Kate Ota
  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • FAQ
  • Contact
  • Tidewater Writers

Writing, Publishing, and Bookish Blog

Book Review: Gideon the Ninth

5/1/2022

0 Comments

 
Cover image from Tor.com. The figure in the middle is Gideon.
Picture
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir is an adult fantasy (and crosses into scifi) about necromancers. It's the first of the Locked Tomb Trilogy. It's a NYT and USA Today bestseller, won the Locus and Crawford awards, was a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, and other major awards, and is referenced on dozens of agents' manuscript wish lists.
​
Gideon is not a necromancer, in fact she’s an orphan on a planet run by people who are super religious about necromancy. Look at that cover—they paint their faces like skulls. It’s hardcore. And she’s not into it. All she wants is to escape and go join the army, since she’s an excellent fighter. The heir of the Ninth House, Harrowhark (aka Harrow) has been invited to try to be a Lyctor for the solar system’s Emperor and Gideon has to come along as her semi-body guard/semi-assistant. What’s a Lyctor? Good question. So glad you asked. Same, honestly. Anyway, all eight of the heirs to houses 2-9 (the First being the Emperor) show up and start trying to be Lyctors with absolutely no guidance on how to do that. Necromancy chaos ensues.

I liked the humor and voice of Gideon, which is a common compliment for this book. It’s very millennial. She basically quotes memes. If you're confused about what voice is in novels, read this one and you'll get it. I was also interested in solving the mystery of who-dun-it once bodies started hitting the floor (fresh bodies, anyway).

One thing I was expecting was a romance between Gideon and Harrow because a lot of people online insinuated that was the result. Maybe I’m bad at reading into things, but I didn’t get a romantic vibe between Gideon and Harrow. Sure, Gideon was clearly interested in women, but Harrow didn’t seem interested in anyone. And honestly, their relationship was too toxic for me to root for even if they had made some moves. I guess I let the internet lead me astray, so this one’s more on me than the book.

This is a book for you if you like locked room mysteries, millennial humor, necromancy, and puzzles. It’s not for you if you have a low or even moderate gore tolerance. There’s one scene near the end that I just… I had to stop eating lunch while I read that because yikes. (And I’m someone with a high tolerance for gore!) It’s also not for you if you’re looking for people to start kissing, it’s not happening here. Overall, the hype was fairly accurate on this one, and there are two more books in the series if this is your jam (Harrow the Ninth and Nona the Ninth, which comes out in September 2022).
 

Have you read Gideon the Ninth or Harrow the Ninth Did you get romance vibes? Help me out and tell me about it in the comments!
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    March 2025
    February 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019

    Categories

    All
    Agent's Guide
    Announcement
    Book Review
    Character Development
    Conferences
    Crafting
    Critique
    Does It Live Up To The Hype
    Easier Editing
    Editing
    Goals
    Indie Books
    Inspiration
    Is It Worth It
    NaNoWriMo
    Novella
    Personal Essay
    Pitch Wars
    PitchWars
    Published Work
    Query Tips
    Reading
    Research
    RevPit
    Screenwriting
    Show Don't Tell
    Trope Discussion
    Updates
    Voice
    World Building
    Writing Groups
    Writing Tips
    Year In Review

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • FAQ
  • Contact
  • Tidewater Writers