#74 Gideon the Ninth

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir 

Gideon the Ninth is a 2019 debut adult sci fi/fantasy and one of my most anticipated reads of the year, i was so pumped for this and i hate to say it but i didn't love it, it was very much not my cup of tea at all. Its a really difficult book to write a review of because even though ive read it i find it very difficult to not only describe but also to summarise. This book is pitched as 'lesbian necromancers in space' which sounds perfect, that tagline had me hook, line and sinker and then i picked it up only to find that it has little to no world building, no explanation of the magic system, very little background or lore and the writing comes off as overly pretentious with overly descriptive sections. The best thing about this book IMO is the cover.

Gideon the Ninth has very little plot hence why it is so hard to describe. So Gideon lives in the ninth house and has been trying to escape since she was 4 years old but she is bound there as she was taken in and raised as a baby and it is deemed that she knows too much so they will not allow her to leave. She is kept in a cell like a prisoner and spends her days planning her escape. At the beginning of this book Gideon has spent months planning what she believe to be a full proof escape plan to finally leave but when she is discovered by her arch nemesis who offers her a way out. She is to act as a body guard and if she succeeds her master will set her free.

I found that absolutely nothing happened for the majority of this book which was really frustrating as i kept waiting for the story to kick off and for me to be sucked in, it wasnt until i got about 65% of the way through did i realise that it probably wasnt going to happen for me. There was a semi interesting mystery plot towards the end but i found it was wrapped up all too quickly for my liking considering it was one of the only things that happened. I found the characters to be a but meh, i didnt take a liking to anyone which i found odd.

It read to me like the author had tried to replicate the success of The Nevernight Chronicles and The Book of the Ancestor trilogy but it just fell so short of both of those trilogies. I dont want to hate on this book too much as 1) i hate doing that as i know the author worked damn hard on this book 2) id never want other people to not read it based on my opinions and 3) i always try to find the positives in things.

Gideon is compared to Mia Corvere a lot especially on Twitter as they are both quite stabby and queer but thats where the similarities end im afraid. Gideon had the potential to be an amazing kick ass female character but the plot really lets her down unfortunately.  I like my adult fantasy to have extensive world building, rich characters and an interesting plot, thats not too much to ask for? am i right?

All in all i just felt a bit lost with this one, i was confused for a lot of the time and couldnt really work out what was happening. I think this book had the potential to be great if it cut out all the fancy adjective and adverbs and worked on world building a bit more. As i was reading i remember constantly thinking 'where are they?' 'why are they here?' 'who are these people?', little to no explanation for anything really. Having said all that im still not ruling Tamsyn Muir out at all as i think id like to try more of her writing in the future but ultimately this really wasnt for me.