strange and random happenstance

Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Published by: Tordotcom
Publication Date: September 13th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 480 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy

Six months ago Nona was born into a body not her own. But it's hers for now. And for that time she fantasizes about her birthday party. All the dogs, especially Noodle, could come, as could the kids from school; Hot Sauce and her gang, Honesty, Born in the Morning, Beautiful Ruby, and Kevin. But if The Angel could come, that would be the best gift ever. But this assumes that Nona and the planet New Rho still exist in the coming days. A Resurrection Beast hangs in the sky, trapped between reality and the River, ready to devour the planet at a moments notice once it fully materializes. The insurgents, Blood of Eden, have surrounded the remaining Cohort barracks. It is in the Emperor's best interest to destroy New Rho and it's inhabitants so that the Resurrection Beast doesn't become more powerful. This is unacceptable to Blood of Eden. Some of the insurgents think the Emperor will arrive to do what needs to be done, which means that Blood of Eden will have a chance to eliminate their enemy. But the problem is the Emperor Undying is literally undying. The only way to destroy him is to open the Locked Tomb, where Alecto's body lies sleeping. Which is why Nona is important. She is the weapon they have been waiting for. Or at least they think she is. Whoever is piloting the body is up for debate, but the body is that of Harrowhark Nonagesimus. And Harrow could do it. Years earlier Harrow worked her way into the Locked Tomb and fell in love with the still body of Alecto. If Harrow could do that then, think what she could do now? But Nona cannot. Nona lives a happy life with Pyrrha, Cam, and Palamedes. They are a family. Sure, they help Blood of Eden, and try to get Nona to use Harrow's powers, but most days Nona goes to school as a teacher's assistant and walks Noodle for The Angel. If she's lucky they go swimming. Each and every day she's happy to be alive. And when she sleeps she has odd dreams. Dreams that Cam and Palamedes want to hear about before she can forget them. Dreams that might signal time is running out. Because the body Nona is in is failing. The foreign soul is being rejected. The time to open to tomb is now. But can they succeed?

When you pick up each book in this series you have no idea what you're going to get. There is no through line in style, other than they could all loosely be classified as "space operas." We start with a haunted house, move on to a haunted human on a space station, the closest to an actual space opera we've gotten so far, and here, with Nona the Ninth, we go full on dystopia. And my guess is this dystopian book, which expanded the trilogy into a tetralogy, was a direct results of Covid. There's just too much isolation, masking, temperatures taken, questions about schooling, to be a coincidence. And much like the pandemic, it's something we could have done without in our lives. This book literally adds nothing to the series, unless Tamsyn Muir's goal was to make the weirdest post-apocalyptic version of Freaky Friday ever, well then, mission accomplished! Two thumbs way up. Because this entire book is a body swap bottle episode of a TV show stretched beyond endurance. It's not just who's in whose body, it's how many are in there and do we even know who they are? We have cavalier Pyrrha in the Lyctor Gideon's body, we have Cam and Palamedes sharing Camilla's body, and as for Nona? Well, it's Harrow's body but as for who is inhabiting it? It's not Harrow. Or Gideon. Despite what Cam or Palamedes think. So the majority of this book is marveling in Nona's innocence while trying to figure out who she really is. Yes, we get a fuller understanding of why the Emperor isn't liked by the people he saved. Yes, we see another side to the universe. But did we need to? No. Did we need hundreds of pages in a war zone that could be destroyed at any instant just so I don't know, we could feel what the common person feels instead of those enshrined within the Nine Houses? No we did not. Also, hell no to dream interpretations. I guess, what I'm trying to say is I feel cheated. I didn't like Gideon the Ninth when I started to read it and I fell in love with it. I gave it a chance and it paid off. Since then I've given the next two volumes a chance and they haven't paid off. It feels like this series is spiraling out of control and Tamysn Muir is more interested in trying out other genres and styles than in actually bothering to do what is right by her story. Tell the story. Tell it simply. Or, as simply as can be done. But don't try your readers patience because maybe they won't give Alecto the Ninth a chance.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alecto the Ninth, Blood of Eden, Camilla Hect, Covid, For the Love of Book Clubs, Freaky Friday, Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Locked Tomb, Nona the Ninth, Palamedes Sextus, Post-Apocalyptic, Pyrrha Dve, Tamsyn Muir

