Giveaway: Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Sep. 17th, 2019 02:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
helloladies posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
ladybusinessIf you've escaped hearing about one of Tor's most buzzed about releases, congratulations. Gideon the Ninth was being heavily promoted at the beginning of the year, and people with ARCs who loved it were not subtle about how much they loved it. Tor pushed it heavily—there's some serious marketing behind the book—with lots of attention to the cover art, sneak peeks at the opening chapters, and most notably, a first edition print run with pitch black page edges, making Gideon the Ninth not only the most hyped SFF book of the year, but also one of the most noticeable physical objects to emerge from a mainstream SFF publishing company this year—that art.
All of us haven't read it, butrenay read an ARC copy sent to her by a Mysterious Benefactor in late 2018, which has since then been a delicious mystery on top of the book itself, which is a locked room mystery in a crumbling castle in the middle of an ocean featuring a massive cast of necromancers and Gideon, an irreverent narrator who likes swords and ladies. Regardless of its contents, we're always excited to share books about characters who fancy swords and ladies. That's kind of our aesthetic.
We have one hardback copy of Gideon the Ninth (complete with black page edges!) to give away. You will also get:
Some of these extras won't make sense until after you read the book. After all, the book is a mystery. (Okay, it's a lot of things. There's some genre blending happening. But mystery is in there.)
If this sounds up your alley, enter our giveaway for Gideon the Ninth—yes, even if you're outside the U.S.! THIS IS AN ALL-INCLUSIVE TRIP TO SKELETON ISLAND*.
* The urge to use "TO BONE TOWN" was extremely high. Yes, we're actually five 11 year olds in a trench coat.
All of us haven't read it, but
renay read an ARC copy sent to her by a Mysterious Benefactor in late 2018, which has since then been a delicious mystery on top of the book itself, which is a locked room mystery in a crumbling castle in the middle of an ocean featuring a massive cast of necromancers and Gideon, an irreverent narrator who likes swords and ladies. Regardless of its contents, we're always excited to share books about characters who fancy swords and ladies. That's kind of our aesthetic.We have one hardback copy of Gideon the Ninth (complete with black page edges!) to give away. You will also get:
- old key patterned washi tape
- sparkle skull stickers
- tiny aviator sunglass stickers
Some of these extras won't make sense until after you read the book. After all, the book is a mystery. (Okay, it's a lot of things. There's some genre blending happening. But mystery is in there.)
If this sounds up your alley, enter our giveaway for Gideon the Ninth—yes, even if you're outside the U.S.! THIS IS AN ALL-INCLUSIVE TRIP TO SKELETON ISLAND*.
* The urge to use "TO BONE TOWN" was extremely high. Yes, we're actually five 11 year olds in a trench coat.
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Date: 2019-09-17 08:15 am (UTC)I also loved the latest October Daye, by Seanan Mcguire, strongly rec that series.
New books wise I think before that the last thing I read was possibly the latest Francis Hardinge, A Skinfull of Shadows, which I also loved.
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Date: 2019-09-17 08:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-17 08:39 am (UTC)SO MANY FEELINGS
Seanan is so good, I'm so happy to have this yearly instalment of Toby and just fully trust that it's going somewhere I'll love.
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Date: 2019-09-17 10:48 am (UTC)(also seconding the rec for This is How You Lose the Time War)
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Date: 2019-09-18 03:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-18 11:39 am (UTC)(I liked that the time travelers sending letters are the focus of the story - there was a book I read a couple years back that sounded like it going to be something like this from the blurb, but unfortunately wasn’t)
I really like how poetic the writing is! (I definitely need to check out el-Mohtar's and Gladstone's other work)
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Date: 2019-09-19 12:30 am (UTC)TBH, el-Mohtar's short stories are beautifully crafted. I really love what she does with language. Check out the short story posts here -- she's often recced, with good reason.
I may have to give it a go, as so many folks here are reccing it so highly!
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Date: 2019-09-18 04:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-19 01:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-17 11:07 am (UTC)THANK YOU for being open to not-US-residents! That's rare and lovely.
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Date: 2019-09-18 04:35 am (UTC)And of course! I always get so sad when I see international friends looking at giveaways open only to the U.S. and Canada. Since it's within my power to make it happen, I try to do it whenever possible. :D
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Date: 2019-09-18 07:44 pm (UTC)Now my list would actually have to shift because I *just* finished Jo Walton's An Informal History of the Hugos and it made me want to read all the things. ALL THE THINGS.
I'm very grateful for your consideration! (As usual!)
