Reddit Post by u/pacificselkie on May 16th 2022

Welcome one and all to the first week of Hot Tomb Summer! This week we are discussing the first six chapters of Gideon the Ninth. Below you’ll find summaries of each chapter and a few thoughts and questions to help kick off the conversation, although please post with your own questions and observations as well! When making a post, please use spoiler tags for anything referencing future events in either Gideon the Ninth of Harrow the Ninth.

Chapter One

In our opening chapter, we are introduced to Gideon Nav, an 18-year-old resident of the Ninth House who is attempting to escape her home and enlist in the Cohort. She has crafted a plan to escape via shuttle and the book opens with her waiting at the landing area for her shuttle to arrive. A bell rings which Gideon notes is a summons for muster. As she waits, she is approached by two members of the Ninth House who attempt to convince her to abandon her plan of escape: Marshall Crux and Captain Aiglamane. We also get a peak at the relationship between Gideon and the Lady of the Ninth House as Gideon disparages her to both Crux and Aiglamane.

Regarding world building, we learn that the Ninth House is on a planet that is extremely distant from the sun. The residents of the House live within a fissure (man-made?) on the planet, while on the planet’s surface, the prison exists as a “bubble installation set halfway up into the atmosphere”. We also learn that at something has happened on the Ninth House to all of it’s children with the exception of Gideon, the heir to the house, and a boy.

Chapter Two

We are officially introduced to Harrowhark as she comes to Gideon in one last effort to stop Gideon from leaving. Her nickname for Gideon is “Griddle”. After a bout of verbal sparring and negation, Gideon and Harrowhark agree to a fair fight in which the terms are that if Gideon wins, she may leave immediately with a commission to join the Cohort; if Harrow wins, Gideon may leave with the commission after attending muster. Harrow removes all of her bonewear, which is used to fuel her necromancy, but it is then revealed that she buried bones all over the landing zone in preparation for Gideon’s escape. Harrow uses her hidden bones to defeat Gideon and has her taken down to the sanctuary for muster, during which Gideon passes out.

Chapter Three

Gideon awakens in the sanctuary during prayer. We are introduced to Ortus, the house cavalier, his mother, the great-aunts, and Harrow’s parents. We learn that Harrow’s parents have been dead for years and are being necromanticly puppeted by Harrow. Only Crux, Aiglamene and Gideon know this truth. Harrow reveals that she has received a summons from the Emporer of the Nine Houses, requesting that Harrowhark and Ortus be sent to study how to become Lyctors of the Emporer. Ortus’ mother protests at this and is verbally assaulted by Crux. Harrow reveals to Gideon that she cannot leave the Ninth House with the commission because Ortus and his mother have stolen the shuttle to flee to the Eighth House.

Chapter Four

Gideon is depressed after her escape plan is thwarted. Harrowhark summons her from her self-imposed isolation to join her in the catacombs. There, Aiglamene joins them and Harrow and Aiglamene propose to Gideon that she be trained to be Harrow’s cavalier to replace Ortus for the Lyctor trials. After much protest, Gideon eventually agrees.

Chapter Five

A second letter arrives from the Emporer, stating that the Lyctor Trials will occur at the First House, a place that Gideon complains no one actually lives at. Harrow confirms that the Ninth House is lacking in resources and struggling; she is concerned about maintaining the proper image when they meet the other Houses during the trials.

Chapter Six

Gideon spends the next three months being trained with a rapier by Aiglamene. Gideon overhears Harrow referring to the trials as a competition and we learn that the Third house is rich in resources and the Second house is heavily involved with the military. The day comes when Harrow and Gideon are to leave and Gideon realizes that her feelings about the Ninth house and leaving it are more complex than she thought. She also sees that Harrow is genuinely crying about leaving the Ninth house. The chapter ends with them entering the shuttle to depart.

Thoughts/Takeaways/Discussion Starters

• Tamsyn uses descriptive language to great effect. What are some of your favorite lines? A personal favorite of mine is when Tamsyn describes the assignment of Ortus to Harrow as her cavalier. “Coupling him to Harrow had been rather like yoking a doughnut to a cobra.”

• We could easily make a stand-alone post dedicated to the religious themes, symbols and inversions that Tamsyn uses. What were some that you noticed?

• Gideon and Harrowhark’s relationship is…strained, to put it mildly. Thinking back to your relationships at 17/18 years old, can you relate to either Harrow or Gideon?

• Tamsyn has chosen to subtly reveal details about the Locked Tomb universe by simply dropping the reader into the narrative and allowing them to figure the world out through context clues. I noted some of the worldbuilding from the first chapter. What are some additional things have we learned about the Locked Tomb universe so far?

• What are some of your favorite moments or character interactions so far? Has there been a moment that made you realize you were hooked on the story?

SPOILERS BElLOW

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Re-Read Discussion Thoughts

• Gideon is a Christ-like figure in the series. Specifically in the first six chapters, I noted that it could be argued that Gideon was born through immaculate conception, having been grown in a bio-container. On the Locked Tomb podcast, it was also noted that Crux, Aiglamene and Harrowhark coming to Gideon at the start of the book could be mirroring the 3 temptations offered to Jesus by the Devil as he wandered in the desert for 40 days and 40 nights. Were there any other allusions to Gideon being a Christ figure that you all noticed in these chapters?

• Theory time! Upon re-read, the foreshadowing of various events is so obvious! We have references to mixing bone meal in breakfast, Gideon making mention of her own death, Harrow explicitly stating that her heart is interred on the Ninth House. Is there anything that you noticed that could be further foreshadowing for events that might occur in Nona and Alecto?

• Many have noted that the prayer quoted in Chapter 3 essentially describes the inverse of Jesus’s death and resurrection, and by the end of Harrow the Ninth, we are to understand that Alecto is the being locked away in the Ninth House. Could this mean that Alecto is also a Jesus-like figure? And if that is true, then could Gideon be seen as the second coming of Jesus, whose return is supposed to herald the Rapture? Not sure where else to go with this other than further evidence that by the end of this series there are going to be some world changing/ending events!

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END OF SPOILERS

Link to full discussion on Reddit with Comments