[How it Works](https://scribetribe.binderybooks.com/how-it-works/) [Bookshop](https://scribetribe.binderybooks.com/books/bindery/) [Publishing](https://scribetribe.binderybooks.com/publishing/) [Team](https://scribetribe.binderybooks.com/team/) [Contact](https://scribetribe.binderybooks.com/contact/) Log in or Sign up Nona the Ninth (The Locked Tomb Series, 3) Tamsyn Muir Save to Your Books [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/book/9781250899132) [Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1250899133) Tamsyn Muir's New York Times and USA Today bestselling _Locked Tomb_ Series continues with _Nona ...the Ninth?_. A Finalist for the Hugo and Locus Awards! An Indie Next Pick! The _Locked Tomb_ is a 2023 Hugo Finalist for Best Series! > “You will love Nona, and Nona loves you.” —Alix E. Harrow > “Unlike anything I've ever read.” —V.E. Schwab on _Gideon the Ninth_ > “Deft, tense and atmospheric, compellingly immersive and wildly original.” —The New York Times on _Gideon the Ninth_. **Her city is under siege.** The zombies are coming back. And all Nona wants is a birthday party. In many ways, Nona is like other people. She lives with her family, has a job at her local school, and loves walks on the beach and meeting new dogs. But Nona's not like other people. Six months ago she woke up in a stranger's body, and she's afraid she might have to give it back. **The whole city is falling to pieces.** A monstrous blue sphere hangs on the horizon, ready to tear the planet apart. Blood of Eden forces have surrounded the last Cohort facility and wait for the Emperor Undying to come calling. Their leaders want Nona to be the weapon that will save them from the Nine Houses. Nona would prefer to live an ordinary life with the people she loves, with Pyrrha and Camilla and Palamedes, but she also knows that nothing lasts forever. **And each night, Nona dreams of a woman with a skull-painted face...** Show more Get the Bindery app * * * Posts about this title from Scribe Tribe [Scribe Tribe\\ \\ Jahid\\ \\ • Aug 6 2024](https://scribetribe.binderybooks.com/) [Top 10 Books of 2022 👀](https://scribetribe.binderybooks.com/item/woRWpiUNSKvof6WqgRtb/) 00:00 Intro 03:06 Most Surprising Read of the Year 04:36 A Book I Thought I'd Love That I Didn't 06:11 A Book I Thought I'd Hate That I Loved 08:42 My Most Disappointing Read of the Year 11:20 My #10 Book of the Year 12:22 My #9 Book of the Year 13:50 My #8 Book of the Year 16:01 My #7 Book of the Year 17:40 My #6 Book of the Year 19:10 My #5 Book of the Year 20:24 My #4 Book of the Year 21:45 My #3 Book of the Year 23:21 My #2 Book of the Year 25:46 My #1 Book of the Year 27:48 Outro * * * 23 books [Scribe Tribe\\ \\ Jahid\\ \\ • Aug 6 2024](https://scribetribe.binderybooks.com/) [My Top 10 Books of 2022](https://scribetribe.binderybooks.com/item/n4owPgXuVr04S9gykPpZ/) * * * 12 books [Scribe Tribe\\ \\ Jahid\\ \\ • Aug 6 2024](https://scribetribe.binderybooks.com/) [10 Characters From 10 Books Who Can Do No Wrong](https://scribetribe.binderybooks.com/item/NKNKy2t33TSiKjEs1adh/) * * * 10 books [Scribe Tribe\\ \\ Jahid\\ \\ • Aug 6 2024](https://scribetribe.binderybooks.com/) [Books I Devoured and Books I Nibbled At](https://scribetribe.binderybooks.com/item/hbmqyURwkao2FfSpIvi6/) * * * 10 books Posts about this book from across Bindery [Sarah Does Bookish Stuff\\ \\ Sarah\\ \\ • Jul 9](https://sarahdoesbookishstuff.binderybooks.com/) Join for free [We've done it. We've made it to the halfway mark of the year! I can't believe it's half over already. 2026 has been a banner year for me with reading and coming out on top reading some incredible books I never thought I would get the chance to read. \\ \\ I've had so many opportunities and changes and experiences in the last 6 months I almost feel like a different person sitting here typing this up. I've read ARCs, connected with authors, joined a writing cohort, taken on a job doing developmental edits, started a podcast, started an interview series... \\ \\ All because I just like to talk about my weird and wonderful books. \\ \\ So, halfway through 2026, let's talk about those wonderful books and what's been a 5-star read for me this year. \\ \\ **The Archive Undying by Emma Mieko Candon**\\ \\ My first five star read of the year. Candon built this incredible, lush, weird, amazing world I wanted to live in. Fever dream mech fantasy about a man trying to figure out how to be normal and escape a past that won't let him go. Sunai makes horrible choices, but all of them consistently lead him back to the one place he never really left. I loved how wild and bizarre this was. I was left wanting more and more of this world and I hope so hard that Candon continues this series. \\ \\ **Slewfoot by Brom**\\ \\ If you want me to rate your book five stars, make it about female rage and killing puritans. Brom outdid himself with this one. He wrote Abitha with such conviction there's no way his wife didn't advise him on it, I refuse to believe a man capable of capturing the frustration and rage about the female experience so accurately. I love the tapestry of witchcraft and small mindedness and the blindness of religion and the effects of patriarchy on us all. This was so delightful and 5 stars well earned. \\ \\ **The Wolf and His King by Finn Longman**\\ \\ Book so good I emailed the author. I've never emailed an author before. Finn was the first. This book is a retelling of a real 13-century fairytale that was the first example of fiction in medieval France. Longman turned it into a beautiful test of prose, writing styles, and an exploration in chronic illness, queer identity, and what it means for love to endure. This book was so full of yearning and so beautifully written I finished it in a day and I bullied several other people into reading it after. \\ \\ **Shark Heart by Emily Habeck**\\ \\ I picked this up on a whim because the premise was bizarre. A man is slowly turning into a great white shark because of a genetic disorder? And someone said it wrecked them? Okay, bet. And bet I did. I walked away sobbing over this heart wrenching, existence examining piece on caretaking, loss, illness, and love. Shark Heart does not get enough love for what it did.