Reading: Harrow the Ninth
Aug. 21st, 2020 07:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
white_hartI thought I was going to gulp down Tamsyn Muir's Harrow the Ninth (the second in the trilogy that began with Gideon the Ninth) but in fact I found that it wasn't a book I wanted to rush, or even could have if I'd chosen. It's an intricate, elegantly-crafted puzzle box of a book, with multiple strands of narrative, and it certainly felt worth taking the time to appreciate it properly.
Harrow the Ninth has two main narrative strands; one following on from Gideon the Ninth, and the other revisiting the events of the first book, but from a different perspective, and, it gradually emerges, with certain significant changes. As the two narratives unfold in parallel, the underlying plot starts to emerge for the reader, although not necessarily for the characters who don't have the advantage of seeing both. It's a complex book, with some dark moments, but also some very funny ones (plus a whole sequence where, for Reasons, a character experiences a number of AUs of their own life), and Muir writes beautiful, compelling prose.
I know that Gideon the Ninth was extremely Marmitey, and I expect that Harrow the Ninth will be as well; like Gideon, it's full of references to high and low culture and internet memes (many of which completely passed me by, to be honest), and one of the narrative strands is in second person which I know really irritates some people, though I don't mind it in general and think it can be used in really clever ways (which I'd say it is here). I loved it, and can't wait for the third book to be published.
Harrow the Ninth has two main narrative strands; one following on from Gideon the Ninth, and the other revisiting the events of the first book, but from a different perspective, and, it gradually emerges, with certain significant changes. As the two narratives unfold in parallel, the underlying plot starts to emerge for the reader, although not necessarily for the characters who don't have the advantage of seeing both. It's a complex book, with some dark moments, but also some very funny ones (plus a whole sequence where, for Reasons, a character experiences a number of AUs of their own life), and Muir writes beautiful, compelling prose.
I know that Gideon the Ninth was extremely Marmitey, and I expect that Harrow the Ninth will be as well; like Gideon, it's full of references to high and low culture and internet memes (many of which completely passed me by, to be honest), and one of the narrative strands is in second person which I know really irritates some people, though I don't mind it in general and think it can be used in really clever ways (which I'd say it is here). I loved it, and can't wait for the third book to be published.
no subject
Date: 2020-08-22 06:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-08-22 08:37 am (UTC)