Gideon the Ninth (The Locked Tomb Series, 1)

What a great book, what a great story, what great characters, what great dialog.I'm not usually a fan of fantasy. More into hard science fiction and technology. I got this book based on the ratings and knew nothing about it. When I started I thought, oops a fantasy, but continued reading anyway. The clever writing style and snarky dialog kept me going initially until the story really kicked in. And the ride accelerated and spun a fascinating and compelling story that brought to life a well drawn eclectic ensemble of characters in a desperate situation to an explosive end within an interesting allegory.It is basically a complex mystery story in a unique world. The world building is done gradually and unfolds slowly through the plot with minimal exposition. And it remains consistent without the gratuitous "magic plot glue" sometimes used by less skilled authors.If there was one thing about the book that hindered me it was the large number of characters to keep straight. The author does include a handy who's who listing. But I admit I did not put the effort in to keep track - and in retrospect it would have been worth the trouble even though the author refers to the same character alternately by first name, last name, title which is a pet peeve of mine that always confuses me - but that did not detract seriously from appreciating the story or the characters. (Thinking back, the alternate name use was helpful in illuminating the character motivations and skills by use of their titles - on the fly so to speak to help those of us that don't study up front.) BTW, note the representative little skulls at the beginning of each chapter.This is why I read books. Every once in awhile I find something new and amazing and it broadens my thinking. I think I enjoyed this book so much because it was so unexpected. I have tried to write a book, sad results, and I am in awe of those who can produce such a complex crystalline pure structure with intriguing and believable protagonists that carry you off to new places.Warning: IMHO the 2nd and 3rd books are not as good. I was not intrigued enough to even finish the 3rd.

I really enjoyed this book! The pacing at the beginning was a little slow and I was very confused off the bat with all the terms, however the glossary helped this a lot. Once Act 3 started, I was absolutely sold. It's got a little bit of everything: murder mystery, sci-fi, necromancy, lesbian pining, and some awesome sword fighting sequences. I ended up making a little chart of characters to keep the necromancers and cavaliers of each house straight, and this greatly helped me as well since there are a LOT of characters to remember and keep up with.I am excited to read the next book in the series!

Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Heir to the House of the Ninth, is in desperate need of a Cavalier. She must be accompanied by one if she is to accept the invitation from the Lord Undying himself and travel to the First House to study to be a Lyctor. Her original Cavalier has flown the coup leaving her with one option: Gideon Nav. The problem is that Gideon hates Harrow and the feeling is mutual. Gideon has spent her whole life attempting to escape the House of the Ninth and join the military. With promises of freedom, Harrow manages to convince Gideon to step into the roll of Cavalier Primary and accompany her off-planet. Studying to be a Lyctor is not what Harrow, or any of the other seven house representatives, expected and the price to be paid to attain this goal may be more than anyone is willing to pay.Necromancers in space. Those are the bare bones of Gideon the Ninth but not even close to all this book is about. The world is very hard to picture and is one of the things that made the first half of this book pretty hard to get through. The reader is thrown unceremoniously into this strange world and you either sink or swim. Many people reviewing this book said they didn't finish it, quitting before getting to the half-way mark. Those are the sinkers. Those of us that pushed through the first half of the book are the swimmers. I can understand why so many people chose to stop reading. I found myself struggling to understand the world, the role that each person played, and how high the stakes were to each character. But I pushed through because the writing was so different than anything I'd ever read before, the characters were fantastic, and I was eager to see where the story was going even if I didn't totally understand what was going on. I was rewarded handsomely for my endeavors.Let's start with the writing. The author has a way of using words in a different context than they are normally used in. Tamsyn uses words like "nuggety" and "robust" to describe people. Descriptions that make little sense yet you know exactly what the author is trying to tell you. She has a completely unique writing style and I doubt you'd ever be able to confuse it with anyone else's. This was the first thing that grabbed my attention in this book. The second being Gideon. I wholeheartedly have a female crush on Gideon Nav. She's absolutely crackers and mouthy and badass and I will never get enough of her snark. She also makes hilarious and vulgar jokes from the beginning to the end of this book, usually at Harrow's expense, and doesn't think that being in a life or death situation is quite reason enough to stop. I loved it. Yet, she garners your sympathy for the life she lived and you also just want to hug her. I haven't been all up in my feelings over a character like this in a long time. The dynamic between Gideon and Harrow is genius. They hate each other but are now in a situation where they must rely on each other for survival and it's awesome to see that play out on the page.This book does take its sweet time getting to the point. I believe that this story will lose a lot of readers based on this fact alone and it's a real shame. Once you hit the half-way mark in the book things start picking up speed very quickly. The story goes from meandering to full speed ahead in 6 seconds flat so the pacing isn't one of its stronger suits. All of the heirs and their cavaliers are from one of eight houses and I believe that each house represents a different planet. From what I gathered each planet is also quite different. The people hailing from them are all different as well; they share different beliefs, they dress differently, talk differently. The only thing linking them all is their service to the Emperor. The planets and the dynamic between them is one of the elements that is seriously lacking information. I am hopeful that much more will be explained on this front in the next two books. As for this book, the whole story is narrowed down to this one building- which is also hard to describe other than to say it's huge, old, and dilapidated-on this one planet. All the characters are residing here in order to ascend to Lyctor.There are skeletons everywhere. They are used as laborers and housekeepers and cooks. Harrow is able to raise skeletons fully formed from a single knuckle bone but that isn't the case for all the necromancers. Their gifts all lie in different areas and not all of them raise the dead in the way you would imagine. Again, an area that needs more explanation. When reading about raising the dead you can pretty much assume it's going to get dirty. And it does. Downright disgusting. I wasn't expecting the level of blood and gore that I found in this book but it worked.This is possibly the hardest review I've written. This book is extremely hard to explain and because of that my explanations lack fluidity. Just know that this book does have its faults but all in all I found it to be a fantastic story. It has a unique plot, extremely diverse and interesting characters, and the ending left me with a latent need to have the next book NOW. Which isn't going to happen and I'm pretty beat up about it. As stated on the back of the book, Gideon the Ninth is LGBT+ friendly and all different types of people are represented. There are some triggers to be aware of: Violence, Blood/gore, extremely vulgar language, suicide, death of a parent/s, death of a sibling, mass death of children, abandonment, chronic/fatal illness.