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Publisher: Tor.com
Publish Date: 4 August 2020
Page Count: 512 pages
This is one of those times I wish I’d read more reviews before jumping into a book because I certainly wasn’t expecting Harrow the Ninth to be such a challenging read.
In this second instalment of The Locked Tomb trilogy, Muir has made some divisive and ambitious creative choices. Every other chapter is written in second-person with an unknown narrator, the main character is possibly delusional, and there are frequent flashbacks that directly contradict the events of Gideon the Ninth.
The story kicks off where Gideon ended, with the Necrolord Prime asking Harrow to help him in his war against a mysterious enemy. Instead of preparing her for battle, Harrow’s teachers dismiss her as a lost cause as she questions her sanity and is convinced someone is trying to kill her.
I wrote a five-star review of Gideon the Ninth a couple of months ago because, despite the significant hype, I was surprised by how much fun I had reading it. The early chapters were a little jarring with the lack of scene-setting, but the story soon finds its feet, becoming what is essentially a game of Cluedo: Halloween Edition. This is an entirely unexpected direction given the sheer scope and uniqueness of Muir’s concept: a far-future, undead planetary system fuelled by necromancy. There are tiny little hints of a wider sci-fi setting, but these are left unused in the main story.
The concluding chapters of Gideon were all fast-paced action, and I was expecting Harrow to pick up from there, showing off the full scope of the necromantic empire and maintaining this new energy. Instead, Harrow follows a similar format to the first book, but my confusion lasted a lot longer and, perhaps because I am a rather impatient reader, the payoff wasn’t quite worth it this time.
I never fell into a rhythm with the story, due to a number of key questions that came up in the first pages that aren’t answered until over 70% of the way through the book. Leaving narrative breadcrumbs is great, but leave too many and you have a mess, not a trail.
I can reassure you that the final chapters are epic, with some mind-blowing ideas and impressive storytelling, and all loose ends tied up fairly neatly. I will still be reading the final instalment of the series, but perhaps with a more open mind.
There are also many fun things to discover throughout Harrow, notably the most messed up take on FTL travel since Event Horizon.
Muir is a fantastic writer with a unique style, completely unafraid to go into new territory. I fully understand why many people will love this book, but for me, it felt like a test of endurance before getting to the juicy bits.
If you’re happy to wade into the insanity and trust Muir to pull you out just as you’re about to drown, then absolutely give this book a go. Harrow has a lot of parallels with The Stars are Legion, so Hurley fans in particular should check out this series.
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Jake is Reading 
“Leaving narrative breadcrumbs is great, but leave too many and you have a mess, not a trail.”
Love this line! Great review, as always.
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Thank you! Originally I went on to talk about constipated ducks, but realised I was taking it too far…
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It sounds interesting but I think you need to be in the right mindset for it
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Yeah I probably could have just said that instead of this weirdass review 😂
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No, haha! This type of a book requires a good mindset but it’s not always enough, it might be eg just trying too hard.
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Oh that’s interesting, sorry to hear you didn’t enjoy it as much as the first one! Good to hear your honest thoughts about it though 🙂
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It all comes down to expectations a lot of the time, doesn’t it!
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Simply put, this series is not my cup of tea. But thanks for sharing it must have been hard to finish especially when it failed to equal the first installment.
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I totally salute the author for something so different, but as a reading experience it wasn’t my favourite. I think I was expecting it to be more in the style of V weapon
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I struggled with Gideon but I still want to read Harrow because she was my favorite character of the first book. I’ve heard from a lot of reviewers that the first half is very confusing and that the structure of the book is very weird so I am already preparing myself to struggle with this one as well haha
It’s a shame that it was bit of a let down for you compared to the first book. Even if I don’t really enjoy Muir’s writing style, she isn’t afraid of trying new things. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t!
Hope your next work is working better for you. 🙂
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Thank you! If you’re going in prepared, you might enjoy it more than I did! I also just checked Goodreads and the vast majority of almost 3,000 reviews are 5-star, so mine seems to be the less common opinion 😂
I will say though, don’t expect to get more of the same Harrow from the first book, she’s quite different in this one.
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Brilliant post! I love how you’ve phrased this – it was a complicated (and confusing omg) book. Honestly I preferred Harrow to Gideon in the first book and I was really interested to hear her side of the story. Although it didn’t help that we couldn’t trust her narrative. I totally agree – it started slow, but the final chapters were worth it for me. Here’s my review: https://hundredsandthousandsofbooks.blog/2020/09/11/harrow-the-ninth-to-read-in-the-event-of-your-imminent-obsession/
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Ah, thank you! It’s a tough book to read *and* to review! I’m glad to hear it worked for you! Definitely interested to see how the series will be wrapped up
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