Gideon the Ninth by Tamsin Muir

[sholio]

I had so very heavily osmosed that this book would be Not My Thing that I ended up spoiling myself for several major plot points (although not, as it turns out, most of them). Then I started reading it a couple of days ago as part of a survey of general "hookiness" of openings - and then I looked around and it was on my Kindle and it was 6 chapters later, so, uh.

Turns out it actually is very much my thing.

Except it still kind of isn't - I still don't care about necromancers or gloomy skeleton-filled catacombs in the slightest, this book is totally not my aesthetic, and I am actively grossed out by the necromancy and general bleeding from every orifice that accompanies it.

And yet I found the book riveting, and delightful, and occasionally hilarious, and even beautiful/numinous in unexpected ways. I'm not that enthused to read the sequel (see spoiler sections below) but I really enjoyed this one as a standalone thing. I know it's kind of based on Homestuck and I can definitely see that, and it also reminded me of Amber to a surprising degree, but actually what the style really reminded me of, more than anything else, was 1990s/early 2000s independent comics: the Goth aesthetic and random asides and tonally bonkers worldbuilding. I know this is exactly what is going to make this book not some people's cup of tea, and I get that, but this book kept reminding me of the way that indy comics artists back in the '90s would stick incongruous sight gags into the background of panels - silly labels on products, that kind of thing; it doesn't have to make sense, it's there to make the reader smile. This book is gonzo, bonkers, balls-to-the-wall "because the author wanted to"; it's a book that runs on pure id, and luckily I'm just in tune enough with the author's id to really enjoy it.


I think one of the reasons why this book carried me along so well is because I really, really liked Gideon. Her narrative voice is an absolute delight, and she's also very fundamentally sweet in a way that's pleasantly at odds with her sarcastic defensiveness and her horrible upbringing. I could pretty much tell that Gideon and Harrow were going to hit the particular button that Danny and Ward do (polar opposites who grew up together with a weirdly codependent mix of love and hate) and yep, they sure do, and the eventual payoff for that was glorious.

I knew going in that Gideon died - it was the main large spoiler I had; I actually was really surprised (because I thought I was massively spoiled for the book) that in fact, I knew almost none of the actual plot! I enjoyed the murder mystery, even though it started to get kind of numbing after a while as all the sympathetic characters around the protagonists were systematically killed off. However, one of the things I liked about the entire murder mystery part of the plot was that it was, on the whole, not a crapsack-world "everyone is secretly evil" kind of thing, which is what I was anticipating early on. But rather, the people who appeared to be decent people for the most part really were (with a notable exception, but as a veteran murder mystery reader I had her pegged as "definitely too good to be true and probably evil" very early on - I just didn't anticipate how much so, or in what ways), and although the later deaths really hurt, most of the characters got to go out bravely, helping and protecting each other, rather than backstabbing their friends which is kinda what I was expecting early on.

I've come to realize that one of the key features of whether I will "click" with a canon or not is the sense that I get of its underlying philosophy on the world. Does the author think the world is an endlessly terrible place in which people do nothing except betray and hurt each other? Probably not for me, then. But if there's a sense of - whatever the opposite of grimdark is; it doesn't even have to be optimism, it doesn't need clear good guys or a victory at the end or even anyone surviving at all, it just has to give me the feeling that the author thinks there are such things as courage and decency, and that these are things worth having, even if the world pushes back. No matter how dark the canon is, I need to feel as if the author doesn't hate their own characters and actually does want them to have nice things (even if they don't get them). And I certainly do get that feeling here.

I made a bunch of notes on my Kindle while I was reading because some of the book's twists and turns of phrase were just so delightful: a many-legged monstrosity described as "not as great nor as leggy as it had been before" after a run-in with Harrow; "the wall was already feeling pretty sorry for itself, and at this last insult it gave up entirely and collapsed"; "The conversation, which was terminal to start with, convulsed to a halt."; "She pulled her sunglasses out of the pocket of her robe and eased them on, which completed the effect, if the effect you wanted was 'horrible.'" For a book about dark, awful things, it was very funny and full of glee.

I remember seeing some reactions around that were basically "I was promised space lesbians and got THAT?" which is a reaction I, on the one hand, understand if you went in wanting HEA romance, because the book is very much not that and you are going to be disappointed if that's what you wanted. (Although I suspect Gideon is not gone for good given all the many ways this universe has of bringing people back, I also am not sure if there's an HEA romance waiting even if she does come back in some form.) On the other hand, for me, the tragic loyalty and the way the central relationship exists in a sort of sexual-yet-not liminal space hit my id square on. So I completely understand how this book would be disappointing to a certain set of expectations while also having gotten exactly what I wanted out of it. I wouldn't want it to change a single thing, but there you go, no book is going to please everyone.




