The second novel in the Locked Tomb series, and follow-up to the widely-acclaimed GIDEON THE NINTH.
A worthy follow-up, populated with similarly engaging and well-drawn characters. Muir's prose is very good, and flows nicely.
I enjoyed this novel and the first book. I can't say I loved it as much as many other people have, but it is nevertheless an entertaining and enjoyable read.

I absolutely loved Gideon the Ninth, so I was so excited to read the next book in the series. Harrow the Ninth is a surprisingly completely different experience but so worthwhile. This one really makes you work. The timeline jumps around, there are some new characters that aren't fully identified at first, and you can't always trust the characters' memories. I enjoyed seeing Harrow grow in this book and can't wait to revisit this world again in Alecto the Ninth. I've been recommending this series to anyone who enjoys fantasy.

So, the thing about Harrow the Ninth is that it is completely fucking incomprehensible. On purpose. It's also kind of brilliant.

But like, here's the thing. You don't realize that it's brilliant until after the fact, and the only reason I made it through the whole book for there to be an after the fact, is because I looked up spoilery articles and trawled reddit subforums for - I kid you not - hours. I read detailed summaries. I read discussion threads. I read theories. See, I'm the kind of reader who loathes being confused. Seriously, nothing will get me to DNF a book faster; it's the main reason I was so frustrated with Gideon the Ninth. So, when I started this book and immediately felt myself sink into total confusion, I was like, fuck it, we're going to Spoiler City.

And, well, that worked. Even all those reddit subthreads I was trawling suggested that this book really only works on a reread, when you understand everything and so can appreciate all the little hints and convoluted plot. And it's true; had I read this book without knowing anything, I either would have DNF'd it within two chapters or I would have soldiered on while constantly wanting to claw my own eyes out. As it happens, I went in fully spoiled regarding the narrative structure and all the major reveals, and I had a blast.

Don't get me wrong; I am still extremely confused about a great many things, though I have reached that point where I literally don't know what I'm supposed to not know. Am I confused because I didn't pick up on certain hints in this book? Am I confused because this book raised more questions than it answered? Who even knows.

That said, with my confusion significantly minimized, I was able to sit back and enjoy what makes this book - and this series as a whole, really - truly awesome. The characters are all brilliant: sharply drawn and utterly unique even when there are so many of them. Even in Gideon the Ninth, I never had trouble keeping track of the myriad of characters because they're all so fleshed out and vibrant. The writing is absolutely fucking exquisite - sharp and erudite and clever and humorous. I love the way Tamsyn Muir manipulates the English language.

And then there's the memes. There's an honest to god "none pizza with left beef" joke in here and it made no sense but it fucking destroyed me. There's also the homage to fandom and fandom culture; the entire book is essentially a "Five Things/Five Times" fic. It doesn't surprise me that this series seems to be hitting very close to home for people who grew up immersed in fandom. This is why, despite my many issues with these books, I can't help but love them fiercely, in a way that kind of defies objective analysis, because they feel like a celebration of the fandom nostalgia of my youth.

And there's the queer rep, the very casual on-page queerness, and more than that, the complexity of it. Queer women in Harrow the Ninth are messy and their relationships with one another are not wholesome or even necessarily healthy, but they are given space to be complete and total disasters in a way that is rarely seen in genre fiction. All of Harrow and Ianthe's interactions were utterly delightful in a way that also made my skin crawl, and all the implications about the sort of relationship Harrow might have had to Gideon was the stuff of tragedy and high drama.

So, yes, I do think this book is brilliant, and I think it's done things that have never been done before, and I can totally see it spawning its own devoted fandom, and I hope it wins a Hugo next year, but I can also completely understand why some people might absolutely despite it, because a part of me does hate how purposely inscrutable it all is. Part of me hates the pacing and the unnecessary length, even as another part of me loves just getting to experience the writing and characters. What can I say, it's complicated. There's a reason this book took me nearly three months to finish.

But. At the end of it all, it's a book that engenders so much emotion from me, whether it's delight or frustration, and it is a book that has left me reeling and pondering and theorizing, and that is no small thing, to permanently embed yourself in a reader's brain space, rent free. So. Here's to a thrilling and equally mind-blowing conclusion.

