A review by ailsaod
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

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

4.0

 This book was not what I was expecting! It is well known as 'that space lesbian book' and while this is correct there is a lot of other things also going on - such as this actually being a whodunnit.

I think the one thing that really stuck out to me was the setting of this book. For some time I was been wanting to find a book where a spooky, deserted sci-fi structure is explored and while that is the premise of a fair number of sci-fi books this is the first I have read to do it justice. The Canaan House has a strong atmosphere and I really enjoyed Muir's flowery way of describing it.

The worldbuilding and plot are rather opaque and although it is interesting to try and figure out it makes the beginning of the book difficult to get into. Muir is not an author who believes in exposition for better and for worse! I also initially found the characters difficult to connect with - Gideon refuses to cooperate with the plot for portions of the book and the other characters are quite strange but by the time things really kicked off I had gotten pretty attached. 
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