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Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

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brittleim's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious 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? No

5.0

galexandriaw's review against another edition

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5.0

5/5 stars!!!!

Oh my goddddddd. I get it. I get the hype now. Don't let how long it took me to read this discourage you, that was simply because for once in my life I didn't have as much free time to read. It was almost gonna be 4.5 stars instead but that last 100 pages really brought everything else I was missing.

I'm not even sure I have to right words to articulate all that I loved about this. It took me a while to get used to the language and I definitely had to use the dictionary function on my kindle, but wow this book was so immersive for me once I get past that.

I definitely want to reread this at some point, because I already am thinking about so many clever things that Muir tucked away that I didn't realize would come up again later. All I know is: I love Gideon. I love Harrow. I love the Locked Tomb universe.

jenpaul13's review against another edition

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4.0

An empire's survival relies upon its necromancers, and its necromancers rely upon their swordspeople in Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir.

To read this, and other book reviews, visit my website: http://makinggoodstories.wordpress.com/.

Raised surrounded by reanimated skeletons, unfriendly nuns and teachers, and a necromancer about her age who constantly needles at her, Gideon has long planned a way to escape her life of servitude to the Ninth House, in both life and after death. In a compromise with Harrowhawk, the Ninth's necromancer, in a bid for her potential future freedom, Gideon accompanies her lifelong tormentor as her swordswoman during the trial of wit and skills that the Emperor has called upon the heirs of his loyal Houses to join. Successful completion of the trials would lead to becoming a Lyctor, and immortality, for the necromancer with their trusty cavalier at their side, while failure would lead to death, particularly in the case of the Ninth House.

An ambitious story, the world has many interesting elements and mixed technologies of interplanetary travel, necromancy, and swordplay; however, though these elements were crafted and described in a way that worked fairly well together it didn't quite feel like a cohesive whole throughout the entirety of the story, such that more advanced, less magical, technologies would be mentioned in passing and cause brief confusion about the world's logistics. The text contained plenty of moments where the mental and verbal dialogue was incredibly and crassly witty and well-suited to and fitting with the characters' personalities. The intrigue and scheming that takes place is slowly revealed through the course of the narrative and is fairly well done, though it does take quite some time before things of note actually happen; the ending of this installment is particularly arresting and it generates interest in what will come next.

Overall, I'd give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars.

ymirfreckles's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny mysterious sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Oh my. I need to stare at the wall for a while.

karlapanda's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny tense medium-paced

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

5.0

One of my favorite reads in a really long time. A little hard to get into the writing / world building, but a fantastic, fantastic read. I absolutely could not predict what would happen next.

dschuettinger's review against another edition

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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

4.0

clovetra's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging funny mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

welcome gideon the ninth, you are now one of my elite employees (/ref).

i am broken. i am shattered. i am changed.

i am but a simple lesbian.

i’ve been sitting here for an hour contemplating how to rate this. on one hand, the concepts were so frustrating to comprehend, and it was to the point where after every chapter i was consulting a guide because i wasn’t sure i was actually grasping what was going on, which made all 479 pages incredibly frustrating. on the other hand, this book is all i could think about. usually to fall asleep i employ a video essay of something that’s my special interest — recently only until dawn has been scratching that itch. but my body was craving a gideon the ninth video essay. all i could think about was this book.

needless to say, i can overlook how annoying this book was to read at times simply for the grip it had on me.

i love griddle. what an insane fuckjng nickname. i adore her, her inner monologue, her relationships, her reactions, her one liners, everything.

i would die for the sixth, and harrowhark baby im coming for you in the next series hold on for me.

the plot was fucking insane. who decides “yeah the book i’m writing is about sapphics in space who are necromancers and also there’s a lowkey murder mystery plot with some romantic undertones and high fantasy oh and yeah did you forget we’re in space. and necromancers.” like ?????? i want what muir was having when conjuring up the idea of the locked tomb. absolutely batshit insane. and i wouldn’t have it any other way.

i don’t really know what i was expecting from the plot but im very pleasantly surprised by what it ended up being! even more surprised as i got a semi-big spoiler and yet it really didn’t spoil shit for me! like the spoiler did hold a lot of weight in the plot but because so much happens in this story it was so easy to focus on the other reveals happening simultaneously.

the fight scenes were a bit hard to follow especially when the necros are involved, and the trials were so fucking confusing to my mind. but honestly i was so invested in the characters, mainly the ninth & the sixth, that i can’t put this book any lower than 5-stars.

i’m gonna go stare at griddlehark fan art for the next 3 hours sobbing. also this book gave me such a big fucking headache oh my god reading my neuroscience textbooks is easier.

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