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Published by: Tor.com
Publication Date: August 4th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 512 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy

Something isn't quite right. Harrow the Ninth journeyed to Canaan House to become a Lyctor. She completed the trials. She ascended to Lyctorhood at great personal cost and is now serving the Emperor alongside Ianthe Tridentarius. It was traumatic. Harrow's cavalier Gideon Nav died. Ianthe's cavalier Naberius Tern died. Naberius's death doesn't bother Ianthe. She has access to all her powers. Harrow does not. This is a problem. Something is wrong with Harrow. Something that happened after she left Canaan House. God, the Emperor, otherwise known as John, needed new Lyctors in his battle against the Resurrection Beasts. They were spawned when he saved mankind, and he has been waging a war against them ever since. A war lasting millennia. He has lost most of his Lyctors to this battle. Only Mercymorn, Augustine, and "Ortus" remain. And they aren't exactly happy campers. In order to fight the Resurrection Beasts they have to enter the River, a realm where the Beasts can be astrally destroyed. Only because of her "failed" ascension Harrow is unable to enter the River. Therefore she is next to useless when the Resurrection Beasts attack the Mithraeum. Not only can she not help, she needs to be protected, because is she fighting an enemy outside the walls but she fears there is an enemy within the walls of the Mithraeum as well. Someone is trying to kill her but she doesn't know who or why. Something isn't quite right with her. She keeps dwelling on her time at Canaan House. When Ortus died so that she could become a Lyctor. But that isn't right is it? She's reliving her time at Canaan House but it doesn't feel right, it doesn't feel true. Is this how things happened? Who died? Who survived? Did she even survive? How can she even be sure that John is telling her the truth? There are secrets in the Mithraeum, there are secrets amongst the Lyctors, secrets that are worth dying for. What if the man viewed as God is actually fallible? What if his enemies aren't just the Resurrection Beasts? What if his enemies, like Harrow's, are inside the Mithraeum? When the battle starts, who will survive and who will die? But most importantly, at who's hand?

If there's one thing that will make me quickly hate a book it's writing it in second person narration. I just can't. I literally can't. Why would anyone write that way let alone expect people to read it? It doesn't make me connect with the narrative in a new and unique way it makes the book connect with my wall in a new and unique way. I literally didn't think that I would be able to read Harrow the Ninth. But I remembered my experience with Gideon the Ninth and was willing to give Tamsyn Muir the benefit of the doubt, or, you know, enough rope to hang herself like Harrow's parents. So I girded my loins and set forth to see if other reviewers were right and that I would actually get accustomed to the writing style. Well, they were right, I adjusted. Not to the point of enjoyment, but to the point of toleration. I don't even know if I'd allow this book an exemption from my hate, that is reserved for the little reveries in The Night Circus alone. But here's the thing that still irks me. This is one of those times in which the second person narration is actually someone talking to someone else that they refer to as "you." It's "The Joe Goldberg Second Person Narration Variation," TM pending. Which means it technically isn't a second person narrative but more importantly that it didn't need to be written this way. There was another way to write this book and that would have been to have Gideon's voice coming through loud and clear. Because it's obvious that the narrator is Gideon from the very first "you." But instead Tamsyn Muir holds back this "reveal" for over four hundred pages. We could have had a book with the same wonderful voice as the first volume and instead we have this. This is fine. This is acceptable. This isn't much else. I mean, there are probable "reasons" as to why the reveal was held back, maybe Tamsyn Muir wanted to lean into the mental instability of Harrow. To make us, the readers, think that our assumptions were wrong. That Gideon really was gone and that Harrow was insane. I mean, Harrow was rewriting her time at Canaan House in her mind with Ortus as her cavalier so we know she's unbalanced. Her broken mind was literally writing an epic poem, The Noniad, and attributing it to Ortus. But think, instead of playing with her readers Tamsyn Muir could have instead written a better book. Instead there's this. Which will forever be a stumbling block to rereading this series.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Canaan House, For the Love of Book Clubs, Gideon Nav, Gideon the Ninth, Harrow the Ninth, Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Joe Goldberg, Lyctor, Resurrection Beasts, Second Person Narration, Tamsyn Muir, The Night Circus

