Last Bingo: Reader’s Choice to cover “Two Heads are Better than One”
I’ve been seeing Gideon The Ninth hyped all over social media for months, and it sounded really cool and interesting. To cite the blurb across the front cover: “Lesbian necromancers explore a haunted gothic palace in space!” This is actually a largely accurate description of the premise: the immortal Emperor sends out a message to the nobles (ie- necromancers) of each of the 9 Houses in this universe to send their strongest necromancer-heir along with a cavalier (body-guard with sword) to his home where the 9 groups will attempt to become his Lyctors, immortal soldiers who answer only to the Emperor. Each House seems to have some sort of specialization within necromantic science (like aesthetics, talking to souls, skeletons, etc), and no one likes or trusts anyone else, and no one knows what they’ll have to do to become a Lyctor. Then people start turning up dead {cue ominous music}…
The Ninth House exists in an ignored corner of the realm on a dark rock filled with skeletons and general unpleasantness. Gideon is really good with a sword but she’s a misfit with some sort of past which is probably mostly unknown. She just showed up as an infant along with her dead mother one day. She’s been trying to escape ever since. Harrowhawk is the Reverend Daughter of the House, a skilled bone necromancer (she can animate skeletons basically) and she and Gideon have spent the majority of their childhoods and youth trying to maim or destroy each other. Yet here they are, forced to do teamwork for mutual survival.
Once everyone is assembled in the abandoned palace of the Emperor (head of the First House), no one knows what to do, where to go, or who to trust, but everyone wants the power of becoming a Lyctor, so naturally there is a lot of scheming and sneaking about, which is when the participants start turning up dead. Who or what is responsible? Who to trust? Etc. There are a lot of the usual suspects present for this sort of locked-door mystery: the waif, the creepy twins, the extrovert, the geek, the guide, the strange unlikables, and a few others. Some get actual personalities and character, others don’t; Gideon is especially drawn to the waif Lady Dulcinea Septimus, but what will come of this? Time will tell.
There’s a lot going on to get this world worked out, which is probably why the main action is so slow to start, but once the deaths start happening, things get interesting. Gideon and Harrow have to try and get along and work together and figure out who else to work with long enough to figure out what’s going on, and survive. Maybe even long enough for Harrow to become a Lyctor and Gideon to win her freedom. Or not.
Notice there’s virtually nothing about space? That part seems to have very little place yet it’s brought up enough that it seems to matter. Other than Nine Houses = Nine Planets (counting Pluto, which seems to fit the description of the Ninth House realm) the space and space travel bit seem extraneous. Likewise, there are mentions of Gideon’s girly mags just often enough to remind that she likes women that way, but there isn’t much development there either. This bit at least really works since in some ways Gideon really is just a lonely little girl at heart, which makes her all the more endearing especially at moments like when she realizes someone whom she thinks of as an ally may have had a crush on her current crush first; she feels so bad about potentially getting in their way and goes to apologize to him. Maybe there will be more on these elements in books 2 and 3 since this will apparently be a trilogy, one that I will be very interested in following given a few of the twists towards the conclusion. One of them was so strongly reminiscent of a reveal from Full Metal Alchemist that I have to wonder if that connection was intentional or not, and if so that presents interesting potential for the next chapter. It’ll almost be more interesting if not though. Hopefully the wait won’t be for too long.