It’s over two years now since I featured Tamsyn Muir’s Gideon the Ninth (Locked Tomb #1) in my worldbuilding series on Supernatural Underground.

Since then I’ve read Harrow the Ninth (but just didn’t get around to posting on it — mea culpa!) Today, though, I’m reporting in on Nona the Ninth, Book Three in the Locked Tomb series.

Nona picks up right where Harrow left off, re-immersing readers in the Locked Tomb’s space-spanning world of necromancers and lyctors, undead legions and  Resurrection Beasts. Readers also re-meet characters met before in Gideon and Harrow (I’m not saying exactly who because that might count as a spoiler) as well as some equally interesting new ones.

In fact, there are some really great characters in Nona, starting with Nona herself. Author Alix E Harrow‘s cover tagline is that, “You will love Nona, and Nona loves you.” Unquestionably, both statements are true: I did love Nona’s character, and Nona pretty much loves everyone. In part, this is because she doesn’t know who she is (those with her are trying to help her find out) so has a very young mental age—and some of those other great new characters are the kids in the school where she is a teaching assistant.

One of the things I feel Tamsyn Muir captures really well in Nona is the “voices” and personalities of the children, with their mix of naivete and street wisdom, including the boundaries that shift between unstinting generosity, bargaining, and uncompromising harshness. Nona also contains a sequence that explains the background events that created the Locked Tomb world—expect themes of climate change and social division. NZ readers may particularly enjoy the distinctively Kiwi setting to this backstory. 🙂

The characters are great and the story rocks along, an aspect that brings readers closer to the ethos of Gideon than Harrow, with its more complex narrative. My only reservation is one that continues from reading Harrow, which is that I’m slightly perplexed over the plot and how aspects of the world hang together. (No pun intended, given those skeletons. 😀 )

Obviously, with a final book yet to come (working title: Alecto the Ninth) readers can reasonably expect such perplexities to work themselves out. Alternatively, my plot-wrangling “slip” may be showing. Either way, Nona is a fun read and I have no hesitation in recommending it to you.

Also obviously, if you’re already a Tamsyn Muir fan I have little doubt you’re going to love Nona, too. For those who’re not familiar with the series, I believe that if you’ve enjoyed World War Z by Max Brooks, Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, Cowboy Feng’s Space Bar and Grill by Steven Brust, or The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi, then the Locked Tomb series may well appeal, too.

Disclosure: I read an uncorrected proof edition supplied by the publisher, TOR DOTCOM’s South Island representative — a trade paperback equivalent clocking in at 477 pages.