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Published by: Tor.com
Publication Date: September 9th, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 448 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Gideon wants nothing to do with the Ninth. The house is nothing more than a creepy death cult guarding a locked tomb that is quickly dying out. She wants off the planet and out of the life she's begrudgingly lived. But her countless escape plans have never worked and this newest one is no different, even if it's the closest she's ever come. She is once again stopped by her nemesis, Harrowhark Nonagesimus. Harrowhark is the scion of the Ninth. A wickedly powerful necromancer who has been puppeteering her parents corpses for years in an effort to make it look like the Ninth is still functional and not on it's last legs. This appearance is more important than ever as the Emperor has called all nine houses to his abandoned palace, Canaan House, to compete for the honor to become Lyctors, eternals who serve at his side. The problem is that each house has to have a cavalier, a warrior, indefatigable and unbeatable, who protects the necromancer. And Harrowhark's actual cavalier is more interested in poetry. Therefore the only real contender for Harrowhark's cavalier is Gideon. The problem is Gideon wasn't trained for this role and more importantly she'd rather see Harrowhark dead than be the one having to save her. So Harrowhark makes a deal. They go to Canaan House, they put on the show of a lifetime, Harrowhark wins and becomes a Lyctor and Gideon gets to ride off into the sunset. Gideon doesn't like this plan. Gideon doesn't think it will work. I mean, how can she pass herself off with frilly fencing when she fights with a two-hander? Gideon better be a fast learner because Gideon doesn't have a choice. When they arrive at Canaan House Gideon is quickly abandoned by Harrowhark who plays up the mystique of the the Ninth House by being wreathed in shrouds and totally unavailable to Gideon. Gideon sees quite quickly that the reputation of the Ninth makes all the other houses wary of her, and yet, slowly, she starts to befriend them. That's when they start dying. This Lyctor test was set up in a way that makes the suspicious houses unable to win, but amply able to die. Will Gideon even live to cash in on Harrowhark's promise or will she die screaming in agony on a distant planet? At least she won't die near the benighted locked tomb...

Me and much lauded books rarely get along. My tastes are rarely the tastes of the masses. Yet again and again I feel drawn to read them. That's how I picked up Gideon the Ninth. I mean, lesbian necromancers in space sounds awesome, but there was that voice saying, but is it for you? Turns out it was. But it wasn't love at first sight. This is a book that improves on reread because, just like Jane Eyre, there's all this dark exposition that takes place before the book actually gets good. But thankfully, just like Jane Eyre, the second time you read it you fly through the dark bits knowing the good stuff is coming soon. And that good stuff? Well, it's the Gothic space thriller of my dreams! Teams of two pitted against each other in order to find keys to literally unlock secrets in the biggest most haunted space palace you could imagine. There were elements of The Haunting of Hill House and The Hunger Games and Rose Red! But the joy in a reread is that knowing the twists and turns to come I was watching the magnificent setup that Tamsyn Muir was orchestrating with awe. I wasn't furiously reading to figure out what was going on, I was luxuriating in the twists and turns. Though what I found interesting this time is that I was reading this book with friends, so all those theories I had about the book being the victim of hype to it just being very polarizing came into play in another way, in that it really divided my book club. And the thing is, I can see where they're coming from because for awhile that's where I was when I first read it. Opinions ranged from complete love to those who wanted to love it but just didn't to those who claimed it ruined their holidays. So, the complete gamut of emotions and responses on display. The one thing I found fascinating though is apparently this book is just crammed with meme references and cultural jokes deriving mainly from The Office. There are literally websites and Reddit forums dedicated to this. Personally I only caught a few so I thought it was like a funny Easter Egg, there so that if you know you know but not infringing on the text. But the thing is I've never really watched the US version of The Office, and two members of my book club said there were so many jokes just from that show they couldn't take the book seriously and it sullied it. So my advice is don't watch The Office? Seriously, I never "got" the US version anyway.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Canaan House, For the Love of Book Clubs, Gideon Nav, Gideon the Ninth, Gothic, Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Jane Eyre, Lyctor, Memes, Polarizing, Rose Red, The Haunting of Hill House, The Hunger Games, The Office

