Reviews tagging 'War'

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

111 reviews

tbd24's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense 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

4.75

fantastic read. the only reason I didn’t give it a full 5 stars is that it’s a bit confusing in the beginning, trying to figure out who everyone is and how they relate to each other. I wish the author gave us just a cursory background in the beginning. But once I hit the middle of the book it was like a switch flipped and I felt like I understood everything and also I loved it. The cavalier/necromancer relationship is MY SHIT.  Fuck enemies to lovers, how about enemies but they’re duty bound beyond every fiber of their beings to back each other up and they eventually learn that they’re secretly best friends AAAAAH i’m incoherent. Jovial prose, tidy plot writing, characters you can love and hate and relate to and judge,  the perfect amount of sexiness in the face of danger, seriously this book had it all for me. Can’t wait to read the next one

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Cancer, Cursing, Murder, Self harm, Violence, Death, Death of parent, and Gore

Minor: War, Slavery, Confinement, Torture, and Religious bigotry

regalpotato's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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? It's complicated

5.0

My favourite book. I've reread it (and listened to the audiobook) numerous times. The writing is easy to read but still fantastic prose. The characters are all deeply flawed but you can't help but adore them. There's a lot of queerness, and enemies to reluctant allies, to much deeper than lovers. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Blood, Child abuse, Death, Child death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Body horror, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: War and Suicide

persephonefoxx's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Suicide, and Death of parent

Moderate: Blood, Violence, War, and Terminal illness

immovabletype's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Read my full review on Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/p/Cuq34OhuywC

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Cancer, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Violence

Moderate: Infertility, Medical content, and Child death

Minor: War

widgetknits's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Body horror, Violence, Blood, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Cancer

Minor: Child death, War, and Self harm

hayleyvem's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child death, Death, Gore, Terminal illness, Blood, Chronic illness, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Violence, Medical content, Body horror, Cancer, and Child abuse

Moderate: War

Minor: Infertility

jules44's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

A wild, feminine-forward, necromantic romp that you really have to pay attention to. The world-building is hard and fast, the characters are complicated and human (mostly), and the writing style is superb. So excited to continue this series!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Gore

Moderate: Violence, Death, and War

kshertz's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.75

This was such a fascinating intelligent book with so many twists and turns. I tried really hard to follow it all but there were I think too many characters for me. I wasn’t able to get invested in the characters in the story as much as I wanted to be. I also was hoping for it to be a little bit more about love stories and it definitely was plot and about badass women. Such an interesting world and overall a very cool book.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Lesbophobia, War, Grief, Death, Gore, Violence, Body shaming, Death of parent, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

blacksphinx's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Books like this is why there's been a resurgence of the term "weird fiction." Is this book sci fi, fantasy, or horror? Yes and no! Also it's a murder mystery!

I feel like describing this book as "lesbian necromancers in space" is really underselling it. In a galaxy ruled by a God Emperor divided into nine houses of necromancers ruling nine planets, the number of necromancer-followers who ascended into immortality alongside the Emperor have dwindled over the last ten thousand years. The time has come to test the houses to see who can ascend next. Our protagonist Gideon does not give a damn. All she wants to do is escape the Ninth House forever, but Gideon's childhood nemesis and the current heir to the house, Harrowhark Nonagesimus, traps her into acting as her sword and bodyguard for the dangerous trials of the Emperor that are to come. With nine necromancers secluded from the rest of the galaxy in a crumbling ruin of an earlier era, what will they do to attain godhood? Also this is a queer-normative setting and the protagonist is a lesbian that blurts out the first thing that comes to mind. 

It's funny and irreverent most of the time, but Tamsyn Muir also knows how to raise the stakes and presented us with a twisty mystery that made me slap my forehead at the final reveal. Pay close attention to what doesn't add up, because in the end it will! (With just enough mysteries left over to make you want to keep reading the next book.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, Blood, Gore, Death, Murder, Chronic illness, and Cursing

Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Suicide, Vomit, Grief, Toxic friendship, Excrement, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Death of parent, Cancer, War, Infertility, Alcohol, and Colonisation

zannayo's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

Almost lost me at the 40% mark but at about 45% it got really wild.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Body horror, Child death, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Torture, Grief, Gore, and Death of parent

Moderate: Terminal illness, Self harm, Cancer, Suicide, Cannibalism, and War

(Mentions specific character deaths)

Both kids (13-14yo) die in this. I usually can't handle books that include kids being hurt or dying (and I still struggled with this one) but the way it was written and the fact that the very intense part was only about 2 pages long made it manageable for me.