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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 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.

The book does a good job building atmosphere. The gothic melancholy and mystery, laced with is-it-real-or-not supernatural happenings, is delightful. Between that and the ability to create a few vivid images that really stick in my mind, there are some definite strengths here.

A few of the twists and turns were also solid, with the tension of the final act being the strongest piece of the writing.

I wish that were true of the rest of the book.

Frankly, the characters were generally unlikeable, though Ellis at least was interesting due to how much of an enigma she was.

Felicity was a wet blanket. I get her grief, and the more you learn the why the more understandable it becomes. That doesn’t make it interesting to read. I don’t know how realistic her mental issues were, but they felt like a convenient excuse to hide information buried in her memory, and a bit ham-fisted at that.

The rest of the characters just don’t have presence to them. I couldn’t remember their names if I tried. They are most useful as devices and background dressing.

I have no idea how the school itself operates. As far as the book is concerned the only locations of consequence on campus is Godwin House, the library, and one advisor’s office.

The themes and ideas are muddled. The representation is present but feels token. The sapphic romance is a bit unconvincing and lacks the spice I wanted from a wlw book.

A final note on the book’s weaknesses, it feels like it is trying too hard. The atmosphere was good, usually, but sometimes the author went a bit heavy on adding particularly gothic words to descriptions. It couldn’t just be as cold as dirt, it had to be as cold as graveyard dirt, etc.

I don’t want this to be just a big old pile of negatives. The thriller aspect is satisfying, and there are particular scenes and reveals that we’re very well done.

I wasn’t taken for a ride or anything, but I enjoyed my time with the book. I give it a hesitant recommendation for anyone who thinks the premise or genre sounds interesting, just be aware that your mileage may vary.

This volume contains the core story of Secret Empire, and there are some very strong moments, imagery, and pages in this book that stick in my head.

There are, of course, a lot of the same sorts of action, adventure, explosions, and fist fights that you would expect in a typical superhero comic book, but there are also some very strong themes that were incredibly timely when they were published around 2017, and still feel very pertinent today, more than five years later.

I’m not sure that the themes are entirely done justice, but it is a bit hard to go into depth, and explore nuance, when you’re also trying to tell a fast paced action plot with three major storylines happening at the same time. I really wish we had gotten some more vignettes of how Hydra’s rule was affecting the lives of regular people, though. One of the most powerful and interesting points that is made by the end of the series is that there are many regular people who are not only willing, but eager to be fascist, but while we do see some of that, we don’t see a lot of it.

Also, this suffers from the same problem, that a lot of big event, comic books have, being that there are so many tie ends, and bits and pieces and cameos that don’t make sense unless you have read a vast swath of mostly unrelated titles. If you go in wanting or needing to understand all that history and context, you might find the story to be too fragmented, with too many moving pieces, some of which feel unimportant to the story, because they aren’t - they are important for elsewhere and elsewhen. I don’t personally believe this is a dealbreaker, but it is annoying, and could be much worse for readers who are mostly unfamiliar with the general landscape of the Marvel comic book universe these days.

Still, I think it was a very good event, with solid writing and art, as well as important and timely themes. If you’re interested, I definitely recommend it.

I absolutely loved the book “The City We Became.“ I loved the sequel “The World We Make,“ as well, but not as much as the first.

The characters are still fantastic, and we get to spend more time with Neek, which I was glad to see, even though it still wasn’t enough for me. In general, that is the way I feel about the characters in this book as a whole, though. I wish I had more time with each of them, and they all do get moments to shine, though some got more exposure than others. Padmini was a standout, but some of the others faded into the background a bit, and I wish we’d spent some more time with Aislyn - not because she is a person character to experience, but rather because she could have used some more screen time to show some growth and development. Some change.

The world building and lore deepen in interesting ways, especially when we meet more cities from around the world, and get a grasp of the true shape of the history of the conflict between the cities and the true bosses of the Woman in White.

I have only two complaints, and in reality one of them is less a real complaint than a roundabout compliment.

The first, and only real complaint, is that there are some story lines that feel thin, or that they fade away after being introduced as something very important. They are resolved, sure… but they feel a touch rushed - which makes sense after I’ve seen some interviews with the author afterward.

My second complaint is that this is all we get. This is the end. I love the world-building, concepts, themes, and upturning of Lovecraftian mythology, and the fact that there’s not likely to be any continuation of the story of these characters - this world - is depressing.

I highly recommend this book and series.

“The City We Became,” by N.K. Jemisin, reminds me a lot of Neil Gaiman’s works. Not necessarily in prose, but certainly in worldbuilding. The concept of Avatars of cities, the power of stories and belief, and using old myths to spin modern fantasies, all certainly do.

The characters are all very well done, with each having a very distinct personality and perspective, and by extension give an interesting view of New York according to the author - a place I have admittedly never been (drive-through doesn’t count, I think). They also bounce off each other in interesting, dramatic, sometimes charming and sometimes tragic ways. I find the dynamics fascinating when the Characters ARE the setting.

That was aided in how I read this book - the audiobook version - which was an absolutely fantastic experience. The reader was able to give each character a very distinct voice, mannerism, and accent, and the occasional and subtle use of music or sound effects were also perfect. Never so obvious as to take me out of the story - it didn’t suddenly turn into a radio play - but rather just enough to emphasize the effect of the scene.

The plot is relatively straightforward, especially if you’re familiar with common sci-fi/fantasy concepts like multiverses, but it lays the groundwork for a thrilling and tense game of cat and mouse that kept me hooked the whole way through.

Also the messaging about misogyny, white supremacy, and the danger (and sometimes vulnerability) of those who embrace alienation and bigotry, are all on point, if perhaps a touch on the nose. I love how it also took Lovecraftian motifs and themes and turned them around to condemn the very ideology of people like Lovecraft. I love seeing that compelling mythos appropriated for good.

There isn’t any romance in the book, but it was still great to see queer representation, as well as BIPOC representation.

All together, I simply loved the book, and I highly recommend it. I can’t wait to start up the sequel!