I read the free preview part of Harrow the Ninth on my kindle after finishing Gideon, and ... hoo boy. So between Harrow generally coming across as a joyless, driven person with an absolutely depressing life, and losing her one friend at the end of Gideon, I wasn't sure how a Harrow-POV book was going to be anything other than a joyless, depressing slog. Turns out it is not only that, but even MORE of a joyless, depressing slog than I was expecting, at least based on the preview chapters. This is severely not helped along by the book having no characters I liked or cared about other than Harrow, and Harrow being suicidally depressed to the point of constant disassociating is just ... yeah ... this book would have to be incredibly fun and compelling to make up for that, and boy howdy is it not.

Specific spoiler: It is very clear that Harrow has either edited her own memories or (signs suggest) had Ianthe do it for her. I thought at first that it was simply that she was traumatically disassociating to the point where she didn't remember what had actually happened, but it looks like there's more going on than that. So I'm curious what actually is going on, but not currently curious enough to wade through what looks like a numbingly depressing book. Gideon's life was objectively pretty depressing, but it didn't really feel like it because her narrative voice was so upbeat and the book pretty quickly introduced some catnippy-for-me character dynamics. This book really does not do that.

For people who have read Harrow, does it get - for lack of a better word - more fun? If I'm bouncing off the early chapters because they're miserably unhappy and I don't particularly like anyone in them, is that likely to improve or is it a fairly accurate preview of what the entire book is like, or at least a significant portion of it?

EDIT: I think I know enough from the comments to know I want to read it. No further information, please - I think I'll enjoy discovering it on my own! And thank you for the answers!

Comments

[sophia_sol]

But if there's a sense of - whatever the opposite of grimdark is; it doesn't even have to be optimism, it doesn't need clear good guys or a victory at the end or even anyone surviving at all, it just has to give me the feeling that the author thinks there are such things as courage and decency, and that these are things worth having, even if the world pushes back. No matter how dark the canon is, I need to feel as if the author doesn't hate their own characters and actually does want them to have nice things (even if they don't get them).

YEAH! I agree totally.

About Harrow the Ninth -- I found it a slog for a very long time, the early chapters are a good sample of the whole first half of the book. But I really did find it picked up a lot in the back half and then I really loved it and found it delightful! I actually ended up liking it even more than Gideon the Ninth in the end, or at least the parts of Ht9 I liked, I liked better than the parts of Gt9 I liked. But your mileage may vary, and there sure is a lot of really depressing nothing-happening for a lot of the book before you get somewhere else.

[yhlee]

I concur with this assessment of Harrow the Ninth - I had it to blurb and actually backed out because it was 2020 and I couldn't cope with the joyless depressingness of Harrow's POV in the front half of the book. But it does open up to some really delightful fannish catnip stuff and some unexpected humor, including one of the more creative assassination attempts I've ever seen (on par with the assassination peacocks from that one sci-fi novel, not naming so as not to spoil). I basically came back to Harrow in 2021 and did a 180 and now love the book, but yeah, lots of caveats.

[helen_keeble]

Spoilers for Harrow (attempting to be vague)

There are multiple big revelations and twists that turn things upside down. Most of the fun of the book is trying to figure out exactly what’s going on and why.

Harrow regains some drive after the early chapters. However, the weird second person narrative voice persists. There is a reason for this.

I don’t know how far the preview goes - did you get as far as the notes?

There are more characters (a lot more) than are apparent from either the first few chapters or the dramatis personae list.

Personally, I found the God-Emperor extremely interesting as a character, but that’s mainly because I was reading it as “what if Warhammer 40k, but the God-Emperor wanders around in slippers with a cup of tea in between exercising Godlike Power” :-)

Overall the tone is a lot darker than Gideon (mainly due to the change of voice) but I found the actual plot more interesting in Harrow than book 1

There is a point in the book where I literally gasped out loud, because it did something VERY CLEVER that I really should have seen coming, but didn’t (it’s not Gideon)

[sholio]

I did get to the notes - that's the place where the preview cuts off. So that definitely intrigued me a lot, and I also have gathered that this book leans heavily into unreliable narrator and "everything you thought you knew WAS WRONG!", which are both things I like very much. From the sound of things, it's a book I probably would enjoy, so I'll give it a bit to let the first book settle, and then perhaps read it in October!

[lunabee34]

I did not have that reaction to Harrow, but YMMV, and I totally understand what you're saying.

I found it pretty funny overall (although maybe not at the beginning; it's been awhile since I read it).