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Date: 2019-09-17 12:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-18 04:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-18 12:21 pm (UTC)The last three books I loved -
Date: 2019-09-17 01:53 pm (UTC)Re: The last three books I loved -
Date: 2019-09-18 04:36 am (UTC)Re: The last three books I loved -
Date: 2019-09-18 09:29 am (UTC)Re: The last three books I loved -
Date: 2019-09-20 01:31 am (UTC)3 Recommendations
Date: 2019-09-17 03:42 pm (UTC)Re: 3 Recommendations
Date: 2019-09-18 04:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-17 05:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-18 04:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-17 06:15 pm (UTC)Like most other commenters here, I absolutely adored This is How You Lose the Time War.
And finally, because while I enjoy enthusing with everyone about new books, I wish there were spaces where I could enthuse about older works as well, long after they were first published, I'm going to recommend Sophia McDougall's astonishingly good Romanitas trilogy, which is now over a decade old (although being published in the US for the first time this year).
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Date: 2019-09-18 04:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-17 08:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-18 04:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-18 10:27 am (UTC)(A rec post by
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Date: 2019-09-18 01:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-18 04:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-18 03:59 am (UTC)I really liked Seanan McGuire's _Girl in the Green Silk Gown_, I really enjoyed _Black Panther and the Crew: We are the Streets_ by Ta-Nehisi Coates, and I continue to deeply enjoy basically all Agatha Christie. Probably the favorite reread of this Christie session was _Postern of Fate_.
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Date: 2019-09-18 04:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-19 01:04 am (UTC)I'd also rec Easy to Kill, Crooked House, And Then There Were None (CREEPY AS SHIT), The Mysterious Mr. Quin (gaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, omg, Quin/Satterthwaite 4eva), and Sparkling Cyanide/Remembered Death.
I would ANTI-rec the Marple book Nemesis, the sequel to Caribbean Mystery, since as a tiny queer AFAB nonbinary person reading that, I... was unhealthily fascinated with the ghosts of lesbians lurking at the edges but Um, it is Not Handled Kindly. It's an interesting read, and well-crafted, but it's not good for queers even more than most of the rest of her work. Blanket warning for racial issues common to popular fiction of her eras.
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Date: 2019-09-18 07:19 am (UTC)1. Geekerella by Ashley Poston. I know I'm late to the game but I just bought it from Ashley at DragonCon and devoured the entire book on the flight home. They're so sweet! The texting relationship! The feeling of coming home to con! The punny vegan food truck! The disaster child who is too awkward to tell the truth at this point! The stepmother straight from Captain Awkward!
2. Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston. Oh gosh, I guess I have a theme going. Listen, sometimes you need those fuzzy tropes. These dumb boys who care a lot about the world and each other. Almost felt like a Merlin fic with the barcodes scratched off, and I mean that sentiment with the utmost amount of love.
3. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. I know this book came out in 2014, but I just got around to reading it, and I can't believe I waited so long. If you somehow haven't already read it, don't make my mistakes, don't wait any longer to get to hang out with this family on their little spaceship. It's just like, yes, this is in fact what people are like. All of them. Just hanging out with my imperfect friends, in space.
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Date: 2019-09-18 12:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-18 09:35 am (UTC)The last three books I really loved:
This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (hee, this is a trend!). Time-travelling agent f/f with gorgeous letters delivered in unlikely manners and jumping between time streams and timey-wimeyness and weird plants and birds and seals and everything, wrapped in layered lush gorgeous prose.
To Be Taught, if Fortunate, by Becky Chambers. Seeking extra-terrestrial life, hope amidst calamities, and so much pretty science.
Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee. This broke me and put me back together again in the best, most harrowing, most amazing way possible.
(sneaking in sneaky bonus mentions of Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho and The Serpent Sea by Martha Wells!)
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Date: 2019-09-18 04:41 pm (UTC)Echo After Echo by Amy Rose Capetta
The Afterward by E.K. Johnston
Think of England by K.J. Charles
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Date: 2019-09-18 07:53 pm (UTC)I just read "The Shadow Cipher" by Laura Ruby, which is middle grade steampunk, set in an alternative version of New York. Three kids have to solve a cipher to preserve their home. It's wonderful escapism, and feels very optimistic, as well as dealing with pain and trauma in a real way. I was really surprised by how complex and good it was.
I also recommend "Other Words for Smoke" by Sarah Maria Griffith, which is a haunted-house YA novel, about a mysterious owl that can draw the reader into other worlds, but demands a terrible price. Smart, atmospheric, and full of awesome queer ladies.
Recs
Date: 2019-09-19 02:53 pm (UTC)I also want to recommend The Affair of the Mysterious Letter by Alexis Hall which is a queer fantasy take on Sherlock Holmes and it's fabulous.
If you want romance recs, just let me know you want to read and I can give you all the recs :)
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Date: 2019-09-20 01:28 am (UTC)I’m re-reading them again
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Date: 2019-09-21 02:18 am (UTC)