by the ending. 4 stars!)

Very good. I wish I was reading a dead tree edition though. There are so many characters and they all have multiple names they go by. It was confusing.

This was a journey. It started very confusing and it took me a while to get into it. But once it kicked off this was great. Great writing, great characters, great story. Knowing what the next book was called kind of made me suspect pretty early on how this was going to end. And I am still mad about it but I also feel like the story needed it. 

The only thing I am annoyed about is that Gideon's origin is still a mystery. None of the weird shit surrounding her has been explained, and given the ending, it's like it doesn't matter anymore. What is the point of harrow figuring out where she came from and why she didn't die from the smoke only for Gideon to be unable to emotionally react to it. Where is the pay-off you know? 

A lot of fun. There is a large cast of characters with unwieldy names that was at times hard to keep track of and understand their relationship to one another, even with a list of characters at the beginning of the book. However, Gideon is a hilarious narrator that had me laughing out loud multiple times and the action scenes had my heart pounding.

I don't know what to say about this book except that after listening to the audiobook, it severely warrants a re-read, possibly before continuing. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed it and I adore Gideon and Harrow. Gideon was particularly surprising as I had assumed from the name that she was a man but knew based on fanart that she was not entirely sketched as such. She turned out to be a fantastic narrator for the story though, and I really enjoyed her arc, as well as Harrow's arc. Just a great book about lesbians and necromancers. 

I am hollow and sad, the ending was so good.

this was really good just took me years to realize that (and to listen to the audiobook)

That was a wild ride

Gideon the Ninth is different from anything else I've ever read. Beautiful writing juxtaposed by Gideon's irreverent dialogue. I didn't think I would enjoy necromancers in space but I LOVED it.
This may have even fixed my reading slump. Excuse me while I enjoy this book hangover.

I debated on the rating for this book for a long time, even after my second read, but finally settled on 5 stars. After my first read, I was battling with 4 or 5 due to world building details feeling a little too convoluted/unclear, but especially on my second read through, I realized it was my fault for reading too fast to pick up on what I had complained about previously. I adore that this book was even more enjoyable the second time through and can't wait to re-read it more and more.

This book has swords, lesbians, a thrilling haunted house murder mystery, necromancy science, and more. Along the way on my first time around, I came up with some wild theories that all ended up being really wrong but we're decent guesses. I initially went into this book expecting it to be way harder to keep up with than it was, based off of MANY reviews along the lines of “you won't know what's going on at all but you'll love it”. I personally didn't find it hard to follow–the whole point of a murder mystery is not having the answers or solution until it tells you? You can't solve every Sherlock Holmes book before the end for the same reason. Anyways, fantastic read that has me full of brainrot even months later.

I loved every second of this book. It's a thrill ride of murder, necromancy, and mystery with a sassy, sword fighting protagonist and her secretive necromancer. I highly recommend the audiobook as the narrator really makes things exciting but even if you don't want to listen give it a read. If you like deep lore, magic, or a murder mystery then this book could be for you.

Stopped about 1/3 of the way in. No reason, I just lost interest.

3.5 stars rounded down. I will continue on with the series because I think the characters and the world is interesting, but this first book was pretty confusing. I couldn't keep all the characters straight between at least two people from each of nine different houses and a lot of them felt like fodder. I am pretty tolerant to not knowing what is going on in fantasy books, but if I am at the end of the book still trying to remember who is who, that's not a great sign for me. That being said, I liked the story, the relationship between Gideon and Harrow, and the narratives for the characters.

Starts off slow and sometimes got confused by the terms, but the overall story was excellent.

Es bastante raro. Me cost?? un par de cap??tulos orientarme. A partir de ah??, la trama me enganch?? y me ha resultado original e interesante. Parecer??a que todo estaba inventado en el mundo de la fantas??a, pero est?? claro que siempre se puede pensar en algo nuevo. En cierto modo, trata de un mont??n de seres de ultratumba que se van de escape room. Obviamente, con sorpresas.

This book was not what expected. Although to be fair, it is marketed very poorly. “Lesbian necromancers in space”, they say. Lesbians, yes. Necromancers, technically. Space...not so much. And moreso, it's what that pithy phrase leaves out that does the book a disservice.

Gideon the Ninth, while hard to categorize, is part gothic Madeline Miller, part Agatha Christie, part Hunger Games, with some sci-fi thrown in and dipped in a Tumblr filter. The book follows Gideon in service to perpetual frenemy Harrow, daughter of the Ninth House. Harrow and Gideon are summoned to participate in a competition where each of the other Houses send two companions in order to see who is most suitable to become a Lyctor, the most powerful servants to the Emperor. Harrow has her reasons for wanting to become a Lyctor, while Gideon is pulled along with this girl she ostensibly hates out of some underlying sense of loyalty, obligation, and her own goals.

