Harrow the Ninth

Phew, I enjoyed this but it was SUCH a different book than the (bonkers) first in the series, Gideon the Ninth. We knew the protagonist viewpoint was going to change here, and we knew there would be some psychological damage - but MAN it was different. We have two running threads: a set of memories from the first book that are COMPLETELY rewritten - not like, 'here's another point of view' but like, here's an entirely different set of stuff happening. That was confusing. And then the 'present day' parts of the book are in a greatly-expanded set of the universe, there's a lot of catching up to do with Muir's world-building. But darn it, I was committed and while I feel like I really only got the hang of it by page 300, I liked it.

Noted on October 17, 2020

ALSO, Gideons's voice in the first book is full of ridiculous goofs, and with the viewpoint change, those goofs are still there but got sublimated into... the WORLD. Delightful, stupid jokes get built into the narration and rest of the characters, and there are some great/terrible puns and internet memes buried into otherwise serious places. It sounds like it should be terrible, but I loved it. I think every so often I just guFFAWED or CACKLED at this book. There was one joke so incredible I immediately tweeted @ the author.

Noted on October 17, 2020