Harrow the Ninth

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (2020 Tor Kindle 512pp)

 

What to make of this extraordinary book? First of all, it’s a sequel to the equally perplexing “Gideon the Ninth” which I read and was in two minds about a couple of years ago. If you haven’t read that one doesn’t even attempt to start this volume. Like the first book in the so-called ‘Locked Tomb Series’ this drops you into the plot with little background and zero knowledge of what’s really going on in its complex universe.

As the title suggests the focus has switched to Harrowhark, a secondary character in the first book. There are two main story threads – the first, written in slightly odd second-person perspective (for a reason that’s not revealed until around 70% of the way in) follows on the story from where we left it last time. Harrow is now a Lyctor (a necromancer who directly serves with the God-Emperor of the nine houses of mankind) and takes some time to recover from the transition. As she trains, she finds her abilities are not well developed and she struggles to meet the standard of her pairs. The second thread repeats certain events from “Gideon the Ninth” with a slightly different cast of characters and altered outcomes. What’s actually going on here is likewise revealed later on in the novel. A detailed plot description is probably a little much to go into here and now. Basically, we learn the emperor is fighting wars on two fronts. Rebel humans from a group that calls itself “The Blood of Eden” have taken up arms against him and meanwhile the tortured souls of planets known as ‘Resurrection Beasts’ have been pursuing him and the Lyctors for thousands of years. Harrow must try and fit in with the emperor and his allies whilst facing multiple mysteries about her own past.

Muir either has made a detailed ‘bible’ about all the magic systems and technology in these books or is just making it all up as she goes along – sometimes it seems a little of both. The sheer imagination and verve in her writing is very alluring but then after wowing you she’ll dump you straight back in something banal and tedious for pages. The snarky humour (mainly from the Gideon character) that often saved the first novel is largely missing here. The very down to earth and bickering nature of God (who we discover is called John) and the Lyctors provide some light relief – they bitch and moan at each other whilst drinking tea and dunking biscuits.

The general fog about the wider setting and events gets frustrating again. If something doesn’t come up in the plot, we simply don’t know anything about it, there are few info-dumps here. I think my bias towards Science Fiction chafes against all the magical elements and I’m waiting for them all to be explained as advanced technology – something that’s probably never happening. Two years is long enough for me to have forgotten the all the names and details of the characters from the other houses and all their alliances and otherwise, I remember being bored with it then so when I read some of that being repeated, I almost mentally tuned out.

Having said all that there’s something about these characters, this setting and this author. I want to further explore the universe she has created and with two, possibly three more books to come in the series it looks like I will get a fair chance.

 

Are You My Mother?

Are You My Mother? by Alison Bechdel (2013 Mariner Books softcover 290pp)

 

“Are You My Mother” is the second of the three graphic novel memoirs that Alison Bechdel has produced over the last two decades. It was preceeded by the excellent “Fun Home” (2006) and more recently followed by the thought-provoking "The Secret to Superhuman Strength" (2021).

As the title suggests, this time she intends to focus on her relationship with her always somewhat distant Mother. However, a great deal of the volume is taken up with her agonising over writing about her family and whether she should be doing it at all. I wasn’t really swept up in the narrative like I was by the other two books. There’s nothing essentially wrong here but this one just didn’t seem to fire the same level of imagination and interest with me. Part of the problem is the choice she took to alternate between her mother and the work and life of the mid twentieth century paediatrician and psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott, sometimes juxtaposing her life events against some key piece of his writing. My trouble was his writing was dry and boring and I started to skip reading it at all. Some of his ideas in regards to the relationship between mother and child are very interesting but I feel Bechdel made a rare mistake by using so much of it in the book. One choice that does work well is starting each section by illustrating a dream she’s had and then proceeding to work out where the dream imagery came from.

The artwork again is top notch and instead of the blue wash and highlights used to colour “Fun Home” this time she uses a red/brown colour to great effect. There are plenty of images that illustrate events in a particular place and time – Bechdel is good at doing this, from what’s on TV to magazine and newspaper headlines etc.

 It was good to ‘hear’ her voice once more but felt this book was something of a lost opportunity.