I was wrong. Gideon the Ninth didn’t need a sequel. 

Or maybe it did, and it just didn’t get the one it needed or deserved. 

I’m not sure what changed between the first and second book in this series, as the tone is nearly the same and the topic is the natural continuation of Gideon’s story, but something went very wrong plot-wise that left me wanting. 

Though the book has a similar feel and adjusts well into Harrow’s voice rather than Gideon’s, it misses badly on most of the aspects that made the first story in the series so good. The subtle, rough humor of the first story is gone here, replaced by try-hard gallows humor that doesn’t land and in jokes that don’t seem to have any Ins to tell them to. 

The story is slow and repetitive, and ultimately doesn’t do all that well at differentiating itself from the first book in ways that matter. 

We all know Muir is an excellent writer. That shined through in the first book and creeps in even in this lackluster sequel, though here it’s evident only in the words and sentences themselves rather than the content. 

I wish this had been better, as I had quite looked forward to diving back into this world. Alas, some sequels are just not meant to be.

Much like Gideon's book before, this was jumbled and chaotic - albeit intentionally. Harrow is the most unreliable of narrators, which the events of Gideon the Ninth have only amplified. I finished but don’t think I grasped all that happened? Personally I already dislike the use of 2nd person as a POV and the intentionally jumbled way these stories are told can be hard for me decipher. I like them but don't quite love them. Gideon is an indelible character and while Harrow has potential, i don't think she is to the same level -- yet. Interesting continuation for the series and will require a reread.

Maybe it's a 2.5 but no more than that.

So, Harrow the Ninth is nothing like Gideon the Ninth- this is true of both the character and the books. Much of this book is in the second person, which is perhaps a clue as to the narrator of the book, but I don't much like second person and I didn't like it any more than usual here. It felt like a narrative trick more than an effective way to tell the story.

The story itself is quite dense. Harrow is now a Lyctor, as is Ianthe, and they meet a few more Lyctors once they arrive at the haunted space station that is where the Emperor and his Hands reside. To get to this station, they have to travel interdimensionally through the River, which is sort of a sideways version of reality with lots of hungry ghosts that can eat careless or inexperienced Lyctors. I never really understood the River, honestly, partly because the infodumps in this book are really dense.

So, Harrow is at the space station. Her only companions are Ianthe (who has never shown herself to be someone who plays well with others) three Lyctors who think she is worse than an infant since they're all ten thousand years old (literally) and the Emperor, the one who resurrected this society but apparently did some very bad things while undertaking that task. This whole crew has killed entire planets, and planets can be ghosts too. Vengeful ghost planets intent on their destruction has even these mighty necromancers on the run. As an aside, it seems to me that this entire society is based on some horrible sin of the Emperor's and it seems that the original sin that made this place is eventually going to be the end of it. Think of the Necromongers from Chronicles of Riddick. This is a fundamentally evil society that goes out and conquers worlds and then feeds those worlds to the never-ending need of the necromancers for more magical power, which comes from both the life and death energies of these conquered worlds. I never really understood the life energy vs. death energy magic jargon either (of which there is plenty) but that's what runs everything and necromancers go into their version of techno-babble on the regular, so that kept me a bit confused.

So, there's a complicated universe here that the author has built, and I am interested to see what happens to it.

Characterwise, the Lyctors never really grew on me the way the crew from Gideon the Ninth's book did. Maybe because it's really hard to write realistic ten-thousand-year-old characters. Maybe because they were all either jerks or so inscrutable that I didn't care about them. So I didn't have much to care about. Harrow, unfortunately, was also quite uninteresting really. I was really disappointed in this. In the first book, Harrow was laser-focused on protecting and aiding her house and she was going to to whatever it took to do that. She knew that she was the last scion of the Ninth and if she didn't do something the whole House was doomed. I could respect this drive of hers in the first book. She might not have been nice, but she was razor sharp focused and wicked intelligent, and frankly because of her concern for her House she had more of a moral goal than Gideon ever did.

