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A review by cdonegan
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
funny
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.25
I have very mixed feelings on this book. From the first few chapters I thought I wasn’t going to like it very much; then about halfway through it picked up for me; then it started to drag a bit more; and then finally in the final act (or two acts really, since the last one is incredibly short) I was liking it again.
The main thing that threw me off was the writing style. It’s very casual, it has jokes, it even has the occasional reference to a meme. I don’t mind more humorous writing (see my previous reviews for In the Lives of Puppets and the Murderbot Diaries for more thoughts on that), but in this case it just wasn’t for me. It felt crude at times, which I hate to say because I really don’t mind cursing, innuendo, et cetera, but in this book it just didn’t click.
I found Gideon to be quite annoying as a character, honestly. I don’t need a protagonist to be likable or relatable to enjoy a book, but I just found her to be grating! She had her moments but overall, wasn’t her biggest fan. I found Gideon and Harrow to be less compelling than many of the secondary characters, honestly. Palamedes was my favorite, and for the brief time we really got to know the angsty teens, I really liked them too!
Now for the positive! I really like when books combine aspects of sci-fi and fantasy. Necromancers in space is just a cool concept, and I think it was done well. It did leave me wanting more at times by virtue of having a non-necromancer as our narrator; other characters would be discussing necromantic things, with Gideon listening in, but she didn’t have that necromantic background so it wouldn’t be expanded on much. (In general, a lot of the plot felt like it was being pushed forward by anyone but Gideon… I wish she’d had more agency in the story.) If I decide to continue with the series, I look forward to actually having a necromancer as the narrator. And perhaps my issues with the tone of Gideon’s POV will be fixed by having a different narrator, too?
I’m going to sit on this series for a bit before deciding if I want to keep reading. I have been told by others that Harrow the Ninth is basically a masterpiece, so I think eventually I‘ll probably get it from the library and at least start it.
The main thing that threw me off was the writing style. It’s very casual, it has jokes, it even has the occasional reference to a meme. I don’t mind more humorous writing (see my previous reviews for In the Lives of Puppets and the Murderbot Diaries for more thoughts on that), but in this case it just wasn’t for me. It felt crude at times, which I hate to say because I really don’t mind cursing, innuendo, et cetera, but in this book it just didn’t click.
I found Gideon to be quite annoying as a character, honestly. I don’t need a protagonist to be likable or relatable to enjoy a book, but I just found her to be grating! She had her moments but overall, wasn’t her biggest fan. I found Gideon and Harrow to be less compelling than many of the secondary characters, honestly. Palamedes was my favorite, and for the brief time we really got to know the angsty teens, I really liked them too!
Now for the positive! I really like when books combine aspects of sci-fi and fantasy. Necromancers in space is just a cool concept, and I think it was done well. It did leave me wanting more at times by virtue of having a non-necromancer as our narrator; other characters would be discussing necromantic things, with Gideon listening in, but she didn’t have that necromantic background so it wouldn’t be expanded on much. (In general, a lot of the plot felt like it was being pushed forward by anyone but Gideon… I wish she’d had more agency in the story.) If I decide to continue with the series, I look forward to actually having a necromancer as the narrator. And perhaps my issues with the tone of Gideon’s POV will be fixed by having a different narrator, too?
I’m going to sit on this series for a bit before deciding if I want to keep reading. I have been told by others that Harrow the Ninth is basically a masterpiece, so I think eventually I‘ll probably get it from the library and at least start it.