\\ \\ **Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir**\\ \\ Muir is incapable of writing something that isn't five stars. Her use of prose and style, turning the writing itself into a character... nobody does it like Muir does. Every book in this series is different, it changes you. Nona was her solarpunk installation that gave me so many painful, beautiful moments of seeing characters I loved overcome and endure for each other. It also made me mad at Jod.\\ \\ **Memories of Ice by Steven Erikson**\\ \\ I am a Malazan bro because of this book. MoI was the culmination of two books - 1800 pages - worth of trust in a process I was unsure could be trusted. Erikson delivered on every single front. He gave readers something incredible in this book and really proved to me how multifaceted and gifted he is at world building and writing. This was an incredible installment. \\ \\ **Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang**\\ \\ I am a different person because of this book. Because of Sciona, unlikable heroine and dogged in her pursuit of knowledge. Because of Thomil who understands the cost of power and pushes to make Scion see it, too. I adored this book and how it addressed the importance of intersectionality and listening to marginalized voices. It was so beautiful and fearless and Wang knows exactly how to break your heart to teach you something important. This book should be required reading.\\ \\ **Headlights by C.J. Leede**\\ \\ This was the first ARC I have ever given five stars to. I was a mess. A disaster. If you had told me a book about an unretired FBI agent investigating wild killings where victims are skinned and the perpetrators have no memory would change me, I would never have believed you. I adored every second of this. It was about wildness and fear and loss and love and so, so much more than I can articulate in a single post. If I had my Bindery a few months sooner, I would have written pages upon pages about this. Leede's writing is poetry, her symbolism is subtle and unique, her approach to loss and grief is spellbinding. \\ \\ **The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes**\\ \\ Ennes will go down as one of the most stunning writers in the modern era. They have a grasp of language that I can only hope to have a fraction of. This book was weird and stunning and unforgiving. It made me forget I was reading about bugs because I was constantly engrossed in the characters and the world and the slow collapse of this bizarre government. It accosted my senses in incredible ways and showed the costs of power without question. I adored the characters and I will forever be rooting for Guy and his love of the theater. Ennes made politics, art, and theater inextricable from each other. One begets the others, every time. I am so, so impressed at this book. \\ \\ **The Soft Touch by Daniel Polansky**\\ \\ How did one man pack so much into a novella? Really. I finished this, stared at the cover, and bought everything Polansky has ever written. I loved this world. I loved how stubbornly optimistic Wren was and how he refused to let pessimism win in a town where pessimism already believed it had won. He was clever and sharp, the writing was witty and dry, and everything was so alive in such a short time. I didn't want it to end, this wild blend of steampunk magic. This novella made me realize the draw of urban fantasy. \\ \\ **The Butcher of Nazareth by David Scott Hay**\\ \\ I have a whole post about this book and I can never stop saying wonderful things about it. Hay created a masterwork here, just an absolute class in how to leverage the physicality of writing to meet the story and create something beautiful and tragic. II was so sad and so hurt for the Butcher, but I was in his grief with him in ways I didn't think I could be in a book. I am deeply impressed by this story and how David crafted it. Everyone should read it, especially if you love religious horror. \\ \\ So this has been my year in favorites so far. I've read 100 books on the nose so far and this is the sliver of those who really changed something about me. Every five star I give out changes a piece of me - my perspective, my sense of self, my understanding of a genre, something. I walked away from each of these books with something new in my bones that wasn't there before. I love all our popular series just as much as the next person, but my heart will always be with books that dig deep and demand things of me nothing else does.](https://sarahdoesbookishstuff.binderybooks.com/item/xPuOy9C5Rvt9zU38R65K/) [Meeting Up Halfway](https://sarahdoesbookishstuff.binderybooks.com/item/xPuOy9C5Rvt9zU38R65K/) * * * 11 books [Won't Calm Down\\ \\ Maya Gabrielle\\ \\ • Apr 5](https://mayagabrielle.binderybooks.com/) Join for free [the Locked Tomb of it all... 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They got to the end and said "I have no idea WTF just happened but...I liked it?" If you were one of those people, or if maybe you really wanted to like it but it drove you mad looking into the window of the world instead of the author building it for you from the ground up (FAIR!) I wrote a complete summary for you, which will hopefully help.