In this book, Harrow falls totally apart. She broods about her situation, doesn't try to understand the situation well enough to take control of it, drifts off into backstory memories often, and is unfortunately mentally unstable. This pissed me off. Harrow's defining attributes in the first book were ambition, strength, ruthlessness and responsibility. All of these things got kicked out the door here. I hated the voice of the book and I hated what the book did to Harrow. I think in the end the book tried to justify this by hinting that Harrow didn't want to consume Gideon, but frankly I didn't see why she wouldn't do something like that- what was the downside for Harrow? None that she knew of except that she would possibly have to give up total control of herself. She might have cared for Gideon, but the Harrow of Book One would definitely have consumed her for the power to survive and to save her House. So this basis for the book was one I just couldn't believe. I know that the author set things up in order to make Harrow herself the haunted house of this book, but I didn't like it.

In this book, I didn't see any more evidence for a romance between Gideon and Harrow- quite the opposite. Harrow is in love with the Body in the Tomb that Can Never Be Opened (because of course she did open the tomb). Gideon seems to understand this. So again, there doesn't seem to be a reason to spare Gideon from the Lyctor process. In fact, Gideon once mourns that she offered Harrow her life and Harrow "didn't even want it". Gideon is in fact the narrator of the book (it shifts to first person when she gains some agency) and I liked it better when I wasn't in Gideon's head. Third person again, please!

So, I am interested in Alecto and I do want to see what happens next. But if I'd read this book before Gideon, I probably wouldn't have finished the book, much less been willing to continue. I think it's got to be read for the backstory exposition, but I didn't find it to be an enjoyable experience and it ruined a character that I'd liked.

Last year I read Gideon the Ninth and loved it. In fact, it was one of my favorite books of the year. So it was with no small amount of excitement that I anticipated the sequel. I was ecstatic when Tor Publishing agreed to send me an ARC. And then it took me an entire month to read.

Okay, so I don’t actually blame the book for that. I blame quarantine brain. But sadly, I don’t love Harrow the Ninth as much as I did its predecessor. I still really enjoyed it, it just didn’t resonate with me in the same way.

This novel follows Harrowhark from the first book, but she feels like a very different Harrow from the one I’d grown to love. There are very legitimate reasons for this that I can’t share because of spoilers, but it gave the whole story a different vibe.

In fact, I found Harrow to be very passive in this book. Things happen to her and she reacts to them or merely witnesses them. She’s still a total badass and clever as hell, but I wanted her to have a more active role in the plot.

Speaking of plot, I was confused for a good chunk of this book. And yet, the writing is still good so I wasn’t mad about it. It just took me a little longer to connect to the story. The story is told in two timelines and both initially seem to undermine the plot of the first book. Again, there are reasons for this that become clear as the story goes on.

This review seems really critical, but I actually did have a good time with this book. The last third is easily my favorite part. It brings back the humor that was more prevalent in the first book. I wish the first two-thirds were shorter and the last third longer.

Let’s talk about the twists. What’s interesting about Muir’s writing is that the twists themselves are takes on twists that have been done many times before. But because of the way she crafts them and the way necromancy works in this world, its virtually impossible to guess them ahead of time. That makes them fresh and thus very enjoyable.

Every character in this book is morally gray. I love it. They’re out both for the empire and themselves. I think the Emperor is my favorite side character because of how much he feels like just some dude, while also being the most powerful being in the galaxy.

My favorite part of this book is when a certain character from the first book comes back. I missed them so much and was so happy to see them again. While, as with Harrow, I wish they’d played a more active role in the plot, I was mostly happy to hear from this character again.

This book has been really hard to review because it’s so hard to explain, not just because it’s a sequel but because of the kind of story it is. Regardless, I loved this book and am obsessed with this series. I love the way Muir sneaks memes into her dialogue and narration. I love how complex these characters are. I love how well Muir combines science and fantasy. This book was fantastic and I can’t wait for the conclusion next year!

Not for everyone, this sequel to the amazingly fun Gideon the Ninth is a much harder, disjointed journey—but skillfully and purposefully so. I nearly stopped reading several times, but IGideon had been SO GOOD that I fogured the payoff would be worth the slog. It was, but bou was it rough.

This book was excellent. The only flaw, if you can call it one, is that the irreverent voice of Gideon is missing. But the story is excellently plotted and endlessly intriguing. Can't wait for the next one!

The Hero’s Journey consists of leaving a stable and welcoming home, facing trials which grant power and skill, gaining a psychomp who will – one way or another, through some great trauma – force the Hero into a predictable series of sacrifices, culminating in, but not ending with, the sacrifice of the hero themselves. They may return from this journey but they can never go back home again. Not as the person they were.

There is a second path available, however. Let us call it the Anti-Hero’s Journey. The Anti-Hero might begin with an apparently stable beginning, but as their journey commences, we come to understand that there was nothing stable about it. Limned with trauma, betrayal, loss of hope and self, the Anti-Hero begins their journey with nothing left to sacrifice, clawing their way back to a purpose and forming a personality from the wreckage of their torment. They may may come back, but they can never return.

In Tamsyn Muir’s Harrow the Ninth, there is a third way –  a course that never leaves the liminal, rebounding from one interstitial to another with no “there” there. The choice is never normative versus non-normative – what we might think of as sanity or insanity. The choice is between this form of insanity or this other one, with options for a third or fourth form waiting in the wings.

Harrowhark, née Nonagesimus, is a prodigy among necromancers at the very pinnacle of achievement for her House. She should be spending her days in study, in refinement of her skills as the hand of God. Instead she is drowning, insane (by her own admission) and overwhelmed, surrounded by the most amazingly shitty people you can possibly imagine…or, more accurately, that Muir could imagine for you. Harrowhark learns that Immortals are capable of being both appallingly human and incredibly shitty immortals as the world is ending and it does not make her happy.

What made Gideon the Ninth a most delightful mix of filth still exists here. People continue to be peopley, cursing and fucking and eating, (although rarely enjoying anything but the cursing.) Gideon was a brilliant book. Harrow, too, is a brilliant book. It is a completely different brilliance, darker and colder, with at least as many sex jokes, possibly more. Harrow (and Harrow,) also is queer as fuck, in case you were worried at the end of the first book that the lesbian had left the building.

The fact that a stable foundation is both unattainable and, frankly, unimaginable, means that we spend most of this book doing high-wire tricks with our comprehension skills. Going with the flow is an absolute imperative, even as the flow is full of dead bodies and hungry ghosts.

Ratings:

Overall – 10

Harrow the Ninth will be available on August 4th in digital, paperback and hardcover. Alecto the Ninth is tentatively slated (based upon an unconfirmed rumor) for August 2021, but I hope to all the gods and the Necrolord Prime that humanity can hold it together long enough for me to read it. Then we can explode into the sun or be ripped apart by revenants or however we’re going down.

My very sincerest thanks to Tor for the review copy, to Meryl for facilitating, and to Tamsyn Muir for writing these most extraordinarily creative and intelligent books about necromancy. Absolutely stunning.

Review was by Michael Dodd at Grimdark Magazine. I sourced ARC for him from Sarah Reidy @ TOR and have already sent her the review link. She cc:d in Lauren Anesta too.

https://www.grimdarkmagazine.com/review-harrow-the-ninth-by-tamsyn-muir/

I'm going to be really honest in this review - and that's because while I loved, loved this book I'm still not totally sure what the hell happened! It took a completely different direction from were I thought the story was going to go and I'm really happy that it did. I have decided that Tamsyn Muir is not one of those authors that gives their readers exactly what they want. And that is such a refreshing aspect in this genre of literature! Without spoiling anything in the first book and the this one, I'm not going to say much more, but what a mind-bending, explosive ride and I cannot wait for the next one.

This title was reviewed and featured as a "ray of hope" on a recent episode of the Beacon podcast at mainebeacon.com.

A great follow up to Gideon the Ninth. Harrow is a fascinating character and Muir's use of different povs was masterful. I loved the fanfic au section more than I can say.

