Gideon The Ninth

Gideon The Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (2019 St Martin's Press 448pp)(Kindle Edition)

 

I’m not quite sure what to make of this book – some aspects I enjoyed a lot, others just bored me. I read it on a Kindle over the last 3 weeks and eBooks always feel somewhat less satisfying to me, like a second-hand experience.

After it was first released in late 2019, “Gideon The Ninth” generated quite a ‘buzz’ online with some genre heavyweights recommending it and many producing glowing reviews. On the strength of that I was all prepared to buy it once the paperback edition came available. In the end I stumbled upon a special offer online and picked up the Kindle edition for a song.

Its almost hard to explain the setting, as much of the history and background of the in-book universe is withheld from the reader. We’re dumped into the story and have to find out what and where by the clues given. Basically, it’s a dash of science fiction and a large dollop of fantasy – in what I assume is the far future, some cataclysm has befallen mankind and a mighty God-Emperor has performed some miracle to revive a smattering of human life. The ‘resurrected’ people have been divided into 9 ‘houses’ each of which is some sort of religious order. Each house has distinct traits and habits and live on different planets from each other. Meanwhile the Emperor conducts warfare against some unnamed enemy across the vastness of space.

Our main character Gideon is a young woman who has grown up in the cloisters of the decrepit Ninth house (hence the title). She was orphaned and has never fitted in to the cult-like society. When we first meet her, she’s planning a great escape, which of course fails. Instead she is made Cavalier (a bodyguard type role) to the Necromancer Harrowhark who also happens to be the secret ruler of the Ninth house and Gideon’s life-long tormenter. Together they must answer the Emperor’s call and attend an all-houses challenge where a new ‘Lycter’ (something like an ultra-powerful magician working for the Emperor) will be crowned. At the gathering (on another world) representatives of all the houses must solve the mysteries hidden in a sprawling ancient palace and the underground research lab it was built upon.

The exploration of the palace and lab is quite fascinating the atmosphere of mystery is strong, where it all fell down for me is the near-endless bickering between the houses – I just didn’t care about who hated who and why most of the time. There’s a lot of pointless posturing and blathering about duty, honour and so on. Gideon herself is a welcome relief to all that – she’s very snarky and sharp tongued when she’s allowed scenes to develop in. Also well-developed is her growing relationship with Harrowhark and how it wavers from hate to friendship and back again.

There are several visceral fight scenes, some of which go on a little longer that they needed to. Monsters constructed from bones and magic are well described and offer a real threat. Its never explained why everyone uses swords in this world. I guess it’s supposed to show some type of traditional code of honour or something along those lines.

Events leading to the ending were a pleasant surprise and its all set up for a sequel which comes out shortly. At the back of the Kindle edition, at least, are several supporting documents explaining concepts, names and other aspects of the book’s world.  Unfortunately, I found most of this material a dull slog even if it does answer some questions raised by the plot.

In the end its mainly enjoyable escapism. I have a feeling that it may have originally been written as a YA book and has been later encrusted with more material for an adult book. But I might be wrong.