\\ \\ **GIDEON THE NINTH PLOT SUMMARY** (as detailed as I can be so beware of spoilers)\\ \\ The book opens on Gideon attempting to escape from the necromantic Ninth House, which she has been at since birth. She is waiting on a shuttle she has plotted for months to get to come get her. Her mother came down in a shuttle not intended for humans with a box intended for live organ transfers, and inside was a baby. The nuns tried to bring her back with necromancy, and she came back only to scream "GIDEON! GIDEON! GIDEON!" and die again.\\ \\ So the Ninth House raised the baby, calling her Gideon, as a vassal (aka indentured servant not just for life but also afterwards when she becomes an animated corpse for the necromantic house) for Harrowhark, their princess, daughter, and asshole of the highest order.\\ \\ Harrowhark Nonagesimus and Gideon Nav are the only children on the Ninth planet - we don't know why but everyone else is old or dying.\\ \\ Harrow catches Gideon in the escape and offers her a challenge: if Gideon (the best swordswoman the Ninth has seen in an age) duels Harrow and wins, Harrow will give her the purchase of her commission, essentially giving her freedom from imprisonment on Drearburh, the horrible decrepit bone chilling (literally) castle she's spent her life in, literally only there so that the other eight houses can send their worst prisoners, the ones they'd like to forget about, to the prison above the planet. A prison which claims NOT to every have had Gideon's mother as a guest. If Gideon loses -she still gets the papers, but she has to come to the muster meeting (necromantic church sermon) before she goes.\\ \\ Unable to turn down the deal, Gideon (aka Griddle) accepts. Harrow promptly rips skeleton powder from the ground (which she spent the night before burying, the utter cretin) and turns it into an army of skeletons to beat the shit out of Gideon.\\ \\ During this banter, we learn that Harrow's parents are dead. She, Gideon, the captain of the guard Aiglamene, and the marshal Crux know, but everyone else remains ignorant, because Harrow is keeping them intact somehow, animating their bodies and making up bold lies (vows of silence, solitude, anything to keep people from interacting with them) to keep the disintegrating Ninth going.\\ \\ At the muster, Gideon learns that The Emperor, Necromancer Divine, has called on the Houses to send him the first fruits of their households to compete for the position of Lyctor, his first line of defense. If Harrow wins, she could save her house. But she must have a cavalier, a swordsman to protect her back while she performs her necromancy. Ortus, a thirty-something oaf whose mommy still wipes his chin, is the closest to Harrow's age, and is her house cavalier. When the announcement is made, his mother is horrified, she will not sacrifice her poor sweet idiot of a son (who will probably get Harrow killed because he's an absolutely worthless swordsman.)\\ \\ After the muster Gideon finds out that Ortus and his mother have taken the shuttle that was waiting on her to escape the planet, and that Harrow knew they would, and gleefully crushes Gideon's dreams of escape. She really does hate Griddle, we don't know why yet. Griddle seemingly only hates Harrow because Harrow hates her. Harrow then ropes Gideon into being her cav, after promising a fortune and freedom, and Aiglamene guaranteeing Harrow will keep her promise, no tricks. Aiglamene is the one person Gideon trusts on this godforsaken planet. She agrees.\\ \\ They arrive at the First Planet, which is abandoned except for some priests and some very complex skeleton constructs to serve them. Harrow tells everyone Gideon has taken a vow of silence so that she doesn't say anything stupid to give them away. They find out that even the Teacher (the head priest) has no idea how they become Lyctors, the challenge is that they must figure it out. Everyone is understandably pissed. And they mystery ensues.\\ \\ Perhaps this is the time to introduce the other houses.\\ \\ FIRST HOUSE\\ \\ The Emperor, Necromancer Divine, Necrolord Prime, the Resurrector\\ \\ His Lyctors\\ \\ The Priesthood of Canaan House\\ \\ SECOND HOUSE (The Emperor's Strength)\\ \\ Judith Deuteros, Captain of the Cohort, tries to boss everyone about\\ \\ Marta Dyas, Cav, these are front line warriors and are used to fighting. They also have a chip on their shoulders about being Second House\\ \\ THIRD HOUSE (Mouth of the Emperor)\\ \\ Coronabeth Tridentarius, Crown Princess, and hottie extraordinaire, “the Golden twin or the Bright twin”\\ \\ Ianthe Tridentarius, Princess, a pallid sharp twin of Coronabeth and sneaky bitch\\ \\ Naberius Tern “Babs,” their bouffant and whiny Cav\\ \\ FOURTH HOUSE (The Emperor's Sword - Vanguard)\\ \\ Isaac Tettares, Baron of Tisis\\ \\ Jeannemary Chatur, Cav - both are shy teenagers\\ \\ FIFTH HOUSE (Heart of the Emperor)\\ \\ Abigail Pent, Lady of Koniortos, married her Cav\\ \\ Magnus Quinn, Cav and Senechal, he looks after the Fourth teens\\ \\ SIXTH HOUSE (Master Wardens)\\ \\ Palamedes Sextus, Master Warden of the Library, primary competition according to Harrow\\ \\ Camilla Hect, Cav, looks like a librarian with an antique sword because...well she is one\\ \\ SEVENTH HOUSE (Joy of the Emperor)\\ \\ Dulcinea Septimus, Duchess of Rhodes, she's sick of a genetic degenerative disease and likely won't live through the trials\\ \\ Protesilaus Ebdoma, Cav, a big brute that basically is Dulcinea's nursemaid.