2023-10-19 2:55:30 ¶ ●

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Hi, Chekhov! How well would you say Gideon the Ninth works as a stand-alone novel? My Queer book club was looking for suggestions and I thought "hey, this might be a great way to finally read that thing I have been meaning to read" but I don't want to ask them to read an entire series, you know?

## Yes, but only if everyone is cool with being REALLY upset for the foreseeable future.

Narratively is Gideon good as a stand-alone book? Technically.

In terms of story, is Gideon a good book to read if you never intend to read the other books?

# No.

You will be very angry. For a long time. Until you read the other books.

Reading Gideon the Ninth is like traipsing through the forest towards a cliff’s edge. And at the end of the book, you fall off the cliff. And if you stop there, in your mind…. you will forever be falling from that cliff, because you’re afraid to hit the bottom.

But you have to. You have to hit the bottom. Because there’s interesting stuff down there. And even though it hurts, the story continues beyond the cliff.