Science fantasy. Spaceships and necromancers. Sequel to Gideon the Ninth. Because it is a sequel, I can’t say anything about the plot without spoiling the first book. I will say that I was a little hesitant to read this one because I thought there was no way that it could match the intricacy and sheer outrageous energy of its predecessor. And it is a bit of a different book – I think there is a bit less of a leavening of humour, though still some, and its main relational driver isn’t the same, for instance. But if anything, it is just as over-the-top and even more complex in its worldbuilding and plot. A key move by the author, and a brilliant one, is that the state of affairs at the end of Gideon is different in some major ways than what you find at the start of Harrow, despite the passage of only a short time between the two, and you get absolutely no explanation and have to piece together what’s going on over the course of hundreds of subsequent pages. My only minor complaint about this book is that – again excuse the spoiler-avoidant vagueness – a couple of specific elements of its resolution are confusing and unclear in an emotionally unsatisfying way. But everything else about the ending is as good as the rest of the book, and it is possible (though I have no idea whether it is likely) that even these bits are setting things up for some greater catharsis in a book to come, so I didn’t mind much. Anyway, if you enjoyed Gideon, do not hesitate to pick this one up.
Originally posted by Scott on Goodreads.