I am beyond impressed by the author's ability to construct a story. This book was confusing, perplexing, intriguing,  intense, emotional, awe-inspiring and incredible. I cannot adequately express all my thoughts and feelings about this one. 
I love the relationship between Gideon and Harrow. It is one of the best things about the series. I am extremely eager to get my hands on the next book, as I cannot imagine where everything will end. It says a lot about the author that you stick with the story for 400+ pages of utter confusion only to understand so much and still be left with questions. The twists and turns were masterful. They were epic, in that I had about 6 running theories for the first half of the book. The storytelling is wonderful, but be aware that your brain might hurt a little and you will be confused while reading.

Sequel to the celebrated Gideon the Ninth, Harrow the Ninth continues the story of the necromancer of the Ninth House as she has become a Lyctor in service to the Emperor Undying. Harrowhark has what she wanted but she knows something is missing, even if she has no idea what. The dangers around her only get more deadly every day, and Harrow's own memories can't be trusted. A good read for fans of the first novel, but if you were hoping for answers to Gideon's mysteries, you'll have to wait for the sequel.

Wow, wow, wow, is this book ever A LOT. It is just SO MUCH. It took me two weeks to read, which I was definitely not expecting. 

The first 75% of this book is...slippery. Bewildering. Just completely and totally chock full of what-the-fuckery. 

The NPR review of Harrow had this to say, and I cannot top it:

<blockquote>“More: Harrow is brilliant. Harrow is driven. Harrow is paranoid. Harrow is special. What Harrow isn't is fun. Gideon was fun, but Harrow is a walking trauma.” </blockquote>

That’s it. That’s the first 3/4ths of the book. IF you can hang - and I’m the first to admit that it is exhausting and you will question everything, including why the hell you ever decided to read this book - you WILL be rewarded.

I laughed REAL HARD during the last 25%. It’s not any less filled with WTF but...I don’t know, it starts to coalesce in a way that just makes the struggle worth it.

This series does not make sense. I think I’d have to read it 10x to reallllly grok everything that’s happening, and I’m just not willing to put in that amount of work. I still think it’s worth it in the end, but just. I’m cautiously looking forward to Alecto the Ninth...but I know that I’m going to have to be in a VERY SPECIFIC HEADSPACE to deal with it. JFC.

Having read and loved Gideon the Ninth, I was intrigued to see what Tamsyn Muir would give us in this second instalment in the trilogy. What I got was a surreal and baffling exploration of space, the universe and the perils of necromancy, and I loved every minute of it! In this book, the tone is completely different. Whereas Gideon narrates her own story in book one with a sarcastic and wry sense of humour, this instalment is told in multiple perspectives, one of which is in second person, which makes for a really interesting and more challenging reading experience. The narrative also jumps around in time, which adds to the ethereal and dreamlike quality to the writing. I spent a great deal of time not having a clue what was going on, but just revelling in the skill with which Muir has constructed the narrative. Then, in the final third of the book, all of the seemingly disparate elements come together in a joyous and explosive manner that is both incredibly satisfying and sets up beautifully for the final book in the series. I do worry that there will be people who do not jibe with the change of tone here, but what I would say is that I think it is a book that will benefit from multiple readings. Overall, this won't be a book for everyone, given that there is a lot of blood and gore throughout, but I was really impressed by it and will be eagerly awaiting the next instalment.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Way back in February, so long ago that dinosaurs still walked among us and we had to use spider skillets to make baked goods at the flames of an open hearth, the absolute angels at Tor sent me an ARC of Tamsyn Muir’s Harrow the Ninth. It would be hard for me to convey the pure, all-consuming joy that I felt while read Tamsyn Muir’s Harrow the Ninth — hard both because language fails when one attempts to express transcendence, and also because in these quarantimes one struggles to understand happiness.

Still, though, if you cast your mind back through the mists of time, you may recall that in the Before, when one felt the strange and alien emotion Joy, one wished to share it. Which I did! Except not that many people had read Harrow the Ninth yet so I had to track down people on Twitter and badger them into talking to me about Harrow the Ninth for an hour, and that is this podcast.

The Guests

Constance Grady is a culture writer for Vox and fearless leader of the Vox Book Club. Follow her on Twitter!