\\ \\ EIGHT HOUSE (Keepers of Tome, the Forgiving House)\\ \\ Silas Octakiseron, Master Templar of the White Glass, a knife faced mayonnaise colored grievously serious teenager and uncle to his Cav\\ \\ Colum Asht, Cav, robust old man missing a finger, battery for his necro\\ \\ NINTH HOUSE (Keepers of the Locked Tomb, no we don't know what's inside)\\ \\ Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of Drearburh (pronounced Dree-a-buh) and Asshole Apparent\\ \\ Gideon Nav, sarcastic and unwilling Cav who reads titty mags for the articles\\ \\ ​\\ \\ Some quick Muirinology:\\ \\ Thanergy: the energy generated by a death\\ \\ Thalergy: comes from living things\\ \\ Coronabeth sets up duels as entertainment. Gideon duels with Magnus and beats him easily. She then spars Babs and he is so perfect with his technique that he disarms her. She punches him not knowing the duel is over - the rules have not been explained to her. Hect says Babs is the winner but Gideon is the better fighter. Now he has a personal grudge instead of just general assholery.\\ \\ Harrow goes missing. Gideon finds her with the help of the Sixth. Harrow has encased herself in bone. She explains she was fighting a construct blindly (she puts her hand on a pad and the battle ensues in another room where she cannot see.) At first Gideon is her eyes and explains the battle, but after hours of this boredom and watching Harrow bleed from her nose and eyes in exhaustion, Gideon stupidly jumps in to fight it and Harrow figures out the challenge is to possess her Cav to see through her eyes and show Gideon how to pluck the necromancy that holds the construct together, apart.\\ \\ They are invited to dinner to celebrate Magnus and Abigail’s anniversary. During dinner Gideon makes friends silently and Harrow chats with Teacher who gives her a tip. They leave quickly and go beat the construct. Gideon tells Harrow she could see the be necromantic ties that held the construct together and Harrow is impressed but doesn’t understand how that happened, the challenge was more than it appeared. Harrow develops an appreciation for Gideon as a fighter. Awkwardness.\\ \\ On their way out they find Abigail and Magnus dead.\\ \\ Everyone tries to animate Magnus and Abigail and it doesn’t work until Silas comes and uses his Cav/much older nephew as a battery to sucks soul energy from him and brings something back… Dulcinea starts screaming so Gideon goes and grabs her, her knight punches Silas in the face. Teacher tells them there are monsters and to get the FUCK out of that area of the castle.\\ \\ Everyone demands a murder investigation but Teacher says it was probably a monster. Teacher says they cannot call for help, it’s against the rules of the trial. Some of them agree that it was probably a monster from things they've seen, but Second is especially suspicious.\\ \\ The key they got when they beat the construct leads to a room where a necromancer and their Cav lived. They find a paper with the formula to the possession and Harrow wants to study it. Gideon is upset about Magnus because he was nice to her. Harrow tells Gideon they need to work together because they might be all that keeps each other alive, and they’re all the Ninth has. Gideon agrees VERY uncomfortably. Seriously any feelings except hate between these two makes both of them painfully awkward.\\ \\ Gideon finds Dulcinea outside passed out in the rain without her Cav. They discover Protesilaus is missing. They've also found human remains in the incinerator, but those are 8 weeks old and there are 2 human signatures on the remains so they know it's not him. The Fourth teens are a wreck over Abigail and Magnus and want to go hunt the monster. Second House tries to take control by making everyone give up their keys, obviously that doesn't work. After questioning teacher, they discover that the laws that apply to the houses do not apply here. Only the first house who finishes each trial get a key, and there are limited keys, but there is no rule that the trial has to be completed for a house to use a key. Second house takes that as an invitation and challenges Sixth to a duel (thinking they're picking on the weak because - librarians.)\\ \\ Camilla surprises them all by being an excellent fighter and beats the hell out of Marta. Like, embarrassingly bad. Babs immediately tries to challenge her because she took a rapier through the arm. Coronabeth is pissed but is somehow cowed by Ianthe. Gideon gives Harrow a suggestive look and Harrow casually throws out that Gideon will stand in for Camilla. Babs backs down. Gideon goes with the Fourth teens to search for Protesilaus. The lights go out except one where they see "Death to the Fourth" written in fresh blood. They encounter an absolutely massive construct who kills Isaac, who is trying to hold it off with some kind of portal necromancy, while Jean and Gideon are trying to fight it.\\ \\ Gideon gets Jean to rest. She falls asleep and when she wakes up she finds Jean impaled with bones, dead, blood across the ceiling “rest”\\ \\ Gideon is distraught. She wakes in the sick room with Dulcinea, who after some conversation guesses that Gideon isn’t really a Cav, but says Harroe doesn’t even know what she has in Gid. Dulcinea mentions that dying fills someone with thanergic energy, insinuating that’s she’s far more powerful than she appears.\\ \\ Sixth and Harrow make a deal to trade keys. Eighth invited Gideon to tea, tells her she’s a slave of her house. Harrow tells Gideon to stay away from Dulcinea, it makes no sense she should have a key. Gideon is pissed, they fight. Harrow pretends she still doesn’t care about Gideon. Gideon decided to betray Hatrow.\\ \\ Silas tells Gideon at tea that he knows what happened to all the children who died on the Ninth. She says it’s got nothing to do with her, she was just one and Harrow wasn’t born yet. He says he knows what it will take to become a Lycyor and he won’t do it, and acts like he has the moral high ground. Then he tries to take her keys. But his Cav gave her his word she’d be safe when he took her sword at the door. She beats tail as he and Silas have a stand-off.