A short life of the author
Tamsyn Muir (born 1985) is the author of the Locked Tomb series, a sequence of novels that defies genre classification with an exuberance that is either brilliant or insane depending on your tolerance for necromantic sword-lesbians in space. The series — Gideon the Ninth (2019), Harrow the Ninth (2020), Nona the Ninth (2022), and the forthcoming Alecto the Ninth — has attracted a passionate, enormous readership and represents one of the most formally adventurous fantasy series of the decade.
Life and Career
Muir was born in New Zealand and raised in various countries. She began publishing short fiction in the 2010s, winning the 2015 Undead Writing Contest and placing stories in venues including Fantasy Magazine and Nightmare. She has a background in classical studies, which informs the Locked Tomb series’ engagement with Latin, Roman imperial culture, and Greco-Roman mythology.
Gideon the Ninth (2019, Tor.com Publishing) was an immediate sensation. The novel follows Gideon Nav, a foul-mouthed swordswoman, and Harrowhark Nonagesimus, a bone-manipulating necromancer, as they enter a deadly trial at the decaying palace of the Emperor of the Nine Houses. The premise — necromancers and their sword-wielding cavaliers compete to become the Emperor’s immortal saints, essentially a murder-mystery locked-room puzzle set in a haunted house in space — is gonzo, but Muir commits to it with total conviction. The voice is the key: Gideon’s first-person narration is aggressive, funny, horny, and surprisingly tender, and it made the book a word-of-mouth phenomenon.
Harrow the Ninth (2020) confounded expectations entirely. Narrated in second person, it follows Harrowhark after the events of the first book but with her memory altered — she does not remember Gideon. The book is a structural puzzle box: readers must reconstruct what actually happened from unreliable narration, embedded flashbacks, and deliberate contradictions. It is significantly more difficult than the first book and divided readers, though its ambition is undeniable.
Nona the Ninth (2022) shifted again: a wartime novel narrated by a child-like consciousness inhabiting a body that is not hers, set in a refugee city under siege. It expanded the series’ political scope while maintaining the emotional core.
Themes and Style
The Locked Tomb series is about death, resurrection, love, debt, and what it means to consume another person — literally, since necromancy in Muir’s world requires absorbing the souls of the dead. Beneath the meme-ready surface energy, the books are structured with careful attention to classical and biblical allusion (the Emperor is a Christ figure who is also a tyrant), and Muir plays sophisticated narrative games across volumes.
Key Works
- Gideon the Ninth (2019)
- Harrow the Ninth (2020)
- Nona the Ninth (2022)
Collecting Muir
Gideon the Ninth first edition (Tor.com, 2019) signed brings $75–$200; early printings are identifiable by the Tor.com Publishing imprint on the title page. Muir signs at conventions and events. Subterranean Press limited editions of the Locked Tomb novels are actively collected. The series’ passionate fandom means that signed first editions of all volumes have strong demand. As the series concludes with Alecto the Ninth, complete signed sets of all four first editions will be premium collectibles.