Gideon the Ninth

The Locked Tomb is a four-book series that Muir compares to the original Star Wars trilogy in terms of its continuity (Dumpleton, Elise. “Q&A: Tamsyn Muir, Author of ‘Gideon the Ninth’.” The Nerd Daily, 4 Oct. 2019). Gideon the Ninth is followed by Harrow the Ninth, then Nona the Ninth, and finally Alecto the Ninth. Each book is both an entirely self-contained story and part of a greater arc. This allows Muir to explore vastly different aspects of her world and its thematic implications in each novel. There are questions in Gideon that Muir does not resolve, for instance, what happens to Gideon’s body after her death? This leaves Muir ample opportunity to weave the events of Gideon into other novels in the series.

Gideon the Ninth is the first novel and is told from the perspective of a character who has little idea of the world at large: Gideon has spent her whole life as an indentured servant of the Ninth House and only knows the sword and how to fight. Gideon’s limited perspective allows Muir to gesture at a larger world beyond Gideon’s perspective that can be explored later. Muir leaves large holes in our understanding of Gideon’s world because Gideon herself does not yet understand everything.