\\ \\ Gideon comes across Corona practicing with a sword. She wants to spar with Gideon. Babs comes in and is terrified and grabs Vorona, stopping her from sparring. Gideon walks away from the second conversation she doesn’t understand. Gideon goes back to her room and goes to thrash Harrows closet in anger and finds Protileous’s severed head.\\ \\ Gideon brings the head to Sixth and tells him the secret. Harrow, when they were children, unlocked the locked tomb. Gideon tattled on her, and when she left the room, Harrow’s parents and their Cav hung themselves. Harrow and Camilla walk in cuffed together, he knows who killed Pro and it wasn’t Hatrow.\\ \\ They confront Dulcinea. Pro died in an accident before they ever arrived. Their house specializes in freezing youth so she was able to maintain him.\\ \\ Harrow brings Gideon to salt water to tell her a secret. She opened the locked tomb to kill herself, opening the locked tomb is supposed to begin the apocalypse, her parents hung themselves as a mercy and intended for Harroe to do so as well, she just didn’t. Harroe wanted to die because all the 200 children who died in her house were killed to create the thanergy for her mother to conceive the greatest nectomancet ever born to save their dying house. And no matter what H does that sacrifice can never be worth her life.\\ \\ Harrow tells Gideon the truth, that what’s in the locked tomb is a girl. The one true enemy of the king, his undoing, the beast he defeated once but cannot twice. The ninth was meant to wall themselves up with the corpse and die there, but they didn’t. Their house was never meant to be. That’s also why the Eighth hates them.\\ \\ Sixth and Ninth find the theorems behind the constructs that serve them - the souls themselves are powering their own skeletons. The fire alarm goes off. All the constricts have fallen apart, Teacher is dead. Second killed him trying to send out a help message to the only person they can call from the First House - the Emperor. Second both die of injuries.\\ \\ Eighth says they found Abigail Pent opened up, something removed. Asht saw the Third leaving the morgue. Palamedes examines Abigail and finds that what was removed from was a key she’d hidden inside herself.\\ \\ They go to find Third. Corona is crying and Ianthe has killed Babs and absorbed him - that is how you become a Lyctor. She figured it out not by solving the puzzle but from spying on the others and putting together the theorem based on the fact that there were originally 16 acolytes and then there were 8 Lyctors. Where did the 8 cavs go? She took his soul energy into herself as a battery, to power her forever. She made herself a tomb.\\ \\ Eighth is so offended his Cav tries to kill Ianthe and then he tries to help (since she’s now both a swordsman and a necro.) She kills both of them.\\ \\ Camilla tells Gideon and Harrow that Palamedes has been I love with Dulcinea since they were children.\\ \\ Gideon goes to find Sixth, he has gone to see Dulcinea by himself. He freezes Gideon so she can’t interfere. He’s figured out that she’s not his first love - she’s the Seventh House Lyctor Cyrherea pretending to be Dulcinea so that she could lure the emperor in and kill him. She had the same genetic defect as Dulcinea and instead of Lyctorhood saving her, she’s just been dying for 10,000 years.\\ \\ Palamedes tries to kill her. He dies and fails. Harrow, Gideon, Ianthe and Camilla fight Cytherea and her construct, the monster that killed the Fourth teens. But she is unkillable, she keeps regenerating. They all realize they’re about to die. Gideon tells Harrow she finally understands Cavalierhood - one life, one end, that there is no her without Harrow. She falls on iron fence spikes and kills herself to make Harrow a Lyctor in what is frankly one of the best and most heart wrenching death scenes I’ve ever read.\\ \\ Harrow kills Cytherea.\\ \\ She wakes on the Emperor’s ship and pledges herself to him in return for him renewing the Ninth House.\\ \\ ​\\ \\ **HARROW THE NINTH SUMMARY**\\ \\ We open on a battle scene, something is attacking the Emperor’s ship and Harrow, only half of a Lyctor for some reason, ends up with a rapier through the gut.\\ \\ Flashback to Harrow speaking with Ortus, telling her he must be her Cav to help her cover up the fact that she is insane. Since she opened the locked tomb, she has seen the ghost of the woman inside following her around near constantly.\\ \\ Present day Harrow is on a ship with the Emperor, suffering some sort of PTSD mental break, hating Gideons sword but not letting anyone touch it, vomiting every time she does. Believing she absorbed Ortus.\\ \\ The Emperor tells her that there were 9 planet sized revenants caused by the murder of those planets (The Resurrection) and that he and the Lyctors have been running from them for 10,000 years. These Resurrextioj Beasts can sense them. They’ve managed to kill 5, mostly by accident, and there are 3 left (yes, we all know that math don’t fly.) These beasts eat planets like vampires. Harrow can’t go back to her planet or she will draw one to it.\\ \\ Upon coherence, Ianthe delivers Harrow letters.\\ \\ There are a series of letters, 24, from herself letters o herself. Ianthe is to keep 2. They have prompts on when to open them. She opens the second letter, to be opened upon coherence. It says she must live, and that she owes Ianthe a great debt. Oh, and to examine Ianthe’s jaw discreetly and if it’s been replaced to kill her. It hasn’t.\\ \\ Side fact but probably important: the bodies of Gideon, Camilla and Corona were not recovered.\\ \\ An…alternate past? Is presented where Harrow lands on the First planet with Ortus as her Cav. Harrow sees a message that isn’t there… the eggs you gave me all died and you lied to me.