Alexandra's Reviews > Gideon the Ninth

OMG this book aaaahhhhhh how did I liiiiiive before I read it.

So this book, right. It's ok. 

Where to even start. How about this: Gideon hates where she lives, everyone she lives with, and her life in general. But she has plans for getting away, and it's aaaallll going to work out... except of course it doesn't and she ends up compelled to work with one of the people she hates the most for a chance at actually making her life better. She lives on a nothing rock a long way away from the bright centre of the universe (or solar system), which she hates.

Gideon is a fighter, and she's cranky, and she has a great stock of lesbian porn, and a magnificent line in snark, and a heart that she tries to bluff her way out of showing anyone. I love her to pieces. 

Someone mentioned the Machineries of Empire series by Yoon Ha Lee in connection with Gideon, and it made me realise all sorts of correspondences. Both have space-faring civilisations that seem to be powered by arcane things: Lee's universe by calendar mechanics (which is still a seriously ??? moment); Muir's is driven, in the upper echelons at least, by necromancy. Yeh, if the bones didn't give it away: this book has, at its core, death magic. Some people die. I do not like horror and I did not find this to be horror: for me, I tend to characterise horror as when I actively feel afraid while reading, and while I was afraid for characters in this novel, I did not get that 'oh God is there something under my couch reaching for my legs' feeling that, say, the Doctor Who ep 'Blink' encouraged. 

Then there's the characters and their interactions. Frankly, they're screwed up, in both Machineries and here. Neither main character is exactly someone you'd say was emotionally on an even keel; and neither of them have open, trusting, and healthy relationships with their closest companions. There are aspects of the key relationship here that could perhaps be seen as abuse; I have been fortunate not to experience it so certainly I'm coming from a privileged position, but somehow it didn't read like abuse. Harrow, Gideon's opponent/companion, definitely does some actively horrible things... perhaps part of the difference for me was in her motivation. Or maybe I'm just making excuses. The relationship really is quite destructive; and Muir never tries to paint it as anything but. 

Finally, I seem to remember being a good halfway through the first Machineries book before having any real notion of what the heck was going on - and the subsequent books revealed more and more until it made that first book like one square on a chess board (maybe a 2x2 square at best). When I got to the end of Gideon, I still wasn't entirely sure why things were happening or where the story might go next. But in both cases, I was so utterly enthralled by the writing, and so captivated by the characters and the world building, that I actually didn't care and just threw myself along for the ride. That's a fairly uncommon experience for me - I tend to be impatient - and it's a giddy and joyful one when you trust an author that much. 

And then I discovered that the sequel isn't due out until June this year, and I wept.