Harrow the Ninth

The Locked Tomb is a four-part science-fantasy epic space opera with complex societal and magic systems. Gideon the Ninth introduced the setting and the societal conventions, while Harrow the Ninth delves into the intricacies of Muir’s worldbuilding.

Roughly 10,000 years ago, Earth faced inevitable mass extinction from human-induced climate change. Wealth disparity grew so large that the richest people on Earth were trillionaires. A Kiwi man named John, alongside a ragtag group of allies, tried to save humanity through a science project and became embroiled with necromancy. John used this necromancy to both kill and revive the entire planet in an act called the Resurrection. The Resurrection placed John as the God of humanity and an Emperor at the seat of a newly founded necromantic empire. Humanity was then split up along the nine planets of the solar system (including Pluto) and divided into Nine Houses, according to the whims and specialties of John’s closest and most trusted disciples. John turned those disciples into Lyctors, demigod-like necromancers. Becoming a Lyctor requires consuming the soul of another living human being, often one very close to the necromancer called their cavalier, in order to use that soul as a battery.

Magic in the Locked Tomb functions on a dualistic energy system: Thanergy (death energy) and thalergy (life energy). Thalergy feeds the functions of life and inevitably decays into thanergy as organisms die, which eventually becomes converted back into thalergy within a stable ecosystem. Necromancy is split into three schools: Bone magic, flesh magic, and spirit magic, with necromancers and Houses often specializing in a single kind. Necromancers struggle to manipulate thalergy, though they can kill thalergy sources in order to start “thanergy cascades.” Planets within the Locked Tomb series are large, complex organisms. By “flipping” the planets and causing a thanergy cascade, planets can be either completely killed or exploited for necromantic purposes by releasing their massive amounts of thalergy as useable thanergy.

A very small group of people were outside of the solar system when the Resurrection occurred, and these people became the various groups outside of the Nine Houses’ control, such as the Blood of Eden. The Resurrection required an immense amount of thanergy, which meant John needed to “kill” the souls of the nine planets. The souls of the planets were jettisoned into the River, a limbo-like afterlife plane of existence, where they became hungry for revenge. These souls, called Resurrection Beasts, have hunted John and his Lyctors for the past 10,000 years. The series revolves around the messy conflict between the Nine Houses, the other remnants of humanity, and the apocalyptic Resurrection Beasts.

In Gideon the Ninth, the first novel of the series, the heir-apparent Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House, Harrowhark Nonagesimus, finds herself invited to Canaan House, the home of the First House (exclusively populated by the Emperor and his Lyctors). The Emperor has lost most of his Lyctors and requires new help. The invite asks the Eight Houses to send forth their most promising necromancers and their cavaliers. Harrow answers the call with her cavalier, a foundling named Gideon Nav. At Canaan House, Harrow and Gideon explore a haunted Gothic castle with an ancient laboratory underneath, where the first Lyctors perfected the Lyctor theorem 10,000 years ago.

The Lyctor candidates must undergo trials and tribulations and discover the secret of Lyctorhood. The candidates are hunted by Cytherea the First, who disguises herself as the Seventh House candidate until the book’s climax. Cytherea, a Lyctor, turned against the Nine Houses and wanted to end the project of necromancy that had produced the Resurrection Beasts. Cytherea is foiled by Gideon, Harrow, and Camilla Hect and Palamedes Sextus of the Sixth House. To defeat Cytherea, Gideon kills herself so that Harrow can consume her soul and become a Lyctor. Ianthe Tridentarius of the Third House, who figured out the theorem and murdered her cavalier, also becomes a Lyctor. Harrow the Ninth begins in the immediate aftermath of Gideon, when Harrow and Ianthe are personally rescued by the Emperor’s flagship and inducted into their new roles.

The Locked Tomb series is notable for its large cast of LGBTQ+ characters and its tackling of LGBTQ+ issues through diverse perspectives. Muir refers to Lyctorhood as an expression of “genderfuckery” (Zutter, Natalie. “Tamsyn Muir on Lyctorhood as Genderfuckery and Greasy Bible Study in Nona the Ninth.” Tor.com, 2022) and decided to write the series for her younger, closeted, and angry self (Grady, Constance. “How Gideon the Ninth author Tamsyn Muir queers the space opera.” Vox.com, 2021). These themes are often interwoven throughout the series’ other, larger thematic concerns. The complex relationship Harrow has with her religion mirrors the complex relationships LGBTQ+ people have with their own religions, as religions are sometimes used as a tool for bigotry toward the LGBTQ+ community. The gender dysphoria and “genderfuckery” inherent in Lyctorhood are interwoven with the series’ book-spanning explorations of grief and devotion within LGBTQ+ love and friendships.