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A review by joy_achill
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
5.0
Every time I see a literary agent write "I want to read something that's never been done before in the history of mankind" a paragraph away from "I want the next [insert successful fantasy book]" I die a little bit inside. To me, it speaks not only of a lack of faith in good new material but also of indecisiveness, a cowardly sort of craving for security that demands both originality and conformity of a writer. Worst of all, I have no idea what to imagine when I read it. What is a book like that even supposed to look like?
Gideon the Ninth. Gideon the Ninth is what it's supposed to look like.
This book takes genre-categorization by the balls, sets it on fire and holds eye-contact while it burns. Considering that there is, of course, nothing new under the sun, this is the closest any book has come to being totally original in my reading experience.
It combines three big traits we rarely see working well together - extremely extensive world building, a progressive perspective and easy humor - and unites them flawlessly within the complex narrative of a frankly insane premise: Lesbian necromancers in space.
Ha! A description that's as accurate as it's insufficient.
The Locked Tomb series is a stick of dynamite among fizzy candles. Bound to become a science fiction classic.
Gideon the Ninth. Gideon the Ninth is what it's supposed to look like.
This book takes genre-categorization by the balls, sets it on fire and holds eye-contact while it burns. Considering that there is, of course, nothing new under the sun, this is the closest any book has come to being totally original in my reading experience.
It combines three big traits we rarely see working well together - extremely extensive world building, a progressive perspective and easy humor - and unites them flawlessly within the complex narrative of a frankly insane premise: Lesbian necromancers in space.
Ha! A description that's as accurate as it's insufficient.
The Locked Tomb series is a stick of dynamite among fizzy candles. Bound to become a science fiction classic.