I really enjoyed it. The character moments mostly landed for me, and the humor, while not always being a hit, was funny enough. This book made me laugh out loud more than once. I also thought the plot reveals were very well done, and I was constantly left guessing.

I do have two issues with the book though. The first is that Gideon is very passive. Most things happen TO Gideon and she just kinda accepts them.

My second problem is the names. Oh sweet lord, the names. Each character has two names and a house number, and Muir writes this book as if it is socially unacceptable to use the same name more than one time in a row. If there was some overaching logic as to which character refers to whom in what way...but I could find none. Character A would refer to Character B as X and then Y in the next sentence, and then Character C would refer to B as X and then their house number in the sentence after that. I hated this so much. It was like it was intentionally meant to be confusing in every scene. By the time I started figuring out everybody's names, the book was almost over.

But overall, I recommend giving this a try!

8.5/10

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir is a multi-genre adventure combining a dark fantasy, science fiction, and horror with an amusingly crass protagonist. It's funny, it's gay, it's suspenseful, and it's a novel of truly epic proportions! Gideon lives in the Ninth House, known as the shadow cult and keepers of the Locked Tomb, as an indentured surf of sorts. On the very day she's plotted to escape and enlist in the military her hated archrival, the necromancer Reverend Daughter Harrowhark Nonagesimus, announces that she and her Cavalier will travel to the First House to undertake a trial so she may become an immortal Lyctor in service to the God-Emperor. Except the Cavalier has fled (in the very shuttle Gideon planned to steal to get off-world), and now Gideon must assume the role in exchange for her freedom. Of course, things do not go as planned. Intrigued? Confused? Me too. Overall I found this book to be really exciting. I loved Gideon as a character and was really into her witty quips and irreverent temperament. I was also drawn in by the epic nature of the story and found many sections to be highly suspenseful and compelling. Unfortunately I did have a bit of a tough time tracking who was who and sometimes what exactly was going on. To be fair, Muir did provide a Dramatis Personae section at the beginning of the book, but nevertheless I just found this volume to be a little bit confusing. Muir chose to reveal information in a way that left the reader in the dark about a number of things until fairly late in the book. I can respect this as a storytelling device, but once again I simply felt confused or as if I had “missed something” throughout sections of the book. Despite these criticisms I enjoyed this book and hope to read the sequel soon. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

a rounded up 4/5
I loved this book from page one. Gideon is so fun to read about. I love her snark. Muir's writing is easy to read at least in this book. I got bored at the 60% mark to 80. It could have been shorter but that ending is

I was planning on reading the physical copy of this, but then I saw that Moira Quirk is the narrator so I had to listen to it. Definitely the right choice. I loved this book! I was a little hesitant after reading all the mixed reviews, but I thought it was great. Gideon and Harrow are actually quite funny when they're insulting each other and there's a lot of snark. Moira did a fantastic job with the narration of course. The ending makes me want to buy the next one right away. Loved it!

I'm not even going to bother with writing a review because Gideon the Ninth is so cuckoo bananas that I can't possibly do it justice.

But, it's an absolutely wild ride, and so wonderful!

Have added it to my Favorites shelf, and super keen to read Harrow the Ninth.

second read 5 stars this book makes me feel INSANE in the best possible way. it???s a fantastic and rewarding reread, especially after harrow the ninth. everything is that much more interesting and painful when you feel like you actually sort of might have an idea of what???s going on. gideon simply SHINES. her voice is crystal clear, sharp, hilarious as we follow her on the wildest fantasy sci-fi post-apocalyptic (???) ride. tamsyn muir manages to go from deliciously modern and snappy dialogue to harrowing (ha ha) necromantic sequences so elegantly. as someone who gets hives from books that include pop culture references this somehow manages to never feel contrived. it walks the line by using contemporary language to describe things that aren???t, and cannot be, and won???t be part of our universe. and i genuinely delight in a story of which you can FEEL the scope because no one explains anything that they wouldn???t. this book is an onion, a very big lettuce, me when winter starts - so so layered. and every part that muir unwraps adds density and intrigue. she???s so clever!!! i want to open her up and study her!!! anyway. if you haven???t read this: let it wash over you during the first read. get you a friend who will take notes during her reread so you can use them to aid your sieve-like memory. read it again and delight and cry, both dreading and looking forward to starting harrow. -first read 4.5 love a book that doesn???t explain shit to me!

Viendo que tanta gente no lo ha acabado me hace desear haber hecho eso tambien.

El primer tercio del libro no es salvable. Es aburrido, es cliche y a la vez es confuso.
El segundo tercio es muy bueno, 5 estrellas.
El final es muy peliculero, bien descrito pero meh.