Also, I don't want to spoil you but you get to spend lots of time with characters that you wouldn't suspect, and it's awesome awsome awesome.

I love Gideon's POV so much that I missed it hard at first in Harrow, but then I think at the end that maybe I like the second book better? IDK They are very close to me in terms of how much I like them both.

[gloss]

I was sure the books were the opposite of my aesthetic, too! And yet now I am writing sad stories about sad skeletons, so.

Harrow does get A LOT more fun, but the start is just so numbed by grief that I can see how hard it would be to continue reading, especially if you're fresh off Gideon's energy.

its underlying philosophy on the world. Does the author think the world is an endlessly terrible place in which people do nothing except betray and hurt each other? Probably not for me, then. But if there's a sense of - whatever the opposite of grimdark is; it doesn't even have to be optimism, it doesn't need clear good guys or a victory at the end or even anyone surviving at all, it just has to give me the feeling that the author thinks there are such things as courage and decency, and that these are things worth having, even if the world pushes back.
This is so well-put and articulates pretty much how I feel, too. I've always found the opposition of grimdark/hopepunk incredibly facile, but a character like Gideon, who's loyal and caring (and funny as hell) is catnip.

[hamsterwoman]

Checking my highlights/bookmarks, for me 'Harrow' picked up around the 25% mark, but also kind of intermittently. The post-GtN Harrow POV continued to be grim and claustrophobic and not a lot of fun for me, but it does eventually become diluted by other things, and those things worked for me much better, and some of them were even a lot of fun (although in a different way than the Gideon POV had been fun in the first book).

I ended up liking/appreciating Harrow the Ninth quite a bit more than I did 'Gideon', but I should also mention that there wasn't anything in particular in 'Gideon' that was my thing -- the aesthetic was not (as for you), the "bonkers sight gags"-equivalent aspect you mentioned was not, and while there were aspects of character dynamics that did work for me, it was not the Gideon-Harrow relationship, but rather dynamics between other characters -- and I got more interesting bits of that in 'Harrow', where I hadn't been expecting to.

[melannen]

not-really spoilers for harrow:



I don't remember what's in the preview, but Harrow is sort of set in two different milieus: there's the depressing, dissociating space station parts, and there's extensive sort-of flashbacks to a very different version of the events in the first book, and it swaps between the two. If you wanted more of the characters who died early on in Gideon, the sort-of flashbacks will give you that. I found the early space station parts a slog, but getting to see Magnus and Abigail and Protesilaus and everybody in the flashbacks got me through. (If you liked the "everybody working together despite the setup implying they won't" parts of GtN, the Harrow flashbacks do that x11). And then even the non-flashback parts do get more fun as you progress and Harrow starts to sort of find a footing. And it does all make sense and come together in the end, somehow.

[likeadeuce]

I sort of aggressively hated HtN the first time through but everyone told me to keep going and omg by the time it opens up it really opens up and there's one reveal in particular that was my absolute favorite thing I read in a year that had me getting extremely fannish about several book series. (I will give the caveat that I was more of a Harrow girl than a Gideon girl to start with).

On reread I even found that I liked many of the parts that had turned me off the first time (Ianthe grew on me A LOT and once I understood -- to an extent -- the alternate Canaan House story I found a lot to be delighted with there as well). So basically hating HtN at the start is not an uncommon experience and based on the things you liked about GtN I do recommend pushing through.

Also the paperback just came out and has a bonus story that opens up the world even more and makes me even more eager for the sequels.

[frith_in_thorns]

Adding to the chorus above that based on your post, yes you should keep reading Harrow.

My reading journey of these: read Gideon, found it very confusing because I didn't understand a lot of the character motivations. It was ok, didn't have particular feelings about it. Read Harrow several months later because Ellie read Harrow and kept wanting to tell me random things from it. Got to the point where everything went BONKERS, kept reading, finished it, got Ellie to explain everyone's character motivations in Gideon like I was six, went back and re-read Gideon, immediately carried on and re-read Harrow, WOW do these books reward re-reading, I cannot even express how much. (I will read the third book when it comes out and then probably read the first two again in anticipation of even more things making sense and WTF in hindsight.)

[sovay]

For a book about dark, awful things, it was very funny and full of glee.

I got nothing on Harrow the Ninth, but may I leave you this fic: "Your Necro Questions Answered"?

[silverflight8]

I also assumed Gideon the Ninth was probably not to my tastes (it is super popular on meme, I generally actually hate what's super popular on bookish meme, I don't care about skeleton aesthetic) but...we do have some significantly overlapping tastes. So maybe I should go read this now. :D: