There’s a brief scene in Harrow the Ninth where Harrowhark is warding her quarters with bits of her own organic material while “perched atop a ladder of skeletons” and I just couldn’t get this visual out of my cranium, I love these bonkers bone lesbians so frickin’ much
anyway, here is Harrow “funeral for a twig” Nonagesimus doing death cult magic on a tower of anatomically questionable skeletons inside a spaceship 4u
thank you Tamsyn Muir for this absolutely UNHINGED book series
turns out the opposition were a loud minority. and that love truly is possible in the next world – for new people. and it is too late for us. tip jar|patreon
if I had a nickel for every time harrowbod nearly made out with her own reflection, I’d have two nickels. which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice
Finished my first new book hoodie project! I would have thought seventh house would be my jam because I am all about Art and Feeling Sad, but Tamsyn Muir’s tumblr sorted me into Fourth so Fourth it is. Also as I was doing this, let me tell you, the amount of times I just kind of eyeballed things and went for it instead of like actually measuring and shit made it pretty clear that her quiz was right.
I have three braincells and they all hold an individual opinion on what is important to draw about Harrow the Ninth?
[id: 3 painted sketches , one is of Gideon holding Harrow over coffeeshop counter, with words“ is this how it fucking happens”, then sketch of a dark-skinned man with unnatually black eyes, in a gamer shirt by Brian David Gilbert, holding “the world’s okayest god” mug and putting a bisquit in it. Then a sketch of Harrow holding two-handed sword in one hand with difficulty. end id]
Gideon the Ninth is a book of a trilogy and it ate my two nights and i think it should eat yours too
[id: collection of painted sketches of two main characters of the book, one is a buff redhead girl with darker skin, the other is slim with black short hair. Both wear black cloaks and skull facepaint. end id]
References and allusions in Nona the Ninth guest list
Tor.com released Nona the Ninth’s dramatis personae/birthday invite list, and I decided to investigate any possible allusions/references to real world things (which isn’t remotely far-fetched, seeing as GtN and HtN are full of references and the BoE naming conventions involve referencing real world song lyrics, apparently).
Spoilers for the guest list:
Born in the Morning - possibly a reference to a nursery rhyme from Gregory Maguire’s Wicked? Seen on page 8 here.
Crown Him with Many Crowns - reference to a Christian hymn that is used by many denominations, including Catholicism.
Cell Commander We Suffer and We Suffer - possibly a song lyric I don’t recognize, OR possibly a reference to Aeschylus’ play Agamemnon. The line in question can be translated a bunch of different ways depending on how poetic the translator wants to get, but this exact quote is used in this translation on page 7, line 250.
That’s all I’ve got so far. I’ve probably missed something, so please reblog or comment if you’ve noticed something I overlooked.
There’s been a lot of wild theories about Alecto the Ninth (the book and the character) being thrown around, and I’d like to throw my own theory hat into the ring.
At the end of HtN, Mercymorn vaporizes John. And yet he comes back, completely unscathed, after about a minute. He tells Augustine that he can’t be killed, at all, period. John is actually immortal.
Obviously this can’t be true, simply for plot reasons: if John can never die, then there’s not much point to the third book. In order to have a remotely interesting plot, your main villain must be defeatable.
We know that Alecto is John’s weakness, somehow. Otherwise he wouldn’t have entombed her on the Ninth. But why is he so afraid of her? Is it because he pissed her off so bad that he’s afraid of her revenge? Or is it because Alecto is his weakness?
I propose that John can only die if Alecto dies. His life is tied to hers. (And yes, Alecto is often described as dead, but she also wakes up, so she’s either not really dead or not that dead.)
There’s a common fairytale trope that the villain has hidden his heart in a secret location (sometimes an object inside of an object inside of an object etc.) and is therefore ‘immortal’ unless his hidden heart is destroyed. It shows up in the Russian fairytale Koschei the Deathless. The horcruxes in Harry Potter are a version of this trope as well. And Muir likes fairytales. She’s already written her own Sleeping Beauty spin-off with Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower.
Is Alecto John’s heart? When John says that he cannot die, is that because he assumes that Alecto will always be safe and entombed in the Ninth? John’s perception of Alecto’s security is his blindspot; despite Harrow presenting excellent evidence that she broke into the Tomb, John refuses to believe her on principal.
If Alecto’s death equals John’s death… That could be a very interesting pickle for our heroes to solve.
Ready for an all day extravaganza?! Join us on 6/9 for our third annual virtual #TorCon2022, featuring panels, prizes, and more! WHO’S EXCITED?!?!
At 1 PM ET/10 AM PT, join Sunyi Dean, Leopoldo Gout, Lev AC Rosen, Nghi Vo, and Neon Yang for our ‘Magically Monstrous Murders and Mysteries’ panel.
At 6 PM ET/3 PM PT, join Olivie Blake, Susan Dennard, Catriona Ward, and Rita Woods, with a special pre-recorded message from Tamsyn Muir, for our 'Something Wicked This Way Comes’ panel.
