Gideon the Ninth (The Locked Tomb Series, 1)

I adored this book! It was definitely a little hard to get into at first, but just keep reading, it's soooo worth it. It was hard at first because the world the author has built is so complex and soooo different and the vocabulary is intense (you can tell the dictionary is probably the author's comfort read, lol). But it is such a vibe the further you go, in the best way. Gideon is an amazing protagonist, along with Harrow and I really enjoyed the other characters as well. They felt fleshed out and multidimensional. The plot is wonderful. Full of action, intrigue, mystery, and even murder mysteries - I could not put this down! I cried actual tears at the end, I'm devastated (but in that wonderful, I just read an amazing book and will kill if I don't get my hands on the second book now way). Highly recommend!! I can't wait to see where this story goes!

I think what first caught my attention about this book was a tagline on the cover about "necromancers in space." Necromancers are fun, and space-faring ones even more so. But there isn't much about space travel in this book. There are multiple worlds, each run by a different House of necromancers. The type of magic each House practices is unique to that House, and every necromancer is paired with a cavalier (a warrior who usually acts as a guardian figure.) But the space travel part isn't done on-page, so if that's what you're excited for, I'm sorry to disappoint. But the story is worth reading. Most of this book is set on a world that was once occupied by the First House (the Emperor's House), but it's now in ruins. The portions set elsewhere are set on the dark world of the Ninth House, where the main character, Gideon, begins her journey. And by dark, I mean, it’s practically lightless, and it’s cold. It was never officially stated, but it made me think the Ninth’s world is quite a distance away from the nearest star. Gideon was raised by the Ninth House, but she hates every aspect of it. She wants to leave, but her attempts are constantly thwarted. Eventually, she's convinced to take up the role of cavalier for the necromancer Harrowhark with a promise of freedom from the Ninth when her work is finished. Gideon reluctantly accepts. She's a skilled fighter, but Harrowhark is her lifelong nemesis. There is a lot of resentment between the two and very little trust, and that becomes a major problem later. They’re expected to work as a team, after all. (Side note: I really didn’t like Harrowhark.) Harrowhark is summoned to the world of the First House to compete in becoming a Lyctor, a renowned position one step down from the Emperor himself. Each of the other seven Houses are also competing, but things become dangerous fast. It’s at this point where the book becomes more a murder-mystery with necromantic magic than it is a straight up fantasy, but I really liked that. It was kind of like Clue, but with magic, and more players involved. I also found the various types of necromancy each House employed to be pretty interesting and at times, unique. Harrowhark's magic focuses on bones—skeletons and the like—but she was the only one using that variety. One necromancer siphons souls, one can summon and draw energy from spirits, and one manipulates flesh/blood (there were other types too.) The creative use of each type of magic was a lot of fun. The only minor complaint I have is that some of the action/combat scenes were difficult to follow in spots. Otherwise, this was a great read, and even though it's listed as book 1 in the series, it works very well as a standalone. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t add my thoughts about the ending before I finish this review. I understand why events unfolded as they did—it was the only way to make the story work—but I’ll admit it was still a little bit disappointing. Not in a way that made me think any less of the book, but it was disappointing for a certain character. If you’ve read it, you know what I’m referring to. If not… I’d still recommend you check it out if any of the above piques your interest.

Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Heir to the House of the Ninth, is in desperate need of a Cavalier. She must be accompanied by one if she is to accept the invitation from the Lord Undying himself and travel to the First House to study to be a Lyctor. Her original Cavalier has flown the coup leaving her with one option: Gideon Nav. The problem is that Gideon hates Harrow and the feeling is mutual. Gideon has spent her whole life attempting to escape the House of the Ninth and join the military. With promises of freedom, Harrow manages to convince Gideon to step into the roll of Cavalier Primary and accompany her off-planet. Studying to be a Lyctor is not what Harrow, or any of the other seven house representatives, expected and the price to be paid to attain this goal may be more than anyone is willing to pay. Necromancers in space. Those are the bare bones of Gideon the Ninth but not even close to all this book is about. The world is very hard to picture and is one of the things that made the first half of this book pretty hard to get through. The reader is thrown unceremoniously into this strange world and you either sink or swim. Many people reviewing this book said they didn't finish it, quitting before getting to the half-way mark. Those are the sinkers. Those of us that pushed through the first half of the book are the swimmers. I can understand why so many people chose to stop reading. I found myself struggling to understand the world, the role that each person played, and how high the stakes were to each character. But I pushed through because the writing was so different than anything I'd ever read before, the characters were fantastic, and I was eager to see where the story was going even if I didn't totally understand what was going on. I was rewarded handsomely for my endeavors. Let's start with the writing. The author has a way of using words in a different context than they are normally used in. Tamsyn uses words like "nuggety" and "robust" to describe people. Descriptions that make little sense yet you know exactly what the author is trying to tell you. She has a completely unique writing style and I doubt you'd ever be able to confuse it with anyone else's. This was the first thing that grabbed my attention in this book. The second being Gideon. I wholeheartedly have a female crush on Gideon Nav. She's absolutely crackers and mouthy and badass and I will never get enough of her snark. She also makes hilarious and vulgar jokes from the beginning to the end of this book, usually at Harrow's expense, and doesn't think that being in a life or death situation is quite reason enough to stop. I loved it. Yet, she garners your sympathy for the life she lived and you also just want to hug her. I haven't been all up in my feelings over a character like this in a long time. The dynamic between Gideon and Harrow is genius. They hate each other but are now in a situation where they must rely on each other for survival and it's awesome to see that play out on the page. This book does take its sweet time getting to the point. I believe that this story will lose a lot of readers based on this fact alone and it's a real shame. Once you hit the half-way mark in the book things start picking up speed very quickly. The story goes from meandering to full speed ahead in 6 seconds flat so the pacing isn't one of its stronger suits. All of the heirs and their cavaliers are from one of eight houses and I believe that each house represents a different planet. From what I gathered each planet is also quite different. The people hailing from them are all different as well; they share different beliefs, they dress differently, talk differently. The only thing linking them all is their service to the Emperor. The planets and the dynamic between them is one of the elements that is seriously lacking information. I am hopeful that much more will be explained on this front in the next two books. As for this book, the whole story is narrowed down to this one building- which is also hard to describe other than to say it's huge, old, and dilapidated-on this one planet. All the characters are residing here in order to ascend to Lyctor. There are skeletons everywhere. They are used as laborers and housekeepers and cooks. Harrow is able to raise skeletons fully formed from a single knuckle bone but that isn't the case for all the necromancers. Their gifts all lie in different areas and not all of them raise the dead in the way you would imagine. Again, an area that needs more explanation. When reading about raising the dead you can pretty much assume it's going to get dirty. And it does. Downright disgusting. I wasn't expecting the level of blood and gore that I found in this book but it worked. This is possibly the hardest review I've written. This book is extremely hard to explain and because of that my explanations lack fluidity. Just know that this book does have its faults but all in all I found it to be a fantastic story. It has a unique plot, extremely diverse and interesting characters, and the ending left me with a latent need to have the next book NOW. Which isn't going to happen and I'm pretty beat up about it. As stated on the back of the book, Gideon the Ninth is LGBT+ friendly and all different types of people are represented. There are some triggers to be aware of: Violence, Blood/gore, extremely vulgar language, suicide, death of a parent/s, death of a sibling, mass death of children, abandonment, chronic/fatal illness.

tl;dr this book is a murder mystery. Protagonist is hilarious. Harrowhark is a gem. You need to read this before you die. the writing style is dense and prose-like so if you struggle understanding english this will be a bit of a difficult read. There are lots of info-dump-type passages that don't actually involve explanations but I found this actually kind of refreshing. More like you've been inserted into a conversation between a bunch of doctors and they're talking about a patient but nobody has the desire to explain to you wtf is going on. The concepts in the novel are unique and it is a totally different perspective on necromancer magic. I am normally a fast reader but because of the language I found I had to really pay attention to every word idk kind of like reading dorian grey or something really dense but you actually enjoy it and really want to read the sequel, which, spoiler, is great as well.

