Swordfighting, mysterious deaths, necromancy, badass women, hot women

I love this book to bits honestly, and think it is the most refreshing fantasy book I’ve read in a long time.

The story follows Gideon, badass swordswoman of the Ninth planet of this weird dying solar system, although the dying part is the point, because the solar system is powered by the energy of death, hereby termed thanergy, and there are these mages who specialise in different schools of necromancy such as spirit, flesh, and bone, to channel this energy in different ways. Gideon was airdropped as a baby from space and has no clue as to her parentage; she is also not a mage, and was treated rather coldbloodedly by the other inhabitants of the Ninth for her childhood. At least she’s alive, which is more than we can say for the other 200 odd children who used to grace the Ninth, sans the only necromancer heiress, Harrow. They hate each other’s guts.

Gideon tries to escape the planet but fails, and when the First calls for a Lyctor trial (Lyctors are basically immortal and serve the Emperor), Gideon has to go with Harrow as her cavalier aka personal bodyguard. The necromancer-cavalier thing is a requirement, they even have a motto to go with it. The trial occurs at this gothic house with endless levels at Canaan House on the First and is deliciously cryptic, until people start dropping dead, then it becomes fast-paced cryptic. From hereon the eight houses (Second to Ninth) have to solve both questions: who or what is responsible for the deaths, and how the heck do you become a Lyctor? Along the way Gideon sees other young people for the first time in her life, including two very attractive women, whom she definitely has the hots for.

Expect lots of irreverant exclamations by our potty-mouthed Gideon, who is very far from the silent nuns that cult Ninth is expected to produce, side-by-side with Serious Necromancy Theory, by which I mean legit schools of thought for how to convert thanergy into skeletons, or siphon another’s soul, or cast your consciousness into your cavalier’s body, etc. There are memes. There is a ridiculous number of anatomical terms for the bones you never knew had names, and so many dismemberings. There are characters to root for with distinct personalities. There are swordfights and showdowns that are some of the best physical conflict scenes I’ve seen described. There are bonds developed. It is, in short, a buttload of fun, and legitly has everything I want in a fantasy tome. (Some people say scifi because space, but genres are so yesterday anyway.) Muir is a genius.

Rating: 5/5

— Gideon the Ninth (Tamsyn Muir, 2019)