Update upon listening to the audiobook (thank you Librofm and Recorded Books for making all my dreams come true - again)... You should definitely still read my original review (after the "--" below) because it very readily sums up the experience of someone reading the text of the book. But the audiobook... Man, that's an entirely different revenant. This is the first book I've ever read where a re-read has me UPPING the star rating. Moira Quirk is a genius and the subtlety with which she crafts the different sections of this audiobook in order to give the listener the barest hint of grounding (that, having already read the book, I copped on to and appreciated right away).

After reading Gideon the Ninth, I never would have expected Ianthe Tridentarius to be my favorite character but she so is. She took on the mantle of the comedic character and she does it so archly and the tone with which Quirk plays her dialogue (reminiscent of the way she played Babs in the previous audiobook, since Ianthe didn't have a whole lot of dialogue in that one) is absolute perfection.

And Mercymorn. Oh the personification of her beyond just the text really sold everything for me. Honestly, listen to the audiobook. That's all I can really tell you coherently.

--

Okay, okay - okay. First of all, my thanks to Tor.com and Edelweiss for the advanced copy (aka for making all my dreams for 2020 come true). Second: I can summarize my thoughts on this book as a whole and complete entity in the totally in-character phrase: what the actual fuck. Not even a question, but a statement just like that. Here we go.

So Gideon the Ninth, my favorite book of 2019, left us in an interesting spot. We've got Gideon dead and Harrow more than a little bit overwhelmed. Curtains close; end of act one. Harrow the Ninth picks up in a jumbled mess that can generally be described as "after the events of the first installment" with some third person narration and some second person (which I love) narration and some time jumps and lots of "now wait just a minute, you're completely changing the narrative." This leads to, I'll admit, a very confusing first 3/4 of the book.

For a book about necromancers, I really wasn't expecting so many characters to come back from the dead. We'll leave that there as a minor spoiler and fuel for at least 1/3 of my total WTFs.

Apart from the same glorious, gruesome, and above all detailed writing that I loved from Gideon the Ninth, Harrow the Ninth is much more subdued. There's still a lot of sharp wit but there's a lot more resignation, too. This book suffers from the fact that it's too long for its own good. I didn't feel entirely engaged until about 75%. Now, my confusion and general WTFishness was enough to propel me forward (I had my theories and really wanted an explanation) with the help of writing at the sentence level that I absolutely adore and a lot of interesting worldbuilding that we kind of missed the first time around.

But man, once 75% rolled around, I was in it up to my eyeballs! That was the rollicking good time I expected after Gideon the Ninth (and I really hope Moira Quirk is going to narrate the audiobook for this one as well because I need to see how she handles it).

To summarize: this one has a very different tone and pace from the first book, with a lot more confusing moving parts. I am, however, anticipating that the payout in book three will be absolutely epic.