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Published by: Tor.com
Publication Date: September 9th, 2019
Format: Kindle, 479 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

Gideon wants nothing to do with the Ninth. The house is nothing more than a creepy death cult guarding a locked tomb that is quickly dying out. She wants off the planet and out of the life she's begrudgingly lived. But her countless escape plans have never worked and this newest one is no different, even if it's the closest she's ever come. She is once again stopped by her nemesis, Harrowhark Nonagesimus. Harrowhark is the scion of the Ninth. A wickedly powerful necromancer who has been puppeteering her parents corpses for years in an effort to make it look like the Ninth is still a functional house and not on it's last legs. This appearance is more important than ever as the Emperor has called all nine houses to his abandoned palace, Canaan House, to compete for the honor to become Lyctors, eternals who serve at his side. The problem is that each house has to have a cavalier, a warrior, indefatigable and unbeatable, who protects the necromancer. The only real contender for Harrowhark's cavalier is Gideon. The problem is Gideon wasn't trained for this role and more importantly she'd rather see Harrowhark dead than be the one having to save her. So Harrowhark makes a deal. They go to Canaan House, they put on the show of a lifetime, Harrowhark wins and becomes a Lyctor and Gideon gets to ride off into the sunset. Gideon doesn't like this plan. Gideon doesn't think it will work. Gideon doesn't have a choice. When they arrive at Canaan House Gideon is quickly abandoned by Harrowhark who plays up the mystique of the the Ninth House by being wreathed in shrouds and totally unavailable to Gideon. Gideon sees quite quickly that the reputation of the Ninth makes all the other houses wary of her, and yet, slowly she starts to befriend them. That's when they start dying. This Lyctor test was set up in a way that makes the suspicious houses unable to win, but amply able to die. Will Gideon even live to cash in on Harrowhark's promise or will she die screaming in agony on a distant planet? At least she won't die near the benighted locked tomb...

Me and much lauded books rarely get along. My tastes are rarely the tastes of the masses. And yet again and again I feel drawn to read them. That's how I picked up Gideon the Ninth. Though I was circumspect in that I knew it might not be for me and therefore got it from my local library. I mean, lesbian necromancers in space sounds awesome, but there was that voice saying, but is it for you? Turns out it was. But not without the reservations continuing for quite awhile. After my first night of reading I actually reached out to my friends asking them "has anyone read Gideon the Ninth? I am a die hard must finish a book and have literally only given up on one in the last decade...but this isn't catching my interest at all..." Theories ranged from it being the victim of hype to it just being very polarizing. But I refused to give up and this book is literally why I don't give up on books, aside from that one a few years back which I try not to think of. Gideon the Ninth literally took a third of the way through the book to click and when it did it became magnificent. This became the Gothic space thriller of my dreams! Teams of two pitted against each other in order to find keys to literally unlock secrets in the biggest most haunted space palace you could imagine. There were elements of The Haunting of Hill House and The Hunger Games and Rose Red! I literally was dumbfounded that the book I had bemoaned became this epic read. One of my friends was shocked it went from a possible DNF to four stars in the span of a week. I was even encouraging him to keep going because he would be surprised by what it became. Therefore I use this book as a reminder, whatever you use to cull your TBR Pile, a hundred page rule, a quarter rule, whatever, it wouldn't have worked here. Never judge a book until you read that last line, it might end up one of your favorite reads.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Cavalier, Gideon Nav, Gideon the Ninth, Going Gothic, Gothic, Harrowhark, Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Haunted House, Necromancer, Rose Red, Space Opera, Tamsyn Muir, TBR, The Haunting of Hill House, The Hunger Games

