Harrow the Ninth

by Tamsyn Muir

I loved Gideon the Ninth and was surprised that I liked this sequel even more. Its plot is spun a bit more loosely: think less tightly constructed puzzlebox and more standard genre tale, without the rigidity of the archetypes-bounce-against-each-other Homestuck model (a crucible, I learned from my time with the inestimable podcast series Homestuck Made This World, in which the author was forged) that made many of the monologues in Gideon seem like Monokuma might interrupt to express some plot.

Harrow the Ninth expands events into a larger scale without lessening the interpersonal frictions, and I cannot explain how the book does it while being partially presented in the second person <spoiler> Kinda </spoiler>. It does second person voice so well that I eventually smoothed over the structure in my brain, not even clocking it as anything other than standard writing format, until the structure itself turned out to be part and parcel to the twisting reveal of the novel.

You had long passed the point where you needed to think about it. “The body enters a senseless state. The Lyctor doesn’t perceive anything around them in any sense; even their necromancy fails. Instead, the secondary soul comes to the fore–the protection mechanism–that can wield a sword even if their mind is gone…without conscious thought or awareness of its own, but with perfect sword-hand.”

I’ll say the same thing I said about Harrow that I did about Gideon: this book is both good and fun to read. What else is there?

Addendum: I overheard a cohort of age-indistinct people recommending these books to each other in Black Bird Books [https://blackbirdsf.com/], which was neat.