Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir

 

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir is the first book of the Locked Tombs Trilogy.  I have some concerns about this book because I'm not into horror and this has the potential to have plenty of horror in it, but reviews also mentioned the humor.  I believe I noticed it on the Locus Award list.

Started: 5/13/2021
Completed: 5/15/2021
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By: Locus Award

Review:

This is a good book.  You are taken to a far different world and despite the constant presence of bones and some degree of reanimation, this is not a horror novel.  At no point was I worried about being scared; it did not keep me up at night (in fact, I fell asleep while listening at one point when I was listening just before what turned out to be a nap).  The subplot characters are a little flat, but the major characters are quite rich and they explore their relationship well.  The whole of the concepts behind the science fiction parts are quite believable (although it seems magic, not science, is the order of the day).  The use of swords is explained nicely.  The quest portion of the book was fairly good although there were sections that I simply would not have been able to figure out without the author describing events I did not see or relationships that were simply not described.  All-in-all, a pretty enjoyable book and I'm looking forward to the next in the trilogy.