Gideon the Ninth

The Locked Tomb Trilogy

by Tamsyn Muir

paperback, 496 pages

Published July 14, 2020 by Tor.com.

ISBN:: 978-1-250-31318-8

View on OpenLibrary

(241 reviews)

"The Emperor needs necromancers.

The Ninth Necromancer needs a swordswoman.

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

Tamsyn Muir’s Gideon the Ninth unveils a solar system of swordplay, cut-throat politics, and lesbian necromancers. Her characters leap off the page, as skillfully animated as arcane revenants. The result is a heart-pounding epic science fantasy.

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.

"The Emperor needs necromancers.

The Ninth Necromancer needs a swordswoman.

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

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 be 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."

7 editions

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

Fun! Appreciated the accuracy of the swordfighting

4 stars

Enjoyed the book, but found the beginning rather confusing and poorly organized. Finding out this originated as Homestuck fanfiction made that make way more sense!

Once it finally got going it was a fun romp that acts as a prequel to Harrow the Ninth. As somebody with a bunch of fencing experience, it's always nice to see a book that gets swordfighting right. There was a thing that at first seemed like an inaccuracy but turned out to be ~foreshadowing~ which was neat.

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

Necromancers in Space

5 stars

I loved this book, but I guess this is not to everyone's taste. First of all, you get thrown into a pretty confusing world, without much explanation. You learn more throughout the book, and as I discovered after finishing, there is also a glossary and explanation of some things attached.

Still, this was a wild ride through a space gothic necromantic sword wielding story with so much going on, you can barely catch a breath. You fumble along next to Gideon, who doesn't know much more than the reader.

Totally recommended for people who like a nice, confusing mix of Scifi, Fantasy and Gothic Horror Novels.

deer witch library reviewed Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (The Locked Tomb, #1)

An absolute delight.

5 stars

I don't understand how this book does SO much SO well. It's all the most delicious tropes and yet so novel at the same time. I ship them.

Catship reviewed Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

I would have loved it as a teenager

No rating

Now I didn't, but I liked a bunch of things that it does. I enjoyed reading it, but I'm not eager to continue with the series.

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

Review of 'Gideon the Ninth' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

ha estado guay! me costó un poco meterme en la historia, creo que porque me esperaba otra cosa. creo que no ayuda que todo el mundo pusiera este libro por las nubes, iba con las expectativas muy altas. 3.8? aunque la historia como tal no me haya fascinado, los diálogos y los personajes sí que me han gustado mucho tbh.

s p o i l e r s :
yo, cuando dicen por primera vez la fraseclta: hmmmm
yo, cuando veo que la frasecita implica lo que suponía que podía indicar: HMMMMM
yo, cuando veo lo que la gideon se dispone a hacer: haha fuck

Ian Sudderth reviewed Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (The Locked Tomb, #1)

Wow wow wow wow

5 stars

Just incredible. Pretty rare to find such and imaginative and rich world built into such a compelling narrative that is SO FUN. It's funny, heartbreaking, action-packed, mesmerizing, and thoughtful all at once. Can't wait to read the rest.

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

Review of 'Gideon the Ninth' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Oh my GOD did I love this book! I didn't head into it with very high hopes even, as I've been let down by highly rated and recommended books before. While initially I was a little put off at some of the Marvel-movie-esque dialogue from the protagonist, I slowly settled into loving every bit of every single character written in this universe. To the point where "turbo cancer" absolutely took me out in the best way.

Muir has done an incredible job at crafting both an incredibly in-depth world and magic system. With such beautiful and ornate descriptions let you picture every single thing in remarkable clarity. As I mentioned prior, she's also crafted so many well rounded and intriguing characters that I wanted to know more about every. single. one of them. Even the assholes. I find most authors are either good at building worlds or building characters, Muir …

coldwave@book.dansmonorage.blue reviewed Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Good?

3 stars

Runs on Rule of Cool, nothing strictly makes sense, but that's ok. I feel like this is the apex of a certain genre of young adult novels - the ones with factions and theming and everything. It's really well-written and having fun with it.

Refreshingly free of hetero plots.

Shallow, or at least nothing in it to interest me specifically. I will not be prioritizing the sequels.

finktank reviewed Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

The only horror-genre novel I've ever liked?

No rating

I'm not into horror. Period. Don't like to read it, don't like to watch it. Don't even really like to hear it talked about. But this was a good ride, engaging, with profoundly beautiful visual description. It managed to be quite long and complex, and yet still relatively simple too. It turned cliches about and brought them back with something new.

Nick Barlow reviewed Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Those who like this sort of thing...

3 stars

I've seen a lot of people raving about this and I was curious to try it, so was glad when it came up as a text for a book club I'm in. Having now finished it, I can see why some people really love it, but it's not really for me. It plunges you straight into the universe and it's overwhelming and bewildering for a long time as there's nothing too familiar to ground yourself on and work out what's going on. It's very stylised, with a strong authorial voice, which I don't mind, but information is doled out very slowly, both to the characters and the reader, so it does feel like wandering around in the dark a lot. The ending does reveal a lot of things that help to make sense of what's gone on before, but you need to cling on in faith that it's going to …

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

Review of 'Gideon the Ninth' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

5/5

This book was an absolutely wild ride. It certainly did not hold your hand through it and thrust you deep into the necromantic world filled with a deep magic and many complex character relationships.

There were many, many characters to keep track of and honestly this was one of the bits I didn’t love as much. Why were there just so many of them? And they each brought many complexities and interpersonal conflicts with them too that just made it all very hard to juggle. I almost was happy to see them start dying off just so I didn’t need to track them all in my head!

Really the two most important characters were Gideon and Harrow and their relationship was very well developed. It was really interesting watching how they went from pure hatred in the beginning to the changes at the final end. I really liked them as a team as well!

Gideon has such a distinct personality that was also quite fun as a POV. She truly was a meathead in a room of smart people and it was really interesting to pick up clues of what was happening when she herself did not quite understand.

The world itself was rather vague to be honest but with lots of promises which is why I did not mind they being stuck in one location throughout the book. It feels like you just scratched the surface of what’s out in the world and I’m all for it.

The bits I did have a harder time with was the prose being particularly wordy and rambly and honestly it’s the dialogue tags that made me have to reread some parts. The tags were always so vague and keeping track of who was talking when there were more than two people was hard. Very hard when all the characters were in the same room and having group discussions.

Overall though, just wow. Loved it. Despite the flaws and confusion, the strangeness and just complex world, it was a great book.

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

Gideon the Ninth - Review

5 stars

This book managed to be both pretty much what I was expecting and yet surprising at the same time.

Pop-Goth vibes. Science-Fantasy. Necromancy. Skeletons. Mysteries. WLW. Enemies to Lovers. Angst. Hurt/Comfort. Etc. Basically a wall of AO3 tags. I have been more or less aware of Gideon the Ninth for some time now, and from all of the fanart and mentions I saw of it I went in expecting all of the above. It had all of that and served it in plenty.

What surprised me about it was not the content, but rather how fresh and vibrant it was. It felt like the author loved what they were writing, loved the characters, and was just plain having fun. I found that tone to be infectious and charming, and by the end, I loved it all as much as the author did.

The characters were easily the standout elements. The …

This book managed to be both pretty much what I was expecting and yet surprising at the same time.

The characters were easily the standout elements. The main pair were wonderful, with delightfully contrasting and conflicting personalities that made their interactions great reading. The side characters also felt unique and well realized, and even the most minor characters felt like integral parts of the book’s tableau.

There was some stuff I had to get accustomed to - the dialogue, for instance, feels very contemporary, despite being set in a science fantasy world (which is, I theorize, or hypothesize, our solar system in the far future?), which makes it very accessible to a YA audience and fun to read but feels a little anachronistic to everything else.

I do wish a little bit of the sapphic parts had been more overt, because I am a romantic sap and want it shoved in my face. I have high hopes for the future, however. Also, the names of some of the characters were a little difficult to keep straight, particularly because I was listening to the audiobook.

I feel like it is the kind of book that you will either love or hate. Will the sarcastic banter and contemporary styles of speech, and overtly “cool“ settings and magic seem childish and annoying? Or are you not an uptight and prudish stick-in-the-mud?

Ultimately, this book pushed all of my buttons just right. I found the world fascinating, it was full of great atmosphere in its setting, interesting twists and turns that surprised me once or twice, and most importantly I characters I grew to love despite their myriad flaws.

If you think all that sounds like something you would like, then I hope, like me, you will. I highly recommend it.

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

Not for everyone but worth the read!

4 stars

I actually read the bulk of this over a couple of days, after starting but needing to put it aside. Once I returned to the story, it was difficult to put down. Part of that was trying to untangle the threads of mysterious and confusing characters and plot that wanders between horror and action - this is not a complaint! I will admit that some of the lesser characters take some work to keep straight, but there is a glossary in the back [which I actually didn't even know about until I'd finished] and the longer you read, the more defined the supporting cast becomes. Gideon herself is an amazingly fun MC to follow; her snappy retorts and underlying kindness won me over. And her background story is... well, I don't want to spoiler but there's a lot to make you uncomfortable and sympathetic. Speaking of uncomfortable, I've seen mention from others about how some of the relationships in this book made them uncomfortable, and I agree but I think that's part of what makes the reveals at the end so impactful. The Ninth House is filled with secrets and those secrets exact a terrible price. I have a feeling that the next book in the series will be dealing more with exactly how dear the cost is, and I am looking forward to reading it.

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

Review of 'Gideon the Ninth' on 'Storygraph'

4 stars

Not my usual cup of tea but I really enjoyed the dystopian sci-fi/fantasy setting. The world building was could've been more detailed. There are a many open questions about almost everything - excited for the next one in the series!

Itzayana reviewed Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Worth Reading Twice

5 stars

Amazing the second time again. There is so much foreshadowing in this book, that an additional read through is really worth it. Moving directly into Harrow the Ninth.