Gideon the Ninth (The Locked Tomb #1), by Tamsyn Muir

  The beginning of Gideon the Ninth is very exciting: a world of necromancers locked in apparent eternal decay, served by undead skeletons that just barely maintain the status quo. Powerful magicians living in crumbling crypts and eating slop. I honestly thought it was some subtle jibe regarding AI.

  However, this quickly turns into a completely different genre: an escape room/whodunnit that also reveals the scale of the "universe" is incredibly small. Something cataclysmic happened to people, if these are even people, and no one seems to be aware of it, locked in ridiculous feudal relationships in a tiny empire. What's going on?!

  Unfortunately, Tamsyn Muir doesn't really explain that at all, instead focusing on the sister-like rivalry between the main protagonists, with the obligatory lesbian romance undertones that are thankfully not explored, since it would have meant nothing in this particular story context.

  Bottom line: a really intriguing start, leading to an unexplainably shallow world with a plot that was frankly ridiculous in any setting. I liked the characters quite a lot, but the story was absurd. I liked reading it, but I will not continue the series and I can't recommend it.