Harrow the Ninth

This series does not give up its secrets easily. It holds them closely and tightly like a squirrel with its nuts. I was left at the end of the last book with a lot of questions, and really pressing plot developments that I needed answers to, and “Harrow the Ninth“ wasn’t going to give them to me lightly. The book does its best from the get-go to upend your sense of reality, attacking your memories of what exactly happened in the first book. It does this both in story content - it directly contradicts events as you remember them from book one - but also in the narration. style. I can’t say that I have ever read another book that spends this much time in the second person. It took me quite a while to get used to it, as I typically despise second person, but once I did it won me over. It’s use emphasized the tone, and set up some surprising reveals in the last act. I don’t want to say too much aside from the fact that all of the strangeness and confusion is worth it for those big reveals, and I recommend sticking with the book through it. It is worth the ride. The story follows Harrow in both the present and past, with the past reliving events from the first book from a different angle and with those big inconsistencies, while the present focuses on her experiences with the Emperor and the other Lictors, as she learns more about the truth of the state of the empire, and her role in it. The book is full of interesting world building, conflicting personalities, mysteries, and occasional flashes of action and violence that are thoroughly satisfying to read. I personally would not say that I like this one better than the first, because I missed some of the characters I liked from that first book, but this is very easily a worthy successor that does very interesting things with its narration, and it is a strong recommendation from me.

Ja... Det blir lite för mycket feberdröm över det hela för att den röda tråden i berättelsen ska kunna hållas intakt. Lite som att försöka hitta "lösningen" eller "poängen" i någon av de mer bisarra filmerna eller TV-grejerna av David Lynch. Samtidigt välskriven med intressanta karaktärer, vilket gör att boken ändå fixar en trea i betyg. Men jag är inte överförtjust i det här überkryptiska berättarsättet där framtid, dåtid, nutid och all sorts sammanhållning bluddras ihop till någon sorts LSD-tripp. Hoppas på lite mer stringens i uppföljaren Nona the Ninth, alltså mer logik som med första delen Gideon the Ninth.

Takes a while to hit the stride of the predecessor, entirely on purpose. When it does, yikes. Throughout, though, it remains gory, black, funny and full of little threads of ideas, culminating in a finale that's like Pratchett fed through Clive Barker.

Muir is betting a lot on her readers keeping up with details, and on the third volume tying it all together... maybe. Good on her.