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[hoisinsauce]

A space to chat fandom! Anon!

Got a WIP you're excited about? Want to rave about your fave? Or is your fandom absolutely in love with a character who detracts from every scene they bumble into, and you need somewhere to vent? You're in the right place!

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Comments

Re: Books - Currently Reading - Gideon the Ninth

[(Anonymous)]

For anyone who's read Bartimaeus, the dynamic between the main characters kinda reminds me of that (though the servant is more "acting badass and loudly proclaiming she hates someone she doesn't seem to actually hate", whereas Bartimaeus would eat Nathaniel in a heartbeat if Nathaniel fucked up his summoning spell. Aaand they seem bound together out of social pressure and status rather than any powerful exploitative magic that *physically* binds them.) But there's defo a grumpy-goth-prodigy-brat-and-their-reluctant-protector-who-is-also-petty vibe, with the pair occasionally being impressed by each other and being annoyed that they're impressed.

Re: Books - Currently Reading - Gideon the Ninth

[(Anonymous)]

And now it's a detective novel with ghosts. Hey, whatever, I'm into that.

Re: Books - Currently Reading - Gideon the Ninth

[(Anonymous)]

Finished! Got a lot pacier around 20 chapters in and I stayed up to read it and tired myself out. xD I'll put some non-spoilery summary notes up in a bit!

Re: Books - Currently Reading - Gideon the Ninth

[(Anonymous)]

So, I enjoyed it overall; my comments will probably linger on the things that bothered me but that's just how I am and all the previous positive stuff still holds!

It starts off with a lot of unfamiliar scenery and is a bit confusing for the first few chapters. It clicks after that, but it's a strange way to open the book. I kept reading because I was curious, but it took a while to feel easy to read. I WAS intrigued, though, and I think creating mystery is one of her strengths.

The plot is carefully constructed; a few too many long battles for my taste, but it's good and suspense-y. The ending makes sense, though felt like an amalgam of some other series, which I won't list because spoilers! But I like that the plot feels very 'fair', with hints given early for things that happen later, and the groundwork laid for twists. The mysteries are good. The weird is good. It's very atmospheric and strange. You can see it's been developed along a YA plot template, but there's enough of the author's own brand of weird that it doesn't feel too formulaic. I *really* enjoyed the main setting and the concept for it.

The prose is often fun; it's not really my style but you can tell she's taken care over it and she's tried to update idioms to reflect the characters' circumstances, so it'll say "at the end of the night" instead of "at the end of the day" and so on. I liked the attention to detail and the silliness.

It's at its weakest when it's trying to do characters and dialogue. This is a shame because it's built around a relationship between two characters, but to me they never stopped reading *as* characters, not people. And it's the same for the rest of the cast. They overreact and underreact in a very YA way, and often it feels like it's trying a bit hard to be quotable. I should emphasise, though, this is nowhere NEAR male-writer levels of questionable characterisation. And this is personal taste; I like naturalism and realism and psychological depth over one-liners; ymmv. I could enjoy it but yeah it felt a bit... anime archetypes, sometimes. Well, that sounds harsh. I like anime so should note that. :P I think this might be a situation where the author wanted to tell one story, but felt she had to include character journeys along a set pattern according to genre fiction rules, and it suffers for it because she's not really that interested in that bit. That's my guess, anyway.

The humor generally fell a bit flat for me, but at the same time I found the weakness of the jokes endearing and quite funny in itself. It's hard to describe; the attempts at humor are very earnest and very fanfic. I did laugh at some bits.

There are a lot of bones. If you like skeletons, you will love this book. I think the author just really liked skeletons and wanted to see a lot of them (the whole book feels like that and it's a nice energy). Characters wear skull face paint and black robes and wield rapiers just for the aesthetic, etc. It's a ballpark for goths who like scifi. Something I did appreciate about it was that it was lively. Often when I read books with cool settings and interesting worldbuilding, I find the tradeoff is that they're very dry. This book does not have that problem. It's more like reading a cartoon. :P

Re: Books - Currently Reading - Gideon the Ninth

[(Anonymous)]

One thing I really didn't like (rot13 because spoilers!):
n zna fnirf gur qnl. Abg va gur frafr bs qbvat fghss, ohg n tbbq puhax bs vg vf n zlfgrel abiry, naq ur fbyirf gur zlfgrel, orpnhfr bs uvf ebznagvp srryvatf. Naq V sbhaq gung dhvgr jrveq orpnhfr jbzra ner cebzvarag gubebhtubhg, zbfg bs gur znva pnfg ner jbzra, naq gurl pbhyq rnfvyl unir unq n jbzna jbex vg bhg vafgrnq, vafgrnq bs fuhagvat gurz bss gb gur fvqr n ovg gbjneq gur raq. Naq vg jnf bqq gb unir guvf enaqbz thl'f eryngvbafuvc fhqqrayl gnxr pragre fgntr, rfcrpvnyyl fvapr gur cebgntbavfg'f ebznaprf jrer nonaqbarq. Gurer jnf na boivbhf punenpgre jub pbhyq unir qbar jung ur qvq, naq V guvax gur qenzn naq gvqvarff bs uvf nep znqr vg uneqre gb pner nobhg uvf sngr orpnhfr vg sryg gbb Ubyyljbbq. Fb lrnu vg jnf obgu n ovg enaqbz naq vg uheg gur fgehpgher. Vg pbhyq'ir rnfvyl orra gnxra bhg va jnlf gung vzb jbhyq'ir vzcebirq gur obbx, fb V nffhzr gur nhgube whfg yvxrq vg gung jnl.

Re: Books - Currently Reading - Gideon the Ninth

[(Anonymous)]

SA

(The vibe reminds me a little of Shadow of the Colossus. I mean, SotC is much emptier, but there's a weird mysterious old landscape and stuff you're just left to figure out. Was playing The Farthest Land earlier and it reminded me.)

Re: Books - Currently Reading - Gideon the Ninth

[(Anonymous)]

Also, a comment that will probably lead to wank if I make it elsewhere-- something I find very current about the book is the way it's being advertised as 'lesbian necromancers', leading with the word 'lesbian'. While several characters are, and it's not hidden or anything, it's fairly irrelevant to the plot. There's a lot in terms of subtext, but I think it would be an odd thing to advertise the book with at any other moment in time, and it gives me the vibe that people using that as the point to focus on when they advertise it are doing so as a chance to demonstrate their own values. If I'd picked it up expecting and wanting that to be the focus of the book, I would have been quite pissed off.

Re: Books - Currently Reading - Gideon the Ninth

[(Anonymous)]

I was gonna buy the sequel, but I think I'll wait until it comes out as a paperback. There was a preview at the back of the first book and,
ngl, it looked kinda terrible. xD But if this one took a while to hit its stride, maybe that one does, too.