Oct 24

Oct 24 Harrow the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #2)

Author: Tamsyn Muir
Publisher: Tor.com
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

Click above to buy this book from my Bookshop.org shop, which supports independent bookstores (not Amazon). You can also find it via your favorite indie bookstore here.

Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

Cover Description

***Description is spoiler for Gideon the Ninth***

She answered the Emperor's call.

She arrived with her arts, her wits, and her only friend.

In victory, her world has turned to ash.

After rocking the cosmos with her deathly debut, Tamsyn Muir continues the story of the penumbral Ninth House in Harrow the Ninth, a mind-twisting puzzle box of mystery, murder, magic, and mayhem. Nothing is as it seems in the halls of the Emperor, and the fate of the galaxy rests on one woman's shoulders.

Harrowhark Nonagesimus, last necromancer of the Ninth House, has been drafted by her Emperor to fight an unwinnable war. Side-by-side with a detested rival, Harrow must perfect her skills and become an angel of undeath — but her health is failing, her sword makes her nauseous, and even her mind is threatening to betray her.

Sealed in the gothic gloom of the Emperor's Mithraeum with three unfriendly teachers, hunted by the mad ghost of a murdered planet, Harrow must confront two unwelcome questions: is somebody trying to kill her? And if they succeeded, would the universe be better off?

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

TL;DR Review

I was lukewarm on Gideon the Ninth, and unfortunately I wasn’t a huge fan of Harrow either. The ending was good — but you spend the whole book not just curious, but deeply lost and confused. I didn’t find it much fun.

For you if: You deeply loved Gideon the Ninth and count yourself a part of the super fanclub.

Full Review

Gideon the Ninth and Tamsyn Muir’s Locked Tomb series has a huge cult following. (With a premise like “goth lesbian necromancers in space,” how could it not??) I read Gideon last year and was lukewarm on it — I thought it was fun, but a bit overwhelming in its worldbuilding and sloppy in its convenient plot choices. Still, I didn’t hate it, and Harrow is nominated for the Hugo, so I figured I’d keep going.

Unfortunately, I didn’t really enjoy Harrow all that much. The overwhelming worldbuilding problem got even worse. I found the whole book to be completely disorienting and confusing — not like a puzzle or a treasure hunt, but like being dropped in the middle of the forest and left alone to find the way out. The ending was exciting and better and did answer questions — and it did go partway to redeeming it from being a complete flop in my mind — but I’m still not 100% sure that I know what happened in most of the book.

On the one hand, I can understand why it is this way. The main character is wading through and emerging out of major trauma, and no doubt this is a picture of what that can look like. But as a reader, it really just wasn’t fun. It sometimes got to the point where I just stopped trying to follow along and hoped I would catch up later.

I’m not sure if I’ll keep going with the series. I do really love these characters; there’s no denying that the characters is where Muir shines. And I do want to know what happens. But I think it will depend on how the next one is received and whether it keeps getting nominated for awards.