\\ \\ The Joy Knight aka Mercymorn kind of kidnaps/bullies the Emperor (along with Hatrow and Ianthe) off his ship. Mercy asked Hatrow how old she was and “the body” (aka the ghost of the woman in the locked tomb who follows Harrow around) tells her urgently to lie, so she says 15 instead of 17. They use liminal travel to go 40 billion light years away. The premise is that “the river” (an enormous liminal space formed of spirit magic) is magma. Over land it would take you much longer to go somewhere than to just drop into the magma. Only the river is deadly to humans on its own and it’s full of ghosts gone mad from hunger.\\ \\ They drop into the river. They make it out but Harrow tried to use necromancy and almost got sucked in. The Emperor saved her.\\ \\ She and Ianthe wake up in a pew at Cytherea‘s funeral where they meet Augustine and Ortus the first. Ortus tells them The Revenant is coming.\\ \\ Harrow keeps re-imagining the trials with Ortus instead of Gideon. The characters in her imaginary play always ask, “is this how it happened?” Harrow has still not looked at herself in a mirror (if she does we suspect she will see Gideon's eyes, not Ortus's.) Any hint of Gideon mentioned and she will immediately pass out.\\ \\ Harrow is convinced someone is moving Cytherea s body. She confesses to the Emperor aka John that her parents killed 200 children to conceive her. She does not confess that she opened the locked tomb.\\ \\ Back to Harrow's reimagining of her time at the trials, Judith is killed when she and Marta are attempting that first trial, the one where the necro has to see through their Cav's eyes while they're fighting a construct to pull it apart. In this imagining the killer is "the sleeper," a figure in a coffin that Teacher has told them not to wake up. Only they don't know what wakes it. It has a gun, shoots Judith, and goes back into it's coffin. Marta swears she saw it lay upon a two handed sword. (If I haven't mentioned it before - that's Gideon's style of sword.)\\ \\ Ortus the First is trying to kill Harrow. He is the Emperor's guard dog and conceives her a threat, so no amount of anything from John or the other Lyctors can protect her from his attempts to kill her. He also wants her sword. When Harrow says, "why does Ortus the First want me dead?" Mercymorn replies, "who?"\\ \\ In the reimagining the sleeper has killed the Sixth. Dulcinea and Pro seem to be their real life selves, not an re-animation and Cytherea. Im very confused because it seems like Ortus her Cav, his gather her parents Cav, and Ortus the Lyctor are all called Ortus the Ninth??? Harrow finds out Ortus has known her secret about her parents all along, and Hatrow I her insanity sees another message:\\ \\ Cytherea gets up and comes after Harrow in the night like in an excellently terrifying The Ring are-enactment. The next night Harrow walks in on Ortus the Ninth in the…necromantic throws with Cytherea’s body. She tells Ianthe who tells her not to be such a prude. She finds out she ensorcelled Ianthe’s jaw so as not to tell…whatever it is she’s not supposed to tell.\\ \\ Ortus the First attacked Harrow in her bath. He was a thanergy void, he could undo all her wards. She manages to us a tooth she knocked out to stab him in the eye. Ianthe finds her half dead and despairing. She then realizes Ianthe has become an ally of sorts, her only friend and thus her only solace.\\ \\ Re-imagining: Silas pushes Corona off a cliff. Harrow challenged him to bight and he jumps off the cliff.\\ \\ Harrow puts her bone marrow into the dinner soup after not sleeping for 6 days in terror of Ortus. She explodes bones from his insides and almost kills him bit Kohn makes her stop. She begs his mercy, why should he protect John but not her. He acts kind of oblivious, like he doesn’t really think Ortus would all the way kill her. Ianthe takes Harrow back to her room and Harrow sleeps. When she wakes she helps Ianthe cut off her useless arm and replaces it with a bone construct arm.\\ \\ Augustine and Mercy agree to help kill Ortus for their own reasons. They distract John while Harrow goes after him. She finds him in the incinerator after almost being killed by Cytherea. Nobody believes her but he does tell her that the way to block him is fresh blood wards every night.\\ \\ She goes to a planet to kill it and Camilla Hect intercepts her. She saved a bone from his skull and said his plan was to attach his soul to it, to become a revenant. Harrow checks and he’s there, on the river in a thanergy bubble. The sleeper comes after her and she has to leave the river. She makes the bone shard into a hand so that Palimedes can move it.\\ \\ Corona & Captain Deuteros, are with her.\\ \\ Back to present day, Harrow with a stab wound, passed out. Harrow’s hallucinations grow more vivid. Finally they break and she speaks to the ghost, revenant of Abigail Pent. She knew she was absorbing Gideon’s soul, so she disconnected her ability to do so by disconnecting all her awareness (I.e. memories) of Gideon. Abigail tells her there is another soul inside her, one that is haunting her. An angry soul.\\ \\ Gideon is inside Harrow’s body while Harrow’s soul is stuck in the river with her army, the ghosts of the other houses killed at Cannan house. Ortus is there and Harrow realizes that the way she patched over Gideon’s name in her head with Ortus was imperfect - that Ortus the first’s name is also Gideon. They plan to exorcise the Sleeper.\\ \\ Meanwhile Gideon fights off hell wasps in Harrow’s body which is now regenerating in full lyctoral form. She finds Mercymorn who was the one to stab her through the gut, a mercy she said. Then Mercy realizes Gideon is there inside Harrow and rambles about “the mission failed, you’re 19 years too late” and stabs Gideon/Harrow through the heart. But Cytherea with brown eyes saves her.