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Published by: Tor.com
Publication Date: September 9th, 2019
Format: Kindle, 479 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

Gideon wants nothing to do with the Ninth. The house is nothing more than a creepy death cult guarding a locked tomb that is quickly dying out. She wants off the planet and out of the life she's begrudgingly lived. But her countless escape plans have never worked and this newest one is no different, even if it's the closest she's ever come. She is once again stopped by her nemesis, Harrowhark Nonagesimus. Harrowhark is the scion of the Ninth. A wickedly powerful necromancer who has been puppeteering her parents corpses for years in an effort to make it look like the Ninth is still a functional house and not on it's last legs. This appearance is more important than ever as the Emperor has called all nine houses to his abandoned palace, Canaan House, to compete for the honor to become Lyctors, eternals who serve at his side. The problem is that each house has to have a cavalier, a warrior, indefatigable and unbeatable, who protects the necromancer. The only real contender for Harrowhark's cavalier is Gideon. The problem is Gideon wasn't trained for this role and more importantly she'd rather see Harrowhark dead than be the one having to save her. So Harrowhark makes a deal. They go to Canaan House, they put on the show of a lifetime, Harrowhark wins and becomes a Lyctor and Gideon gets to ride off into the sunset. Gideon doesn't like this plan. Gideon doesn't think it will work. Gideon doesn't have a choice. When they arrive at Canaan House Gideon is quickly abandoned by Harrowhark who plays up the mystique of the the Ninth House by being wreathed in shrouds and totally unavailable to Gideon. Gideon sees quite quickly that the reputation of the Ninth makes all the other houses wary of her, and yet, slowly she starts to befriend them. That's when they start dying. This Lyctor test was set up in a way that makes the suspicious houses unable to win, but amply able to die. Will Gideon even live to cash in on Harrowhark's promise or will she die screaming in agony on a distant planet? At least she won't die near the benighted locked tomb...

Me and much lauded books rarely get along. My tastes are rarely the tastes of the masses. And yet again and again I feel drawn to read them. That's how I picked up Gideon the Ninth. Though I was circumspect in that I knew it might not be for me and therefore got it from my local library. I mean, lesbian necromancers in space sounds awesome, but there was that voice saying, but is it for you? Turns out it was. But not without the reservations continuing for quite awhile. After my first night of reading I actually reached out to my friends asking them "has anyone read Gideon the Ninth? I am a die hard must finish a book and have literally only given up on one in the last decade...but this isn't catching my interest at all..." Theories ranged from it being the victim of hype to it just being very polarizing. But I refused to give up and this book is literally why I don't give up on books, aside from that one a few years back which I try not to think of. Gideon the Ninth literally took a third of the way through the book to click and when it did it became magnificent. This became the Gothic space thriller of my dreams! Teams of two pitted against each other in order to find keys to literally unlock secrets in the biggest most haunted space palace you could imagine. There were elements of The Haunting of Hill House and The Hunger Games and Rose Red! I literally was dumbfounded that the book I had bemoaned became this epic read. One of my friends was shocked it went from a possible DNF to four stars in the span of a week. I was even encouraging him to keep going because he would be surprised by what it became. Therefore I use this book as a reminder, whatever you use to cull your TBR Pile, a hundred page rule, a quarter rule, whatever, it wouldn't have worked here. Never judge a book until you read that last line, it might end up one of your favorite reads.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Cavalier, Gideon Nav, Gideon the Ninth, Gothic, Harrowhark, Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Haunted House, Necromancer, Rose Red, Space Opera, Tamsyn Muir, TBR, The Haunting of Hill House, The Hunger Games