Gideon the Ninth is a fantastic read! I picked it up on a bit of whim. I’d heard about it a couple of times, but after reading about some fandom merch on Book Riot, I had to pick it up. “Lesbian necromancers in space,” is how it was pitched to me, somewhere. No that doesn’t match the blurb on the cover, but I like it.
Gideon the Ninth has an amalgamation or anachronism occurring in both the universe and the writing that was, different. I’m not sure where Gideon got her aviators, but they work. I found they served a purpose of letting the reader understand that this isn’t a typical SFF story. All the things fans like are there, but the presentation is different. The writing isn’t as restricted feeling as the genre can be quite serious. Characters and narrators alike say things that are humorous and – for lack of a better word in a world of death – fresh.
I started out reading on Libby and was glad I did as Muir used a bunch of words that I did not know. I’m used to running into the occasional word I have to look up. At the beginning of Gideon the Ninth I lost count of how many words I had to look up, but I do know that “prolix” and “soto voce” were two of them. There were plenty more and for a few thirty pages I thought that I wasn’t intelligent enough for this book. I stuck with it though and am really glad I did.
The whole house and planet system was reminiscent of Dune. However, there is a feeling that civilization has been through a decline of somesort. Desolate and decaying, the life of necromancers mirrors the concept of death that occupies their lives.
The story is fast paced and gripping. I found myself sneaking off to read when I probably should have been doing more responsible things. Anyway if you like your SFF with a bit of dry dark humor, pick it up.
Sweatpants Life 
2 thoughts on “Gideon the Ninth”