Matthew's Journal

Gideon is an orphan, and indentured to the service of the Ninth House, one of the houses of necromancers who work for the Emperor. She really wants to escape the Ninth's planet and to go and join the Cohort to fight. There are very few other children on the planet; one of them is Harrow the heir to the Ninth House, who Gideon hates with a passion. Necromancers in spaaace!

I don't want to spoil the plot by saying anything more about what happens. There is horror, humour, violence (really quite a lot of violence at times), a twisty and confusing plot, and a ruins-of-former-glory sort of setting. I was a bit worried by the lengthy dramatis personae that the book opens with (and did sometimes find myself flicking back to it), but actually the characters are very well drawn. The plot is twisty and exciting, and it's very well written.

I didn't quite buy some of the developments of the central relationship, though - perhaps a limitation of only ever getting Gideon's point of view. But on the whole, a very entertaining read. The sequel is just out, which is tempting, but I should get more on top of my to-read first...