Okay. So. Approximately four (?) hours ago, I finished reading Gideon the Ninth. I am in a state of both emotional turmoil and complete blankness, and once that subsides I will make another post; however, right now I do have one clear thought. [Spoilers below.]
I looked at reviews of the book, and a lot of them said the same thing: "there's barely any worldbuilding" and/or "I couldn't tell what the fuck was happening." (I am paraphrasing.)
Here's the thing, though. That's what I loved about it. For those unfamiliar with Zelda: Breath of the Wild, it's a video game in which you basically have free reign to explore an entire map, with challenges and treasure chests and riddles at every turn. When I played that game, I got this sense of excitement and adrenaline at the fact that holy shit, I can go anywhere I want and there's so much to do, so much to piece together.
That's exactly how I felt with Gideon the Ninth. I barely had a clue as to what the fuck was going on in Canaan House until at least halfway through, because everything had to be pieced together by the characters (and also, Harrow was being a stubborn bitch and not relaying anything to gRiDdLe). The exploration of Canaan House was an enigma from start to finish. The gruesome oddity of the challenges in the facility, especially when Harrow first took Gideon down there, literally chilled me. I wanted so very, very badly to figure out what the hell was happening, and when I finally did at the end, it was the exact same feeling of finishing that fucking Zelda game.
So there's that. And then there's the matter of the worldbuilding. We didn't know who the hell the Emperor was until the epilogue. The different types of necromancy and their applications had to be divined via the observation of the reader and minimal explanation of the characters. We didn't know what a Lyctor truly was until almost the end, and that word was one of the main concepts of the book. And there are, of course, questions. Is the Empire within our galaxy? Why is it falling into ruins? Did Cytherea have anything else against the Emperor other than 'I've had to stay alive for like ten thousand years you bastard'? I don't know, and it is quite exhilarating. It has instilled me with the sheer horror of not knowing, and of being kept in the dark, and it's what kept me reading the entire time (along with Gideon's constant sex jokes, but that's for another time). When this idea crossed my mind: this is an empire that is falling apart and hardly any of its inhabitants even know, and I as the reader do not know why - it was just scary. Literally. Canaan House was scary and the idea of the crumbling Empire was scary and the bone construct in the facility was scary and Ianthe and Silas and motherfucking Cytherea were scary as hell. Terror, in the midst of that adrenaline at the feeling of exploration, made this maybe my favorite book I've ever read, for that sheer combination of feelings and for the most beautiful, unique, creative, mysterious, and fucking terrifying worldbuilding I have ever had the pleasure to witness.
So, yeah. I love this book because of its lack of explanation. It doesn't coddle the reader and explain every detail of its universe or its magic; it has to be deciphered and puzzled out by the reader, which makes every puzzle piece of revealed information even more delightful to find.
tangentwithtanner
janainaart
blakekathryn
ellievsbear
gummygunk
