Review: Gideon the Ninth

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this book as part of voting for the Hugo Awards this year. This book was in second place on my ballot. A 4.5-star review reflects my experience with this book.

Gideon is of the Ninth House. She feels that the Ninth House has been oppressing her for her entire life. She is stuck living in a place and among people that reject her on a regular basis.

Harrow is the heir to the Ninth House. She has the ability to transmute the smallest bit of bone into a full-scale skeleton that will act (and fight) on her behalf. The Ninth House in general is a goth dream world with skeleton slave workers and everyone mincing about as though they will be in their grave within the next week. Harrow is called to the Emperor's House to train to become something more. She needs a knight at her side, and Gideon is all the Ninth has to offer. So they set off to unravel a series of mysteries and work towards the objective of becoming something more.

This book contains all of the hallmark attributes of good grimdark fiction. Morally compromised characters that inspire the reader to not really support any of them. At least not until it becomes clear at the end that there are worse options. Gideon is also imbued with a tremendous sense of wit.

At the heart of the book are themes of acceptance; acceptance by others and acceptance of oneself. There are times when the world denies you enough knowledge to be self-aware. How do your opinions of yourself and the world change once those obstacles fall away?

This was a fun romp with a thoroughly inventive bit of world-building. Who would have matched bone magic with rocketships and galactic armies? Every page was a delight. My biggest complaint is that it is written to be the first book in a series. The story is not reasonably well contained within this single tome.

Author Peter V. Brett has expressed his desire to write the first book in a series as a well-contained story that will allow the reader to walk away from the series satisfied with that single volume. His hope is that it will also be good enough to entice the reader back for more. While this book is a broadly satisfying read, it falls short of that ideal.

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My reviews of all of the 2020 Hugo finalists for best novel are here.