Reviews and Comments

...is what the back of the book says. And Tamsyn Muir again successfully makes you guess what the everlasting fuck is happening, excuse my language. I was prepared after Harrow, but it's still such a mindfuck. You think you're getting new information about the Locked Tomb universe and how it happened, but at no point are you certain that things are what they are. I absolutely love it. Can't wait for Alecto to be published.

If you couldn't quite follow the events in Gideon the Ninth and found the book confusing, this one is definitely not for you.

Harrow the Ninth continues the Locked Tomb series where Gideon the Ninth left off. It is a complete mindfuck however (excuse my language) and with every page I was delightedly wondering "ok, what unexpected event or information will come next?"

If you liked the first one, this continuation will make you like the series even more.

This third book from the Wayfarer's series felt a bit more "slice of life" than the other two. There is no real overarching plot, just life stories of various protagonists who try to find themselves.

You learn more about the Exodus fleet and their ethos, which opens up all those questions of how we need to work together as a society if we want to survive as a species when we (inevitably?) make our planet uninhabitable. This is embedded in the day-to-day lives of different protagonists from different backgrounds.

The book paints an optimistic picture about how humanity has learned to finally behave like decent people, while still acknowledging that bad things can and will happen because life is shades of grey.

A man in search of himself, because he is different and doesn't know why. So far, so good. The book felt slow at times, but it's a Novella so you know that it can't drag on too long.

The character is pretty likable, but the main story arc only happens in the last third of the book and then the final part is only a couple of pages long.

Recommended for completionist like me, it's a decent read.

I loved this book, but I guess this is not to everyone's taste. First of all, you get thrown into a pretty confusing world, without much explanation. You learn more throughout the book, and as I discovered after finishing, there is also a glossary and explanation of some things attached.

Still, this was a wild ride through a space gothic necromantic sword wielding story with so much going on, you can barely catch a breath. You fumble along next to Gideon, who doesn't know much more than the reader.

Totally recommended for people who like a nice, confusing mix of Scifi, Fantasy and Gothic Horror Novels.

3.5 stars rounded up. A human colony is stranded on a faraway planet for about 600 years now and has to survive and deal with the primitive native folk. The storytelling is decent, but a bit dusty regarding e.g. gender roles. To be fair, it was written in 1966 and Le Guin was only in the process of becoming the huge success and forward thinker she later turned out to be.

The book is short and shouldn't be any longer for the given story. It's part of the loose canon of Hainish novels (although either I missed it, or they don't play any role in this one), so as a completionist, I just had to read it. I liked it a bit better than Rocannon's World, the first one.

The books from the Wayfarers series can be read standalone, but I recommend reading them in order so you get a feel for the universe and an introduction to the characters (ok, I've only read the first two right now). Things will make a little bit more sense.

Anyways, this was another really nice, character-driven book.

I must admit, this book didn't capture me as much as others. It is not long though, and you have to consider its age (published in 1966!).

Its ideas and story are therefore quite remarkable. I have not read the other, more famous stories from the Hainish novels, but I'm sure this is not the best.

It contains some landmarks of Scifi though (even though most of it is high fantasy), most remarkably the Ansible, which Le Guin invented here and which is a mainstay for so many other works from later authors.

A lovable and diverse spaceship crew on an adventure. What's not to like. The main plot almost fades into the background because there's a lot of focus on the different characters of the crew, their lives, emotions and character development throughout the book.

I'm looking forward to reading the other books from this series.

Das Buch hat mich nicht wirklich abgeholt. Es war nicht so schlecht dass ich aufgehört hätte es zu lesen, aber der Plot war teils sehr dünn. Verschiedene Ideen die eine größere Rolle spielen sind wenn man es freundlich formulieren will inspiriert von anderen Scifi-Autoren.

Letzteres finde ich nicht schlimm, die allerwenigsten Ideen sind wirklich grundlegend neu. Der Autor hat es aber zumindest für mich nicht wirklich geschafft diese Ideen zu etwas interessantem Neuen zu verarbeiten.

Insgesamt ein mittelmäßiger Sci-fi Thriller der versucht, eine Mischung aus Hard-boiled Detective Story mit diversen Charakteren und einer Near-Future Scifi Story zu verknüpfen.

Another wild ride through Undisclosed. I personally love the humour, but I guess it's not to everyone's taste. However, if you liked the previous installations, you can't go wrong with this one.

The book again keeps you on edge because the lines between "reality" (whatever that means in this series) and dreams / false memories is a blurry mess and you expect a new revelation with every turn of the page, only to be negated on the next. Nothing is ever as it seems. Sounds exhausting, but is extremely fun to read because the protagonists take it in stride, as always.