\\ \\ Abigail Pent summons Noneus the Ninth to protect Harrow from the sleeper. He kills the sleeper, but she is still alive on the real plain. Abigail tells Harrow she had to go back, the bubble will fall apart soon. Harrow knows she will kill Gideon if she goes back, and Abigail tells her this all happened because she could not let go of her Cav. She realizes she must face the grief. And just fuck that, you know? We went through this whole book seeing little glimpses and knowing Harrpw was an absolute genius and if anyone could figure out how to get Gideon back it was her and now this?!\\ \\ Gideon and Ianthe are hiding because John has the sleeper aka Cytherea’s body possessed by Commander Wake of the Blood of Eden. Augustine and Mercymorn were working together for Wake. They got John’s semen and got it to Wake for her to carry his child to the tomb and kill it, because the only way it could be opened was with his DNA. That’s right, Gideon is god’s child. Gideon aka Ortus the first walks in and shoots Wake inside Cytherea, expelling her ghost. He says #7 (the planet revenant they’re currently supposed to be fighting) “got away.” That Gideon th ought Wake’s baby was his, which is why he didn’t say anything about it when he was sent to hunt and kill Wake.\\ \\ Not ancient Gideon is John aka god’s child and has AL’s golden eyes, his cav’s eyes. A.L., Alecto, or Annabell Lee. He had resurrected her but she came back wrong like a monster. His Lyctors made him kill her and he put her in a tomb. Except the Lyctors never knew AL was his Cav. He has black eyes, which used to be AL’s eyes. And yet AL was still alive. None of the cavs had to die and John let them all think they did, that it was necessary. Mercymorn blows him to atoms. He pulls himself back together and kills her. He asks everyone to reswear to him and Augustine drops the entire ship in the hell river. He and John are sucked out. Gideon grabs Gideon. But it turns out the necro Gideon died and it’s just his Cav inside, Pyrrha, who was literally hiding inside Gideon without his knowledge as a damn spy for Wake and also was having an affair with her in Gideon’s body.\\ \\ They are sucked out and try to escape. Ianthe, always the last one to make a good damn decision, saves god instead of Augustine, damn her, and at the last when Gideon dies, her last sight is the dead chic in the locked tomb, Harrow’s necromance, doing chest compressions. Harrow climbs into the coffin in the locked tomb, hugs Gideon’s sword and a titty mag, and goes to sleep.\\ \\ Epilogue: She is in a city. In hiding. There is someone to teach her, someone to look after her. “Have you worked out who I am?”\\ \\ “Not yet,” said Camilla.\\ \\ **NONA THE NINTH**\\ \\ This one was pretty straightforward but if you want the summary I'll make one!!! Here's a reward for making it this far, a very depraved bookmark printable:\\ \\ ​\\ \\ \\ \\ ​\\ \\ Upgrade for $5 or login](https://tattooedbibliophile.binderybooks.com/item/25jwTCzuVlkwjPKJGg2Z/) [A Complete Summary of The Locked Tomb (and free printable bookmark)](https://tattooedbibliophile.binderybooks.com/item/25jwTCzuVlkwjPKJGg2Z/) * * * 2 books 2 [Tattooed Bibliophiles\\ \\ Zee\\ \\ • Jan 10 2025](https://tattooedbibliophile.binderybooks.com/) Join for free [Necromancy and Lesbians and Nuns OH MY!\\ \\ Come on, you know I'm absolutely OBSESSED with The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir. It's one of those series that when people say they didn't read it, I honestly think they should try again. Maybe try the audiobook read by Moira Quirk instead. Maybe read my annotations on my blog first so you know what's going on. Maybe LET ME READ IT TO YOU BECAUSE IT'S REALLY EPIC OK?!?!?!\\ \\ And I know. It's a crazy complex plot with tons of easter eggs and the second book has an unreliable narrator and the third book is told by a previously lobotomized person with no recollection of who they are, but I just LIKE IT OK?\\ \\ But there's one major problem. There's nothing else like it, so the book hangover you'll get from reading this (as of today) incomplete series is really gonna suck. And while they're nothing like it out there, there are a couple things that might give you the same _vibes._\\ \\ 1. The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake - Does it have lesbian necromancers in space? No, but it does have six disaster bisexuals with magical powers who are all mentally ill and in love with each other in a challenge that could give them ultimate power, and an author who is way smarter than me, so you see where I'm getting the similar vibes? I need to do a full review of this series because I just finished it and I am NOT WELL.\\ \\ 2. Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan - or really any other books narrated by Moira Quirk. This is definitely more fantasy than sci-fi, with a girl who has cancer falling into the book her sister is reading to her but not as the hero - as the villain. And the tone is the same, that smartass, Reddit baby author who doesn't take herself too seriously off color banter is everything I wanted it to be, and the ending surprised even me, whose pattern recognition means I rarely get to be surprised.\\ \\ 3. The Genesis of Misery by Neon Yang - a queer retelling of Joan of Arc in space. Need I say more? Ok, the banter is perfection and Misery is basically Gideon Nonagesimus. Harrowhark Nav. And also the series isn't done so similar feelings of desperation at the end. You're welcome!\\ \\ 4. Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells - if you read Martha Wells' fantasy works back in the day, you might think, "how can this have similar vibes?" Her fantasy is so serious. But Murderbot diaries is about an autistic security robot who hacks their own limitations...to watch more TV. And ends up gaining much more personhood in the process. Oh, and later in the series there's a very smartass AI ship. Is it love? We don't know yet, but we're having an absolute blast along the way.\\ \\ 5. Anything else by Tamsyn Muir. If you haven't picked up any of her short stories - Princess Floralinda or Undercover, you are seriously missing out.\\ \\ \\ Some honorable mentions that I haven't read but other people have recommended include:\\ \\ The Unspoken Name by AK Larkwood\\ \\ Space Opera by Catherynne M Valente\\ \\ The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson\\ \\ Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots\\ \\ [5 Books to Read if You Loved The Locked Tomb](https://tattooedbibliophile.binderybooks.com/item/cesI9roddXR6DvPEzrz6/) * * * 14 books 2 [Tattooed Bibliophiles\\ \\ Zee\\ \\ • Nov 13 2024](https://tattooedbibliophile.binderybooks.com/) Join for free [September is Sapphic September but it is also Sci-tember, which is Science September but I have co-opted to also mean Science Fiction September. And who says we can't do both??!!\\ \\ Here is a list of Sci-fi books with sapphic characters! Except for Heavenbreaker, which has a really hot enemies thing going on with one of the characters that I am majorly shipping and I'm adding it to this list in the desperate hope that the author sees it and makes my enemies to lovers sapphic dreams come true. Listen, you can't write two hot girls with a deadly vendetta and giant space transformers they fight and have scenes with them in each others faces and NOT make that sapphic, ok?!!\\ \\ I've gone off on a tangent, but you get my point. More sapphic sci-fi books PLEASE!](https://tattooedbibliophile.binderybooks.com/item/On1KqZ6Y4H7gxzWAkYbj/) [Sci-tember](https://tattooedbibliophile.binderybooks.com/item/On1KqZ6Y4H7gxzWAkYbj/) * * * 12 books 1 [Celestial\\ \\ Steph\\ \\ • Oct 26 2024](https://celestial.binderybooks.com/) Join for free [my nycc experience](https://celestial.binderybooks.com/item/um3CrFOh3vu0Af8yy937/) a reading road to rings update AND a new york comic con vlog all in one? what an exciting weekend! * * * 4 books [Elsewhen\\ \\ Emma Gardner\\ \\ • Aug 13 2024](https://elsewhen.binderybooks.com/) Join for free \\ \\ Upgrade for $5 or login](https://elsewhen.binderybooks.com/item/lM6KFkXlZYjKCFlxg9dx/) [Fifteen Solid Minutes of Classical and Biblical Allusions in the Locked Tomb](https://elsewhen.binderybooks.com/item/lM6KFkXlZYjKCFlxg9dx/) There are so many. So, so many. * * * 2 books 5 [Scribe Tribe\\ \\ Jahid\\ \\ • Aug 6 2024](https://scribetribe.binderybooks.com/) [Top 10 Books of 2022 👀](https://scribetribe.binderybooks.com/item/woRWpiUNSKvof6WqgRtb/) * * * 23 books [Scribe Tribe\\ \\ Jahid\\ \\ • Aug 6 2024](https://scribetribe.binderybooks.com/) [My Top 10 Books of 2022](https://scribetribe.binderybooks.com/item/n4owPgXuVr04S9gykPpZ/) * * * 12 books [Scribe Tribe\\ \\ Jahid\\ \\ • Aug 6 2024](https://scribetribe.binderybooks.com/) [10 Characters From 10 Books Who Can Do No Wrong](https://scribetribe.binderybooks.com/item/NKNKy2t33TSiKjEs1adh/) * * * 10 books [Scribe Tribe\\ \\ Jahid\\ \\ • Aug 6 2024](https://scribetribe.binderybooks.com/) [Books I Devoured and Books I Nibbled At](https://scribetribe.binderybooks.com/item/hbmqyURwkao2FfSpIvi6/) * * * 10 books [Elsewhen\\ \\ Emma Gardner\\ \\ • May 20 2024](https://elsewhen.binderybooks.com/) Join for free ["An Incredibly Impenetrable Book Series" \| Weekly Reading Update 5/15](https://elsewhen.binderybooks.com/item/xtW4wvVHszmVLqnHtn2q/) Not only a reading update, but a life update—there's a good reason I missed last week's update, I promise. * * * 3 books [Mareas\\ \\ Marines\\ \\ • Aug 31 2023](https://mareas.binderybooks.com/) Join for free [reading and ranking the 2023 Hugo nominated novels](https://mareas.binderybooks.com/item/O1aHu1xbzaABrDFhe21N/) Here's the playlist for all of the videos in our latest collab: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgcRd060HFyc\_4xg04VKg6UKOcjQa1Sod&feature=shared Hugo Nominated Novels on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/shop/mari-booktokmediareviews/list/M8VN3TUKWDBZ?ref\_=cm\_sw\_r\_cp\_ud\_aipsflist\_aipsfmari-booktokmediareviews\_V9XEAG4ZTTQQHBWD30KQ The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54829360-the-daughter-of-doctor-moreau cw: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/defccc03-571f-42e1-bf48-bcbd355ff12e/content\_warnings The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57693406-the-kaiju-preservation-society cw: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/77271645-4037-49fc-a767-702a064cab7e/content\_warnings Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61242426-legends-lattes cw: https://triggerwarningdatabase.com/2022/04/15/legends-and-lattes-by-travis-baldree/ Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58662507-nona-the-ninth cw: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/e9757d14-84bd-492a-829f-11ddaf0f973b/content\_warnings Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56179377-nettle-bone cw: https://triggerwarningdatabase.com/2022/04/30/nettle-bone-by-t-kingfisher/ The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55077658-the-spare-man cw: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/e9757d14-84bd-492a-829f-11ddaf0f973b/content\_warnings ▶︎▶︎ If this content was valuable to you, here are some additional ways to support me! This helps me continue to produce videos, and I really appreciate it. 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