Oh HECK did that ending WRECK me! What a book! It has everything you could possibly want: Space! Necromancers! Mysterious gorey murders! LESBIANS!!!! And the book doesn't just stop there - it gives you SO MUCH MORE on top of all that: witty banter, great cast of characters, SWORD LESBIANS, MAGIC LESBIANS, antagonism-turning-into-reluctant-alliance-into-something-more, the most NERVE WRECKING MYSTERY, necromancy but make it science,.... I could go on! In short, Gideon the Ninth is a gift that keeps on giving, and it was even better on second read than it was at the first. Content warnings include: violence and gore, graphic body horror, injury and trauma, defiling of corpses (I mean, this is a book about necromancers...), severe harm to minors, character death (like, a lot of it), cancer; mentions of war crimes, child soldiers, suicide. When I first read the book, I admittedly struggled with getting into it. I blamed this on a) reading it as physical copy, which, while gorgeous, was very unwieldy for me as a 99.99% ebook reader who hadn't touched a hardcover in YEARS, and b) the frequency of in-world and existing scientific terms. My second read was the ebook, so maybe the hardcover really was the issue, because I had no struggle whatsoever with the language the second time around. That said, the worldbuilding sure is subtle. It all does make sense, but often in hindsight. When you know how it all works, you really struggle recognizing why you were confused in the first place. But regardless of whether it's your first read or xth read - the book is compelling and breathtaking. Part of this is the characters. There's quite the cast of them, and every single one of them is unique and interesting. It's one of the few books that actually partially manages to satisfy my need to attention to sidecharacters. It just all worked here. But at the very center is Gideon, who is just... *chef's kiss*. So good. I can't decide if I want to fawn over her, or be her. Maybe a bit of both. There's also Harrowhark, Gideon's childhood nemesis, who is excellent as well and gets her own POV in the sequel, Harrow the Ninth. Another part is the plot. It's part action, party mystery, part horror, and it does the mix so well.. The action was exiting, fast-paces and truly action-heavy, but never hard to follow. The horror was chilling, made me sweat and shiver, and made me wish I didn't read this at night but it was also just too good to put down. The mystery was truly mysterious, keeping you on your toes, slowly revealed and masterfully set up. Overall there's just a ton of twists and turns, all of them perfectly integrated and executed. The writing style fits all of this perfectly and is rather unique. There is a stark constrast between extremely informal language (often dialogue, featuring subtle pop culture references) and more formal describtions using big, fancy, science-y words. I found the mix intriguing and it worked well. In my first read, I couldn't always follow what was going on, and some implications were lost on me, but again, on second read it just all made sense. And it makes even more sense after having read the sequel. I'm sure people who are smarter than me will have much more figured out on first read already! Because while subtle, the hints and implications are there - I just wasn't able to put them together. It gave the book an overall ~mysterious~ vibe that very much loved cryptic statements, which I find compelling regardless of how often I read it, and which I'm sure will reveal new details every time I pick up the book. And as mentioned above there's also the very present humor that had me laughing and grinning a lot, despite the chilling subject matter. You can debate over whether there's a romantic subplot or not. What is undeniable is that several characters are queer, and the sapphic ones in particularly stand out. It's a world without queerphobia, which I love to see in my SFF. As I said before, worldbuilding is done subtly. Nothing is told, the only information the reader gets is what the characters talk about on page. It's well done and sufficient, but overall I wish there was more information about the setting and it's alluded history, and on a smaller scale I would have liked to see more of Gideon and Harrow's past together (though there were some scenes explaining.) When I first finished the book, I was quite distraught, and both anticipating and distraught for the sequel. I sequel definitely shines a different light on Gideon, but it doesn't abandon any of the open questions as I initially feared. Ultimately, Gideon the Ninth is an incredibly strong debut and stunning - as in, slap in the face - start of a series. It makes me giddy and happy and excited, and I am so, so glad to have read it. It shines in concept and execution, it's unique and intriguing, but also loveable and comforting in a weird, twisted way.

Recibido en tiempo y buena relacción calidad/precio

Deeply creative world-building combines with writing that always manages to surprise by being off-kilter but very balanced and pleasant to read at the same time. One of my favourite books in years.

Nie polecam zamawiać w Polsce. Jest to wersja drukowana przez Amazon we Wrocławiu, słaba jakość okładki. Nie wspominając już o tym, że okładka jest źle przyklejona i docięta. Nie jestem w stanie stwierdzić, czemu ktoś w ogóle spakował te książkę do mojego zamówienia i ją wysłał, widząc jej stan… Wstyd. Spodziewałam się książki z wydawnictwa, bo nic w listingu nie wskazywało na to, że książka miała być drukowana w Polsce.