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Gideon the Ninth (2019) (Tamsyn Muir)
I read the first chapter online, ordered it from the library, let it gather dust until the library return date was fast approaching, and then inhaled it in one night after finishing a work project.
I had seen divergent opinions on this novel. It's excellent. It's garbage.
Spoilers, it's both.
Gideon Nav, eighteen years old and desperate to escape the morbid Ninth House, finds herself shackled to its necromantic heir as the heir's cavalier in an event that brings together the best necromancers and cavaliers of the Houses.
In certain circles, there's a recurring conversation:
SPEAKER #1: Fiction is overrun with dudes. There's too many guys. We need more fiction with non-dudes.
SPEAKER #2: Be the change you want to see in the world!
*crickets*
THREE MONTHS LATER
SPEAKER #1: Fiction is overrun with dudes. There's too many guys.
Gideon the Ninth is what happens when Speaker #1 actually writes something with non-dudes, and goes to the effort of getting it published. Yay!
It is also pure tumblr shirt-posting. (Yes, The Good Place has gotten to me. So much.) It is a work that emerges from the heart, from not only "fiction is overrun with dudes" but also "you know what we need? LOYALTY KINK. And GORMENGHAST. Plus swordfights. And skeletons, lots of inexplicable skeletons. And ENEMIES who become SWORN ALLIES, only AWESOMER."
This is hinted at in the physical hardcover from the moment one picks it up. The cover art depicts Gideon in oversized sunglasses, traditional skeletal facepaint, "I'll stop wearing black when they make a darker color" short sleeves and spiffy tight trousers, swinging a rapier amidst skeletons collapsing with expressions of pain. This is not considered sufficient hinting! No, the novel is edge-painted in black, the chapter decals are black skulls, the houses have different skull designs... this is a novel with Serious Mood.
The author put a thanks to ffn reviewers in her afterword, so I feel no compunctions echoing rumors she passed through Homestuck fandom. Which explains why Gideon and Harrowhark have a relationship that maps roughly onto *googles* kismesis, or "can't live with you, can't live without our mutual loathing."
There are good reasons Gideon and Harrowhark have a complicated relationship. This backstory comes to light during the novel. It's compelling as a story about relationships, and feelings, though whether the logic holds up, well...
The worldbuilding as developed so far is utter garbage, an afterthought to the "like this premise, but AWESOMER" storytelling. Several days after my transcendent one-night stand, I find myself asking irritating little questions, like "how does a necromantic empire function, anyway?" and "will other necromancers detect Harrow's [major spoiler]?" Not to mention the psychodynamic implications of "one flesh, one end", which likely will be tossed aside in favor of [speculative spoilers] down the road.
There's also a mystery genre element to the novel, which is not resolved to my satisfaction. It's not enough to declare that Murder Is Crazy, That's Why They Murdered. It would be nice to get a little villainous expositing about why they murdered who they killed, and why they picked the methods that they picked; or some characters pointing out that Murder A lines up with Psychological Fault-Line A'. I'm picky that way.
The big honking unresolved question is Gideon's origins. Right now, I would put my money down on some variation of Lyctor-Affiliated Spirit A shoved into Body B, which would spackle some of the worldbuilding inconsistencies from Chapter 1 on.
Recommended for a time and place in which one prefers to turn off one's brain. Pre-conditioning one's brain with your tumblr feed immediately before opening the novel is strongly recommended.
I had seen divergent opinions on this novel. It's excellent. It's garbage.
Spoilers, it's both.
Gideon Nav, eighteen years old and desperate to escape the morbid Ninth House, finds herself shackled to its necromantic heir as the heir's cavalier in an event that brings together the best necromancers and cavaliers of the Houses.
In certain circles, there's a recurring conversation:
SPEAKER #1: Fiction is overrun with dudes. There's too many guys. We need more fiction with non-dudes.
SPEAKER #2: Be the change you want to see in the world!
*crickets*
THREE MONTHS LATER
SPEAKER #1: Fiction is overrun with dudes. There's too many guys.
