Our Discussion of Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Gideon the Ninth (The Locked Tomb #1) by Tamsyn Muir

The Emperor needs necromancers.

The Ninth Necromancer needs a swordswoman.

Gideon has a sword, some dirty magazines, and no more time for undead bullshit.

Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a life of servitude and an afterlife as a reanimated corpse. She packs up her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and prepares to launch her daring escape. But her childhood nemesis won't set her free without a service.

Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House and bone witch extraordinaire, has been summoned into action. The Emperor has invited the heirs to each of his loyal Houses to a deadly trial of wits and skill. If Harrowhark succeeds she will become an immortal, all-powerful servant of the Resurrection, but no necromancer can ascend without their cavalier. Without Gideon's sword, Harrow will fail, and the Ninth House will die.

Of course, some things are better left dead. Goodreads

Below are a sampling of our comments:

• Where are they in the universe? The characters had classic names and then Gideon would say things like, “Slow your roll.” It took me out of the story
• I wanted more backstory – it took 200 pages to learn why all the children had died. A prologue would have helped
• We are learning as Gideon learns
• I don’t like necromancy, but as the book went on I wanted to know what happened and started to care about the characters
• I had a hard time keeping track of what was happening and all the names. I used the “Dramatis Personae” at the front of the book for the character lists. The appendix also explained a lot, but shouldn’t have been at the end – we needed that information in the book
• The problem with the audiobook was none of this extra information was available
• Gideon unintentionally cultivated a wise, all-knowing persona due to her vow of silence, when really she had no idea what was going on
• The fight scenes were very cinematic
• I didn’t believe any of the deaths and thought they would come back in some form at the end.
• The Emperor Undying was like Cthulhu – we worship the gods to keep them at bay
• If there were male characters in this book, they didn’t make it past page 100 except for Sextus – Protesilaus was dead before he even arrived!

Please add any additional thoughts or comments you have about Gideon the Ninth. We gave this title the codes FEM, SAS, POL, MAG, ETH, IMM, & ESP and an average rating of 3.1.