Gideon the Ninth

[lunabee34]

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I really, really liked this book.

The protagonist reminds me a lot of Murderbot (if Murderbot were angrier and more foul-mouthed). I would love to see Gideon and Murderbot interact.

I love the world building; there's a part where Gideon thinks a decoration of human teeth is human and beautiful, and I love all those little touches that make the world she inhabits so alien and strange.

I am very much ready for the next book.



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Wow.

This is so damn good. It's very funny and very emotionally affecting and a very good mystery.

I love how much is left unexplained. I still don't understand exactly what the deal is with the Emperor and what he was in danger from all those years ago. Dying to know who the pretty girl in the tomb is. Really want to understand who or what Gideon is; it's hard not to suspect that the note she found actually refers to her or to an ancestor. Who was her mother, and why did she end up in that air shaft? How did she survive the nerve gas? Cytherea says something toward the end that makes me suspect reincarnation is at play (something like "you all never learn even though we do this over and over again" and the way that Gideon is apparently super badass with a sword despite being told over and over again that she's merely mediocre). What happened to Gideon's body and to Cam? I am not discounting that Gideon will come back in a subsequent book. If she can be reunited with her body, Harrow will find a way.

Don't spoil me, but does Harrow the Ninth live up how awesome Gideon the Ninth is?

Comments

[rydra_wong]

Don't spoil me, but does Harrow the Ninth live up how awesome Gideon the Ninth is?

IMHO: an enthusiastic YES.

I now want to reread Gideon (not least because I am EVEN MORE CONFUSED about various mysteries, in a happy way), but I think I liked Harrow the Ninth even more -- it's the opposite of the common slightly awkward/weaker second-book-in-a-trilogy.

It builds on Gideon the Ninth to do some wild and pyrotechnic stuff with structure, and as lightreads commented, it deploys a bunch of fannish modes of storytelling in a fascinating way.

[gloss]

AHHHH I'M SO RELIEVED YOU LIKED IT!

Ht9 absolutely does live up to Gideon! It's different, and strange in its own way, and answers some of the questions you pose here but in ways that just open up the wider world and generate more questions.

:DDD

[princessofgeeks]

I wanted so much to like this book!

I am so glad you did.

[kore]

I LOVED Gideon, loved her book, and immediately pre-ordered the sequel. I had to put Harrow down a little bit after starting it, because I found it really frustrating. I picked it back up again yesterday, though, and I'm really enjoying it. It's a lot more complex and cryptic than Gideon (as is Harrow). I love Harrow the character a lot. No spoilers, but it's one of those books where you have to be really aware of dropped clues and hints.

[elfin]

In some ways I didn't like Harrow the Ninth as much as Gideon the Ninth, but in other ways it was amazing!

I don't really think it's spoilery to say that Harrow the Ninth is from Harrow's point of view, and I just didn't click with her like I did with Gideon. But the way the story unfolds is awesome, and very mind-fucky and twisty, and I loved that aspect of it.

[oracne]

I need to finish this!