Bria LaVorgna is the managing editor at Tosche Station and our nation’s most preeminent scholar of the life and works of Dr. Aphra. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram!

Natalie Zutter is a playwright, podcaster, and pop culture critic who writes about (among many things!) TV, books, fan culture. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram and find her at New Play Exchange.

Here are some useful time signatures, if you’d like to avoid being spoiled, get totally spoiled, or listen to some people screaming about That One Thing (lol I’m kidding, there’s no One Thing in this book that’s so specifically outrageous it’s immediately identifiable as The thing):

2:05 – Non-spoilery reactions
12:00 – All the spoilers
47:17 – We address that one threesome

You can get at me on Twitter, email the podcast, and friend me (Gin Jenny) and Whiskey Jenny on Goodreads. As a brand new feature, you can also follow me (Gin Jenny) and Whiskey Jenny on Storygraph! If you like what we do, support us on Patreon. Or if you wish, you can find us on iTunes (and if you enjoy the podcast, give us a good rating! We appreciate it very very much).

Credits
Producer: Captain Hammer
Photo credit: The Illustrious Annalee
Theme song by: Jessie Barbour
Transcripts by: Sharon of Library Hungry

Warning: This review may contain spoilers for Gideon the Ninth, the first book in the Locked Tomb trilogy.

Seriously.

It’s really hard to talk about Harrow the Ninth without major plot reveals from Gideon, though I will do my best. If you haven’t read it yet, well…

First things first. Gideon the Ninth was probably the best book that I read in 2019. Like, hands down. I went all out to try to track down a first printing.

2nd.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Y’all.

Like.

Y’all.

Harrow’s back, but she’s not altogether all together.

She passed the Emperor’s test back at Canaan House. She survived the trials, and solved the mysteries of Lyctorhood. She succeeded, as only the genius Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House could do. She gained supreme necromantic power.

And she lost her mind.

Unless she didn’t.

Now she finds herself on board the Emperor’s space station, preparing for a war the likes of which she never could’ve imagined. God himself is there, the Necrolord Supreme, with the rest of his remaining Lyctors, helping to train Harrow in the use of her newfound abilities. But something, or someone, is stalking Harrow through the halls, bypassing every layer of protection she can come up with. Her talents with skeletal constructs alone will not be enough, and if she can’t fully tap into her Lyctor powers, she will die. Not even God can help her if she can’t acknowledge the reality she faces.

But…

Now she finds herself at Canaan House, arriving for the first time to begin her training to become a Lyctor. The heirs to the other seven houses are there as well, and Teacher bids them welcome as they begin studying the ancient arts of necromancy that will help them to unlock their greatest power. Familiar and wrong as the same time, most seems well until something, or someone, begins to track them, killing them off one by one. Harrow’s cavalier stands as bravely as he can beside her while… wait…

He?

Where’s Gideon?

Tamsyn Muir skillfully ties her timelines together, blending Harrow’s present-day trauma to that of her past, leaving readers to spend much of the novel pondering the necromancer’s reliability as a narrator. Muir provides a much wider view of the world of the nine houses and the magic blending life and death that powers so much of it. New characters and old try their best to help Harrow navigate a vast universe in which she may well be her own worst enemy. Harrow the Ninth is just as difficult to put down as its predecessor, and it left me yearning for the release of Alecto the Ninth, currently scheduled for 2021.

“Are you sure this is how this happened?”

 

“One for the Emperor, first of us all;
One for his Lyctors, who answered the call;
One for his Saints, who were chosen of old;
One for his Hands, and the swords that they
hold.
Two is for discipline, heedless of trial;
Three for the gleam of a jewel or a smile;
Four for fidelity, facing ahead;
Five for tradition and debts to the dead;
Six for the truth over solace in lies;
Seven for beauty that blossoms and dies;
Eight for salvation no matter the cost;
Nine for the Tomb, and for all that was lost.”

Harrow the Ninth is available for purchase tomorrow, August 4th. Gideon the Ninth is available in hardcover, paperback, audio, and digital.

My utmost thanks to NetGalley for providing an eARC of this book in exchange for a fair review. It made 2020 bearable.