Anyone read this series? I was surprised I couldn’t find any mentions on DLP. It’s about lesbian space necromancers, and it’s extremely well written. The originality of the story had me hooked from the first chapter.

Fair warning, it is one of those books where you have to accept you’re not going to get what’s going on at first. But if you go along for the ride anyway, it’s deeply enjoyable, hilarious creepy and action-packed all at once.

The first 8 chapters are free here:

https://www.tor.com/2019/04/08/read-gideon-the-ninth-chapters-1-and-2/

Publisher summary:

 

I read the first book earlier in the year, and I've got the second on my to read pile; I didn't enjoy Gideon as much as I'd expected to given the hype I'd seen for the book online - it seems to have become a minor sensation on Tumblr - but it's definitely a fun read, and an intriguing setting.

Spoiler

I really didn't expect Gideon herself to die at the end of book 1. Crossing my fingers for a resurrection in a subsequent book.

 

I've read all 3 books and they're pretty good as a whole, but they are all using the same structure. Slow mysterious build up and then reveal and explosive finish I guess I could put it, there's nothing wrong with that and the first two books make the build up work by being mysterious/cryptic and the characters being interesting/quirky/funny. But holy shit the 3rd book had me bored out of my skull for maybe half the book, if not more. It's still doing the same thing by not telling you stuff, but the stuff it tells you I couldn't care less about and the characters didn't pull it out of that. If I had to rate it 4/5 for first two books and maybe 2.5 for the 3rd.

 

My biggest downside was that I found the whole world rather unbelievable. I've read only the Gideon, and as far as characters and plot goes, fine, plenty readable, but the world itself seem to exist only to make the book possible, and holds little in terms of sustainability.

Shrugs. I guess I like my space different flavored. I don't think I'll ever read on but I do agree it's well written and well paced.

 

Book 3 is getting a physical release in the UK shortly (not sure if it's a new edition or whether it was digital only at first?) so I moved Harrow up my reading list - I struggled with it a little, I think in part because some of the finer detail of Gideon escaped me, but also in part because of the central idea of Harrow

Spoiler

splitting the difference between a self-induced lobotomy and actual mental health issues of one sort or another on top of a healthy dose of grief and trauma.

. That said, I still enjoyed it a lot, and I'll be ordering book 3.