The way the story is told kind of reminds me of the Soulsborne video games. Everything is obfuscated in a way that basically requires you to find a community to theorycraft and hypothesise wtf is happening! I think that was probably Tamsyn Muir’s intent, given her growing up in the era of Homestuck. It’s a shame, like you said, that some of the community is a bit toxic, because it’s otherwise a really fun experience to share and speculate with likeminded readers!
I’m a big fan of the way that this series does not hold your hand. I get bored if my hand is held too much, because I feel like the author is simply telling me stuff rather than letting me figure out the mystery on my own. I love it when books have some sort of world building mystery to solve, and Gideon scratched that itch in a major way. I would honestly rather have a book that is a massively complex jigsaw puzzle than a book that tells me what’s going on. Here’s to hoping that someday a book is written entirely as a code/puzzle that I can spend an entire year solving. I kind of felt that way about Gideon, but only a little. I personally didn’t find it that difficult to piece this series together, but this is coming from me who often goes out of my way to find really complex puzzle things to work on. For example, when I read Nona and saw weird numbers, I immediately knew what was going on and started writing it down to solve later. But I know there are plenty of people who have read this series who don’t pick up on that even after tons of rereads, and that’s ok too. That’s what the reddit/tumblr fandom is for.
I love Gideon. I haven’t continued with the series because I felt so satisfied with ending the world with that book. I’ll probably eventually read the rest but I’m in no rush.
Harrow the ninth is my favourite book ever ❤ My relationship to these books are not complicated what so ever. I don’t get all of it but I just love them. I don’t engage a lot with the fandom online and where I live (Sweden) they are not very well known so I struggle to convince my book club to read Gideon :)
I’m in the love-the-Locked-Tomb camp, and I also love tragic, determined Harrow as a character, so I came to recommend Saint Death’s Daughter by CSE Cooney, which is very much Harrow, but more found family than doomed galactic domination!
With Gideon I was kinda just along for the ride but I struggled with Harrow and I'm still struggling with Nona. Regardless, I do very much like these books.
For any Locked Tomb lovers who enjoy the humor, I HIGHLY recommend Alex Marshall's Crimson Empire trilogy. A Crown For Cold Silver is the first book and it follows Zosia, an old woman who led The Cobalt Company in a rebellion against the empire 25yrs ago with the help of her Five Villains (aka generals). She became queen, hated it, made a deal with the woman that came to assassinate her, and faked her death, disappearing into obscurity. Now that assassin is the queen, Zosia lives in a little village with her husband, and when the town is massacred by Crimson Cavalry, she hears that the daughter of one of her generals is reforming the Cobalt Company, and Zosia goes to join up and wage war once again. The series is the most hysterical shit I've ever read. It's just so damn funny, and I highly recommend thr audiobooks as well since Angele Masters amplifies the humor even more with her delivery. The book also has more povs that Zosia, and it's really queer too! If you like how funny Locked Tomb is, you'll def like this trilogy too.
I had just started Nona when I learned that the Bone Season had been re-released -- so I stopped 25% into Nona to re-read those four books. Sigh. I expect to resume Nona when I finish The Mask Falling in a week-ish or so. I thoroughly enjoyed Gideon and Harrow. I was struggling with Nona. Hoping once I really get into the book, that I will get more excited. I will most likely re-read eventually.
I've only read Gideon so far and i have been putting off doing a video recap because im definitely going to miss details! and i dont want to join with the fandom haha. im hesitant to start Harrow until we know when to expect Alecto because im going to forget it all by the time it comes out.
I have only read Gideon but definitely struggled with it! I’m glad it’s not just me! I liked some parts but also hated how confused I was for it all. I have wanted to go back a few times bc I’m curious but I figured I’d wait and see if it stuck the landing
I've only read Gideon and I agree that it was confusing. It didn't help that I didn't realise there was a list of characters (and which house they all belonged to) at the beginning of the book, which would have made my read-through much easier if I'd realised it was there. I deliberately haven't read Harrow or any of the others because I still don't quite understand Gideon. I will have to go find someone's explanation of the book now!
I loved Gideon the Ninth! It was a breath of fresh air for a fantasy fan, and probably my personal favourite book of the decade. But I have to say, while GtN's "Focus character who doesn't care about worldbuilding" was intruiging, by the time I got to Nona, it was exhausting. May just be me being a Worldbuilding first, Story second kinda person, I just have a different taste than the author. Another thing I personally didn't like was all the back and forth switching between narrators in HtN and Ntn. I know, it's important backstory, and I did find especially the John chapters super interesting, but it was still very distractiong. By the end of NtN, I was just really annoyed with Nona and wanted my favourite cool goth nun Harrow back. That being said, I do love the series. Like I said, Gideon is my favourite out of the three, and I did cosplay her at a con this year. Definitely waiting for when Alecto is translated into my language tho (which not even Nona is by now), simply because it'll be easier to understand and also I already dread all the different bone names in English.
I am 100% with you about a complicated relationship with the Locked Tomb. I've listened to all of the books on audio (Moira Quirk is superb) and then eye-read Gideon. I absolutely loved Gideon the Ninth but agree with you that I want the author to make me feel smart by giving me just enough information to form good hypotheses about what's going to happen. The obfuscation got a bit old. Still, I will likely eye-read Harrow and Nona and read Alecto when it comes out. Complicated indeed!
I don’t think its you, I think sometimes if things are purposefully convoluted that’s both a pro and con depending on a reader but it doesn’t objectively make it better or you dumb. Its like how people obsess over Malazan’s worldbuilding exposition or lack there of
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