Harrow the Ninth

Muir's headlong contemporary prose style finds a new and unsettling register in this witty, yet disturbing and doomed novel of space magic and lost girls. --Warren Ellis To read Harrow the Ninth is to enter a labyrinth haunted by loss and sacrifice and a truly top-tier selection of memes. But don't bother with breadcrumbs or red threads--you won't ever want to leave. --Alix E. Harrow Harrow the Ninth is a psychological rollercoaster covering forty billion light-years. It's wonderful to see the universe of Gideon expand, while staying as twisted and full of bones as ever. --Django Wexler Maddeningly brilliant. --Kiersten White PRAISE FOR GIDEON THE NINTH Deft, tense and atmospheric, compellingly immersive and wildly original. --The New York Times Brilliantly original, messy and weird straight through. With a snorting laugh and two middle fingers, the whole thing burns end-to-end. It is deep when you expect shallow, raucous when you expect dignity and, in the end, absolutely heartbreaking when you least expect it. --NPR You've never read anything like Tamsyn Muir's debut novel Gideon The Ninth. --Forbes An incredibly immersive book, with a rich, detailed mythology, gorgeously balanced sentences, and a genuinely meaningful central relationship. I started this book chuckling at the outrageous premise. I finished it crying, because the ending punched me straight in the gut. --Vox Unlike anything I've ever read. Muir's writing is as sharp as a broken tooth, and just as unsettling. This book is visceral, vivid, and downright violent. In short, absolutely marvelous. --V.E. Schwab, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author Warm and cold; goofy and gleaming; campy and epic; a profane Daria in space. --Robin Sloan, author of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore This crackling, inventive and riotous book from an original voice is a genuine pleasure. Also the author is clearly insane. --Warren Ellis, author of Transmetropolitan and Gun Machine From Gideon the Ninth's peerless first line, Gideon Nav is one of the most charismatic narrators I've ever met. I would walk through the bowels of hell with her, and basically have--but from the eldritch deeps of the Ninth House to the winding halls of a mega-Goth space castle, it's my kinda hell. --Melissa Albert, New York Times Bestselling Author of The Hazel Wood Gideon the Ninth was a combination of all my absolute favorite things: swords and magic and spaceships and far future tech, plus childhood angst, slow-build romance, and characters banding together to solve mysteries in a haunted space palace. --Martha Wells, author of the Murderbot Diaries Lesbian necromancers explore a haunted gothic palace in space! Decadent nobles vie to serve the deathless emperor! Skeletons! --Charles Stross, author of The Laundry Files and Empire Games Punchy, crunchy, gooey and gore-smeared, Gideon the Ninth is a pulpy science-fantasy romp that will delight and horrify you to the bitter end. --Kameron Hurley, author of The Stars Are Legion and the Worldbreaker Saga By turns a slasher movie and a sorcerous slugfest, with a snarky protagonist and a deep, complicated relationship at its heart. --Django Wexler, author of The Shadow Campaigns Necromancers! Dueling! Mayhem! Gideon the Ninth is disturbing and delightful in equal measure--I loved it to pieces. --Yoon Ha Lee, author of the Hexarchate series and Dragon Pearl Muir effortlessly compiles macabre humor, body horror, secrets, and tenderness into the stitched-together corpse of a dark universe, then brings it to life with a delightfully chaotic, crackling cast of characters and the connective tissue of their relationships. --Publishers Weekly starred review [Gideon the Ninth] blends science fiction, fantasy, gothic chiller, and classic house-party mystery. This intriguing genre stew works surprisingly well. Suspenseful and snarky, with surprising emotional depths. --Kirkus Starred Review At once sarcastic, sincere, heart-wrenching, and honest pulpy enjoyment, filled with dark magic, swordplay, and lesbian necromancers, Muir's debut is a fantastic sf/fantasy blend. Readers will discuss this journey for a long time and be clamoring for the next installment. --Library Journal starred review Muir's debut fuses science fiction, mystery, horror, fantasy, action, adventure, political intrigue, deadly dark humor, and a dash of romance with a healthy serving of skeletons nad secrets and the spirit of queer joy. This extraordinary opening salvo will leave readers dying to know what happens next. --Booklist Starred Review Gideon the Ninth is a dense, impressively imagined debut about necromancers and swordswomen that wears its heart--and gonzo sense of humor--on its sleeve. --Shelf Awareness Muir weaves seamlessly between mystery, intrigue, and quest, and between science fiction and fantasy, to craft the start of a series that rivets and enthralls like the dark and dangerous magic it depicts. --Lambda Literary Gideon the Ninth is a whirlwind of dark fantasy and dark humor, all wrapped up in sarcastic, delightfully sapphic Gideon Nav. The narrative oozes with voice and every sentence rattles with Gideon's disaffected attitude and the creepiness of skeleton bones. --New York Journal of Books Gonzo fantasy. If Gene Wolfe, Mervyn Peake, and Ray Harryhausen collaborated on a novel on Reddit, the results might be half as mad and a quarter as entertaining as Tamsyn Muir's necro-maniacal debut. --Joel Cunningham, The B&N Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog A brilliant and original mash-up of genres, the story is brimming with memorable characters, acerbic dark humor, a unique magic system, space travel, decaying technology and layers upon layers of mystery. It is the Gothic space adventure I didn't know I needed. --Rebecca Roanhorse, author of Trail of Lightning Gideon the Ninth knocked me out. If you like snotty swordswomen, reanimated skeletons, porn zines, crumbling interplanetary empires, and angry lady necromancers, then shut up and get reading. --Richard Kadrey, author of the Sandman Slim series Tasmyn Muir's prose is delicious enough to eat. Add in a sarcastic heroine with a knack for trouble, necromancy, cut-throat politics, and a hell of a lot of murders, and this is a novel every fantasy lover will savor. --Rin Chupeco, author of The Bone Witch Festooned with skeletons, aglitter with technonecromantic delights, both middle fingers raised to the galaxy, Gideon the Ninth is a gothy Tank Girl-Meets-Utena-Meets-Gormenghast dueling wildcard mashup that has me positively giddy for the future of the genre. --Max Gladstone, author of The Empress of Forever Muir has always, always had a sorcerously powerful way with voice, and I am positively giddy to announce that Gideon the Ninth is the ultimate culmination of her preternatural talents, a necromantic, calcium-rich delight that says get in, nerd on page 1, hits the gas with a disconcerting cackle, and doesn't let you out no matter how hard you howl. Gideon the Ninth is a bone-afied classic of the genre. --Brooke Bolander, author of The Only Harmless Great Thing