Wait how is Gideon the Ninth more peripheral to the Lesbian Space Atrocities genre than Ninefox Gambit? They both tick all your boxes including literally having lesbians committing atrocities in space. The only thing I can think of that would make GtN non-central is that it takes the evil empire as more of a backdrop rather than making imperialism the central object of investigation (in contrast to Baru and A Memory Called Empire) but I would say that that's true of Ninefox Gambit as well, where the main focus is more on the cool magic/tech than on the politics or impact of the empire.
So I probably spoke too strongly about it basically not fitting, but basically I think Gideon isn't that great a fit, but Harrow is basically seamless
I mean first of all because Gideon is a precious cinnamon roll who really has basically never done anything wrong in her life (also, dumb as a bag of rocks) which absolutely does make her kind of unique among the subgenre's protagonists
But also, the setting in Gideon stays pretty opaque throughout. Like, the actual politics in Ninefox are fairly secondary, sure (though not nearly to the degree of Gideon, imo). But things like formation instinct and the remembrances are not exactly subtle in how they tie in themes of hierarchy and oppression and imperialism.
Like 'the whole structure of the empire can only be maintained by regularly 'discovering' and brutally purging new classes of deviants, the torture and execution of whom is a unifying principle of public life. Without this brutality, the whole metaphysic upon which the empire is built upon would collapse" is not a subtle piece of worldbuilding.
