Antti Värtö's Reviews > Gideon the Ninth

This is a hard one to rate. On the other hand, in the end I enjoyed the book quite a lot. On the other hand, on page 150 I was seriously considering quitting the book.

The first half of the book is not bad, exactly, but it is frustrating. From the blurb I assumed this book is "Warhammer 40K meets Murderbot", and it's not far removed from reality - or at least, that's what this book tries to be.

Alas, the main character, Gideon, is no Murderbot. She is supposed to be wry and edgy, but it feels forced. She makes references to smutty magazines that she's supposedly hoarding, but nowhere we see her actually reading those magazines or behaving like she's especially horny or anything like that. She uses foul language and boasts how she wants to kill the necromancer she's stuck with - but when the opportunity arises, she does nothing at all. All the edginess is pure surface. It's pretty irritating, but luckily in the latter half of the book the author seems to forget that Gideon is supposed to be edgy badass, so she becomes much more tolerable character. Poor continuity, but since it's a change for the better, who am I to complain?

The setting is not pure Warhammer 40K, either. Sure, there is an immortal God-Emperor and his Primarchs Lyctors, there are Gothic castles and necromancy, it all sounds properly grim and dark. But everything is less menacing and brooding and more... dingy. The evil nuns are decrepit and rather pathetic. The Holy Castle of the Emperor is falling apart and is in a pretty shabby condition. The scions of the Nine Houses are brats or jolly matrons. It's not really so gloomy as you'd expect, and that is a good thing.

A slow and irritating start, but the book picks up it's pace near the middle and the ending was pretty good. I doubt I'll read the sequels, though.