Reviews with content warning for Slavery - Gideon the Ninth

First impression, just finished it the night before.

GtN has a very strong beginning. I love the tactic of giving zero exposition. It makes you instantly intrigued in trying to figure out what is even going on with all these people, and also makes you focus on the characters and their dynamics more, since it's the only thing you somewhat understand. These are very strong and eye-catching from the very beginning. GtN has about fifteen characters who are all in some way relevant to the plot, and they're all delightfully distinguishable and colourful.

Gideon is pretty standard as far as heroes of the story go, but she's very likeable. Empathetic, rebellious, moves before she thinks, has mysterious origins; I've seen it all before, but Gideon manages to sold me on these concepts once again through sheer force of her personality. She works best with Harrow, Gideon's relationship with her is the backbone of the whole book.

I love unreliable narrators as much as the next guy, but this particular rendition of it left me a little unsatisfied. For like, half a book Gideon has no idea what is going on and just stumbles around, getting into situations, while you see glimpses of something you don't grasp happening in the distance. The final twist left me absolutely dissapointed, and the book was saved only by the last thirty pages. GtN reads very much like a book that's supposed to bloom only during rereading, which I don't particularly appreciate.

In general, GtN is a good fundament for a series, in the sense that I will be buying the next book. The only thing is I'm not sure I will like it that much.

((also lol russian translation sucks ass, why are the originals so expensive man))

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yorgosson's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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arobear's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

So conflicted on rating this book. In my heart I know it's a 5...

(but honestly the ending killed me and I want to yell for a long time.... I'm not sure I'm going to be ok anytime soon...)

but my feelings are complicated to put it best. I'll 100% be rereading it in the future though, and the sequels one I give myself a minute to recover.

Worldbuilding and character development are excellent; the setting feels mysterious throughout and (for better or worse) I love the characters. They're my shitty little children now!

Be ready for strong emotions though, fair warning.

I want to see where it goes with the necromancers in space thread next. Not sure it will be for a while though.... just ugh my heart, I have so many feelings...

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wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

At the end of this book I experienced emotional damage and I fully expect it to make me cry again on re-reading in the future.

I went into this book knowing almost nothing beyond the tag line of Lesbian Necromancers in Space and that it was genre-bending for sci-fi and fantasy. That was enough to sell me on reading it, even though I heard mixed things.

Did it deliver on those premises? Mostly. There are characters that identified as women and showed attraction/flirted with others that also identified as women, some of those characters were also necromancers. With regards to being in space, there is very limited space shuttle travel, so I don't know that I would really quantify it that way, though there is ample room for that to change for the future in the series.

This book was indeed a crossover between sci-fi and fantasy in that it involved a technologically advanced civilization (space travel, and such) but with the deep roots of necromancy that almost took it into dark academia territory. The necromancers are all obsessed in learning new theorems/spells and figuring out things in their specializations, and there are also trials they have to pass and mysteries to solve before they can advance.

There's a lot of tension because it is a competition and you don't really begin to understand the stakes until Act II and then the full whammy hits you near the end.

Also, I feel like I have a conspiracy theory based on the epilogue/info peppered throughout the book so click for spoilers, I guess:

Okay, so Gideon did not die with all the other children even though she was close to the vents for 10 minutes and her parents were hella scared about that. In the epilogue, the Emperor says they couldn't retrieve Camilla (who was last seen alive) or Gideon's bodies so what if Harrow has Gideon's soul, but like, the body/vessel is still alive? And Camilla managed to be resourceful because she definitely is wicked smart and they escaped the First planet...? Or hid until they left? I dunno. Maybe I just don't want Gideon to be dead because her gay panic was so relatable. And everyone else. I loved the Fourth teens with their perpetual embarrassment and the Fifth cav Magnus was so sweet...

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