Gideon the Ninth is what happens when Speaker #1 actually writes something with non-dudes, and goes to the effort of getting it published. Yay!
It is also pure tumblr shirt-posting. (Yes, The Good Place has gotten to me. So much.) It is a work that emerges from the heart, from not only "fiction is overrun with dudes" but also "you know what we need? LOYALTY KINK. And GORMENGHAST. Plus swordfights. And skeletons, lots of inexplicable skeletons. And ENEMIES who become SWORN ALLIES, only AWESOMER."
This is hinted at in the physical hardcover from the moment one picks it up. The cover art depicts Gideon in oversized sunglasses, traditional skeletal facepaint, "I'll stop wearing black when they make a darker color" short sleeves and spiffy tight trousers, swinging a rapier amidst skeletons collapsing with expressions of pain. This is not considered sufficient hinting! No, the novel is edge-painted in black, the chapter decals are black skulls, the houses have different skull designs... this is a novel with Serious Mood.
The author put a thanks to ffn reviewers in her afterword, so I feel no compunctions echoing rumors she passed through Homestuck fandom. Which explains why Gideon and Harrowhark have a relationship that maps roughly onto *googles* kismesis, or "can't live with you, can't live without our mutual loathing."
There are good reasons Gideon and Harrowhark have a complicated relationship. This backstory comes to light during the novel. It's compelling as a story about relationships, and feelings, though whether the logic holds up, well...
The worldbuilding as developed so far is utter garbage, an afterthought to the "like this premise, but AWESOMER" storytelling. Several days after my transcendent one-night stand, I find myself asking irritating little questions, like "how does a necromantic empire function, anyway?" and "will other necromancers detect Harrow's [major spoiler]?" Not to mention the psychodynamic implications of "one flesh, one end", which likely will be tossed aside in favor of [speculative spoilers] down the road.
There's also a mystery genre element to the novel, which is not resolved to my satisfaction. It's not enough to declare that Murder Is Crazy, That's Why They Murdered. It would be nice to get a little villainous expositing about why they murdered who they killed, and why they picked the methods that they picked; or some characters pointing out that Murder A lines up with Psychological Fault-Line A'. I'm picky that way.
The big honking unresolved question is Gideon's origins. Right now, I would put my money down on some variation of Lyctor-Affiliated Spirit A shoved into Body B, which would spackle some of the worldbuilding inconsistencies from Chapter 1 on.
Recommended for a time and place in which one prefers to turn off one's brain. Pre-conditioning one's brain with your tumblr feed immediately before opening the novel is strongly recommended.
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...makes as much sense as any other argument. Also most of my thoughts are still on "how does a necromantic space empire work, anyway?!" Are there Eldritch Horrors? Sandworms? Is the Necromancer Divine related to Leto Atreides? And what does it say that whatsherface (book not in reach!) was the nice Lictor?
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(Yeah, there's something about talking about a friend's work when it... may be very good at doing what it does, but it's not necessarily working for you / deathless prose / etc.)
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Oh, I totally enjoyed the trilogy! It had no pretensions, and the third book even has a scene where he skewers his own sex scenes. (Which ... I think were actually quite good, but I had to skim them on account of awkwardness.) It was a fun, compelling trilogy about a sexy teenage assassin whose best friend is a shadow in the shape of a cat, and I cried buckets at the end. (On the plane. It was embarrassing.)
It was just SO appealing to my inner teenage goth (and Jay's outer adult goth) that admitting how much I enjoyed it might reveal too much about myself.
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Wait, I thought that she murdered everyone to get the Emperor to come there, and she did it slowly one-by-one so he wouldn't come with a bunch of ships?
...although I felt like this didn't quite make sense, because he did in fact come without a bunch of ships but it doesn't seem to have made any difference? Though I suppose if she had lived maybe she would have gotten to kill him or whatever it was that she was trying to do.
This is the kind of thing where I feel like it should make more sense in the next book, though, and if it does then I feel even better about this one, and if it doesn't then I withdraw some of my nice words about this one :) And you should know, right, having read it?