Gideon the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #1) in Around the Year in 52 Books

Dec 27, 2019 Maryam rated it it was amazing

Absolutely loved this book. One of the best fantasy book I’ve read in 2019. A perfect debut.

Characters are awesome, witty and funny Gideon. Heartless! Harrow and the rest of necromancers and cavaliers of Houses. There are so many twists in the story that keeps you reading and reading!

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Feb 23, 2021 Jaime rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, fantasy, audiobook, read-2021, popsugar-2021, lgbtq

This was a wild ride of a book, set in a world completely unfamiliar with our own.

In the most simple terms, There are nine planets (Houses) that serve and worship the Emperor, a great necromancer. The leader of each of these plants are also necromancers, and the next level they can ascend to is Lyctor -- an advisor/warrior for the Emperor who is made immortal. In order to choose his next Lyctors, the Emperor sends the leaders of the Houses and their accompanying Cavalier (protector) to the First ...more

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Jun 03, 2020 Christine H rated it liked it

Shelves: weird-fiction

I'm really not sure how to rate this. I enjoyed reading it, but it also took me a long time to finish. It has lots of intriguing ideas, but it takes its time setting them up. The chief characters are memorable and I formed some attachments, but too much of the main relationship is told instead of shown. Gideon is hilarious and snarky, but her lingo can also disrupt the tone.

This book is inventive and confusing, textured and conflicting. It's like a Brian Lumley novel and an Agatha Christie novel I'm really not sure how to rate this. I enjoyed reading it, but it also took me a long time to finish. It has lots of intriguing ideas, but it takes its time setting them up. The chief characters are memorable and I formed some attachments, but too much of the main relationship is told instead of shown. Gideon is hilarious and snarky, but her lingo can also disrupt the tone.

This book is inventive and confusing, textured and conflicting. It's like a Brian Lumley novel and an Agatha Christie novel had a baby, and occasionally John Scalzi babysat, and the baby's ambition is to be The Final Empire when it grows up.

I think I can only give this three stars, despite having a ton of quotable lines and being incredibly bold and interesting.

Three main problems: pacing, the central relationship, and unsatisfying mysteries.

First, it is a bit slow, taking a long interval to set up both a totally unfamiliar setting and a huge cast of characters/suspects. I was happy to read a bit each night, but rarely felt like I needed to know what would happen next.

Second, the current state of the central relationship is very clearly drawn through real-time interactions. Such as,

“Nonagesimus,” she said slowly, “the only job I’d do for you would be if you wanted someone to hold the sword as you fell on it. The only job I’d do for you would be if you wanted your ass kicked so hard, the Locked Tomb opened and a parade came out to sing, ‘Lo! A destructed ass.’ The only job I’d do would be if you wanted me to spot you while you backflipped off the top tier into Drearburh.”

“That’s three jobs,” said Harrowhark.

But the backstory of how they came to hate each other, and the final development of their relationship, are both quickly told (not shown) in the midst of a bunch of action, and compared to the robust view of their real-time interactions, seem pretty thin and unconvincing.

Third, the world building and central story raise many tantalizing questions, wafting the promise of revelations to come by story's end, that will make things fit together in a satisfying way. Here is a spoilered list of "ooh, what about . . .?" questions I was looking forward to learning the answer to (or at least some further, revealing clues about), which are ALL just left dangling:

(view spoiler)

I guess we're meant to assume there will be revelations about this stuff in the sequel, but given how little satisfaction we got in this book, I'm not feeling confident in that. It would have been more alluring to get a couple things more definitively tied up from this plot, which then opened up further questions to be explored later. ...more

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Oct 08, 2025 Nadine in NY Jones rated it really liked it

Shelves: only-reading-because-of-the-buzz, fantasy-and-sci-fi, gods-known-and-unknown, lotsa-buzz, audio, mythopoeic, books-i-need-to-read-in-2025

Muir deftly blends classic elements of high fantasy (ritual, magic, sword-fighting, creepy priests in robes, magical control of bones and bodies, crumbling castles, and immortal emperors) with science fiction (crumbling castles that are built into ancient spaceships, with active shuttle ports, and interplanetary empires ), and blends them all together in an original mythopoeic story that is hella complicated. There are far too many characters for me to keep track of (and they all seemed to have ...more

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Oct 28, 2019 Jen Ifer's Inklings rated it really liked it

Shelves: audio-books, read-in-2019

I'm not really sure what the heck was going on for the majority of this book. I'm still not 100% sure what happened. But I did enjoy this book a lot. I adore Gideon. ...more

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Aug 09, 2022 Ana rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, mystery, science-fiction, 2022, 2022-august, 2022-orilium-autumn-equinox

Oh wow

This is an absorbing book. I liked Gideon and Harrow. I don't think I expected the plot to be what it was, but I loved the mystery of it all. I'm not sure if I liked that ending, though. ...more

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