Book Rec: Gideon the Ninth

Today I'm recc'ing a book that I pre-ordered the moment it was available to do so, and just finished reading this morning. The cover is killer - couldn't resist the pun, sorry - and, having read the author's writing before, I was more than willing to embark upon any literary journey on which she'd chosen to take her audience. I went into the novel without having ready any reviews, only the jacket copy, and without a clue what to expect - beyond the author's unique, big-hearted, delightful prose. I'm happy to report that the book became an instant favorite of the year. 

Gideon the Ninth introduces central protagonist Gideon Nav, a cynical, irreverent, crassly funny swordswoman hell bent on escaping her current planet - the Ninth. Her plan goes disastrously wrong, and she's instead roped into becoming the cavalier of the Ninth's Reverend Daughter, Harrow, on an off-world mission to the First, where Harrow - a necromancer - will be put through a series of trials along with necromancers from all the other "houses" (Second through Eighth) to test their ability to become Lyctors for the mysterious Emperor. What unfolds is a wildly original, imaginative adventure full of bones, blood, mystery, and absolute horror, all while Gideon and Harrow struggle - most of the time unwillingly - to better understand one another, and all told through Gideon's quippy viewpoint. 

That's my basic breakdown. The thing I loved most about this book is the fact that it ferociously resists being stowed neatly away in a particular genre. I scanned some of its reviews today, and it's being called sci-fi, fantasy, space opera, horror, whodunnit, thriller, and the truth is that it's all of these without being mostly any of these things; it's very much its own thing, with imagery that pulls from creaky old gothic mansions, to Dr. Frankenstein's lab, to the underlit steam grates and tunnels of Alien. This reads like a book written by someone who loves all kinds of fiction, who's consumed it from every genre, and has unleashed all the elements she loves best on a multi-layered story as spooky, detailed, and precise as it is gorily in-your-face and horrifying. This book is a wild, original, full-throated cry of "I do what I want," and that's exactly what makes it so unputdownable. I was riveted, beginning to end, and left breathing a silent "wow" when I shut it. 

Enter the novel knowing that: It's the first in a trilogy, so there's lots of world-building, and, though there is closure at the end, there are still plenty of purposeful loose ends left dangling, questions that will be answered in the next two books. It does get bloody, so it's perhaps not the best read for anyone who's very squeamish. If you can't/won't read my Sons of Rome series, this is definitely not the book for you. 

I for one am thrilled to see this kind of book getting published traditionally, and getting some traction in the market. Richly-drawn, detailed, hard-to-categorize fantasy being put out in the world does my writer heart good - and gives me wonderful books to read, besides.