Title: Harrow the Ninth
Author: Tamsyn Muir
Publisher: Macmillan-Tor/Forge
Pub date: August 2020
Series: The Unlocked Tomb series, book 2
Genre: Science fiction
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.
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?
My thoughts
I could not get my grabby hands on Gideon the Ninth fast enough when I heard it described as necromancer lesbians in space. And I was not disappointed. Tamsyn Muir wrote a fantastic gothic locked room mystery, peopled with aristocrats vying to be the Undying Emperor’s new Lyctor. In the process, she managed to crush my heart with the ending.
So I was Very Excited to receive an ARC of Harrow the Ninth. I needed to know what happened next. And oh my Necro Overlord, this was not the book I was expecting. It was better. Muir could have done the expected and written more of the same. We could’ve watched Harrow train and hone her powers, mentored by Emperor and his three remaining warriors.
But oh no, Muir gives us second person POV, switching it up with first and third. Harrow’s body and mind are failing her so she’s an unreliable narrator. The book moves around in time so when events from Gideon the Ninth are revisited, you get a different perspective.
And there’s still that coming, unwinnable battle looming.
The storyline was bonkers, the writing exquisite. The shoutout to Starbucks had me gigglesnorting. This book is a rare and beautiful gem.
Your thoughts
Have you read Gideon the Ninth? I was crzy excited to read Harrow the Ninth. What book are you excited to read now? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
Other books
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The Locked Tomb series begins with Gideon the Ninth. You must read it first to fully understand and appreciate the writing and events in Harrow the Ninth.
This Is How You Lose the Time War would appear to be the polar opposite of the Unlocked Tomb books. It’s a lean bit of book but it’s also about vast space empires waging war and the small intimate relationships that happen against a backdrop of sweeping grandeur.
Laura Reads Books 