I remember hearing about this book last year, but the tagline it was advertised with, "lesbian necromancers in space", didn't sound particularly appealing. Now, with the second book of the Locked Tomb trilogy just out, there was more talk about Gideon the Ninth, and these reviews sounded a lot better. After the borefest that was Gorky Park, I wanted something entertaining and picked up Gideon. And how glad I am I did. It's very good for a first novel, full of an interesting world and twists and turns. I can see why some people wouldn't like it, but I didn't see any faults in this book. My only problem was the vocabulary, which is oftentimes a bit too much if your native language isn't English. But it was still OK and I can't wait where the next books take the story.