A review by smbd_the_reader
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Spoiler Warning: Mild suggestions of the direction the book takes; Probably fine to read if you don't mind not going in completely blind?



Can you sue the person who introduced you to this for emotional damages?

This sure was about lesbian necromancers in space.
This actually pulled off a situation where the main character is not the only important person/the only person doing things and driving forward the plot fairly well without resorting to giving most important people a POV*?

Definitely played a lot with what's expected in terms of what the main characters actually have to know (and convey to the reader) to make for an effective story, I think some found that frustrating, but in my opinion you generally get enough hints to figure out what you need to know.

Also has a lot of touches of what I almost want to say is classic (Greek?) tragedy where the characters traits cause their downfall, but I'm not sure if I got my knowledge of tragedies correct. Definitely delicious in a "I appreciate this technique, but stop stabbing me in the heart" way.

If you're using a e-reader and are bad at names I recommend getting yourself quick access to the character list at the front of the book in one way or another because while the author does a great job of fleshing out a ton of characters and juggling them, there's still a lot of characters and some of them occasionally go by titles so a reference is helpful.

Something, something, I'm getting the impression that my reviews continuously lose legibility.


*I have nothing against multiple POVs, but this was definitely a breath of fresh air.

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