I’ve by no means absolutely understood the plot of any of the books in Tamsyn Muir’s gutsy, gory, wonderful Locked Tomb sequence. At this level, with the third quantity in my fingers and its predecessors Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth on my cabinets, I’ve made up my thoughts to not attempt. As an alternative, I wade peacefully into each quantity with the data that I’m going to expertise some lesbian necromancers in house, and in any other case I exist in a blissful state of “head empty, simply vibes.”
Notable vibes of Nona the Ninth: Canines being good. Swordfights. A 13-year-old named Scorching Sauce who’s one of the best cool woman gang chief you would count on to satisfy on any planet. Necromantic battles. A discovered household attempting to get their candy downside little one to eat. Zombie armies. Extra Catholicism than you would possibly count on! Two lesbian princes going through off. Nuclear battle.
When the Locked Tomb sequence left off, our protagonists Gideon (candy jock) and Harrow (goth princess) have been in separate locations, each in ambiguous states of aliveness. Harrow was deep within the purgatorial afterlife house often called the River. Gideon, who died on the finish of Ebook One, was possessing Harrow’s physique. As Harrow the Ninth ended, stated physique seemed to be within the fingers of badass swordswoman and authorized babe Camilla Hect, and it was unclear who was animating it.
With Nona the Ninth, we meet the entity at present inhabiting Harrow’s physique. Her title is Nona, she has no reminiscences, and it’s unclear if she could be Harrow, Gideon, some mixture of each, or another person solely.
(Sure, this does imply Muir has written a second Locked Tomb ebook in a row during which the protagonist’s reminiscences have been altered or erased not directly. Go along with it!)
What we all know for certain is that Nona, whose head we’re in for the majority of this novel, is a charmer. Six months after the top of Harrow, she considers herself to be six months previous. She is complacently useless, childishly impulsive, and passionately dedicated to her grownup guardians, her college associates, and canines in equal measure. She loves butt jokes, finds each swords and bones uninteresting, crushes madly on each notably sturdy girl she crosses paths with, and may perceive any language. Oh, and one thing mysterious and horrifying occurs when she will get mad.
Nona resides on an unnamed planet that doesn’t look like part of the necromantic Empire we’ve spent the remainder of this sequence exploring. This planet exists in a way more easy universe, far nearer to our up to date world than the gothic fantasia of the Empire: a spot with quick meals eating places and workplace buildings and completely no magic in anyway. There, Nona goes about her day by day lifetime of attending college and plotting the visitor record for her forthcoming one-year celebration. (She needs to have it on the seaside, and would really like each canine of her acquaintance to attend, particularly the one with six legs. Muir has given me her blessing to guarantee you that the canine lives.) Within the background, darkish machinations are in progress, of which Nona seems to be solely half conscious.
The refugees who flock to this planet think about necromancers to be zombies, they usually dwell in concern of falling underneath zombie management. This political environment makes issues troublesome for Nona’s guardians, who embody a number of acquainted names and faces from the Empire — though stated names and the faces don’t all the time mix within the methods we’re used to. The body-sharing of this universe is simply getting extra difficult! The entire guardians, nevertheless, are cooperating warily with The Blood of Eden, the militant anti-imperial group we discovered of within the earlier two volumes.
What’s occurring within the Empire whereas Nona writes her visitor record and her guardians assist plot its destruction? We get a peek in that course ultimately. However earlier than then, most of our glimpses into the Empire are wanting not at its current, however at its origin. In periodic interstitials, we see John the Emperor-God in an apocalyptic dreamscape with Harrow, telling her the story of how he went from being just a few man named John to being some man named John with godlike powers.
It’s right here that we study extra about the important thing to Muir’s mythology, and the metaphor residing at its coronary heart. That metaphor is each extra Catholic and extra present than the remainder of this sequence let on, and it comes along with such tenderness and urgency that it might, like a Lyctor on a rampage, rip the guts proper out of you.
Then Nona, who urgently calls for to precise her like to everybody she has ever met, will convey your coronary heart again to life once more.
Nona the Ninth is a misleading ebook: Its sweetness hides enamel, after which its enamel conceal extra sweetness. So long as you go in with out anticipating fancy issues like with the ability to perceive each element of the motion in a literal and simple manner, it’s going to deal with you proper.
