She answered the Emperor’s call (as if she ever had a choice).
She arrived with her arts, her wits, her neverending death wish, and her only friend (not that she’d admit to that before it was all too late.)
Oh, your cavaliers are young? And they fight? How classic! So jejune!-but that would not have been the wild and confident fuck-you of the Ninth House. The Ninth House character, she was forced to admit, had always been low on wild and confident fucks.
In victory, her world has turned to ash. (“her world is empty without you ba”- sorry; apparently
Harrowhark Nonagesimus, last necromancer of the Ninth House and woman who will have that nervous breakdown she’s promised herself when this is all over and done with, has been drafted by her Emperor God to fight an impossible, unwinnable war. Side-by-side with a detested rival (by readers, or at least this one, as well as Harrow), she must learn her new lessons well and become an angel of undeath―but her health is failing (what else is new?), her sword seems to hate her (doesn’t everyone?), and even her mind is threatening to betray her (not that she was ever sane to begin with.)
And you were angry. You were always such a little bitch when you were angry.
Confined to the tackily decorated gloom of the Emperor’s hiding spot bachelor pad warship with three personality-less teachers, hunted by the insane ghost of a murdered planet, Harrow must make peace with two unwelcome questions: is somebody trying to kill her? And if they succeed, will the universe actually be better off?
You had been the subject of attempted murder more times than you had fingers or toes. You had sat through a long, agonising dinner culminating in two elderly Lyctors getting their tongues on God. Your mouth had been very nearly kissed. The calm that came over you as you went to murder Ortus the First was the weary calm of someone who had already been tried within an inch of her fucking life.
I’m glad this book was as enjoyable as the first, because this was one of the series that would kill me if it went downhill. The plot was a little convoluted, which isn’t a bad thing; it just meant that I felt like I should have a flow chart to work out the relationships, the alliances, and the motivations. Glad to see that Ianthe has not changed one iota since Gideon the Ninth; I still keeping hearing Brendan Gleeson to Ralph Fiennes in In Bruges in my head whenever she’s on the page. (I’d include a gif of the quote, but Cannonball does want the profanity to a minimum; let’s just say that if you’ve seen the movie, it’s the line that ends with Ralph’s wife pointing out that the phone is an inanimate object.)
Did not like “God” from his introduction, as much of a George Orr clone as he’s trying to come across as. (Yes, okay, so this is the future and you’ve seen “the world after April”, you’re still a tw-..sorry, profanity to a minimum.)
Writing as great as in the first book; I absolutely love the reveal of exactly whose perspective the story has been from this whole time. I just hope that sometime Harrow has the chance to explain that her decision was less a condemnation and more of a
.
If I forget you, let my right hand be forgotten,” her mouth was saying. “And more also, if aught but death part me and thee.” And, unsteadily, “Griddle.
Or that she’s not 100% into her corpse girlfriend anymore; I mean, I could be reading something into that point, but I have my hopes. (I am an unashamed shipper, so sue me.) Turns out that in most ways, the only people that Harrow and Gideon had and cared about them in their sad, shitty, damaged lives were Harrow and Gideon, and that includes their parents. They both got the short end of the stick on that account.
Always your sword, my umbral sovereign; in life, in death, in anything beyond life or death that they want to throw at thee and me. I died knowing you’d hate me for dying; but Nonagesimus, you hating me always meant more than anyone else in this not and stupid universe loving me. At least I’d had your full attention.
(To be honest, between “The Bomb” and the Dad jokes, I might have contemplated murder myself.)
Old favorites from the first book return in interesting ways; the snapping over the “barista AU” is worth the price of admission alone. I read the edition with the bonus short story at the end; I have to say, it did not hold my attention or interest as much as the main book. However, it cements my opinion: So.Many.Lesbians. So, so, so many lesbians. #allthelesbians! Harrow has gotten even more adorable in a strange, slightly unhinged, maniac macabre murderous eldritch lunatic kind of way. If nothing else, I would definitely never eat anything she cooked. Ever.
This book has caused one slight problem; I now do not want to read Nona the Ninth. I just know that it’s going to suck me into the series even more, and I know it’s going to end on a cliffhanger, and I just have a fear that Tamsyn coming out with Alecto the Ninth is as likely as George R.R. Martin coming out with The Winds of Winter, or Sue Grafton’s estate releasing the Z book, and it will either piss me off or seriously depress me. So would I recommend this book? Yes. But only if you don’t mind continuing series that may never be finished but will suck you in anyway.
Valancy Trinit was my height, weighed more than both of us put together, and judging by her portraits-had a body that did not quit. Your body, by comparison, gave up at the starting line. Take off your clothes.
