Donald Maass Literary Agency

Publishers Weekly: Political infighting and battles between gods dog the Kencyrath people as they continue their 3,000-year war against Perimal Darkling in Hodgell’s byzantine 10th Kencyrath epic fantasy (after 2019’s By Demons Possessed). Jame, the lone female Highborn of House Knorth, takes command of the house troops to fulfill mercenary contracts with the native Rathillien king, Mordaunt, who schemes to raise himself to godhood. Meanwhile, Jame’s brother, Torisen, Highlord of the Kencyrath, worries that a poor harvest and a lack of payments from the Rathillien will leave his people fighting over food, and fears he’ll be left unable to help as the larger Houses push for more prestige and power on the High Council. Throughout, both siblings continue to manifest the power of the Tyr-ridan, avatars of the Three-faced God who abandoned the Kencyr ages ago. Hodgell’s intricate web requires careful reading—and extensive knowledge of the previous books—to follow, but the author repays her fans with a saga that flows neatly between the mythic and the mundane. There’s plenty of life left in this series.

Library Journal: Auditors, the most skilled magical beings, are enforcers of the magical community in Boston for The Department of Unorthodox Affairs. Grimshaw Griswald Grimsby spent his youth training to become one of those elite, only to be dismissed by Samantha Mansgraf, one of the most powerful witches in the Department. When Mansgraf is found murdered, Grimsby becomes a suspect. Clearing his name will take all of Grimsby’s talent, along with some assistance from the legendary Huntsman and an unusual resident of Elsewhere, the magical space that overlays the regular world. As Grimsby searches for the truth, he will discover a complex plot that would not only take away his freedom, but impact both the supernatural Unorthodox and common Usual residents of his city. Butcher’s outcast protagonist and city setting ground the prose even as the mysterious Elsewhere introduces even more unusual action and questions for the future.

VERDICT: This debut from Butcher (son of “Dresden Files” novelist Jim Butcher) hits all the right notes for an entertaining urban fantasy series. Readers will want to see what happens next.

Locus: …if you’re not already a fan, this is not the place to start. Go directly to Gideon the Ninth. If you love it, read Harrow the Ninth, and then read this. If you don’t love it, Nona the Ninth is not for you. Also, we can’t be friends. (Actually, let me dial that back – for all I know this is a valid place to start. Given Muir’s astonishing skill, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if it turned out the books had been painstakingly constructed so you could read them in any order and be equally bewildered and delighted….)

So, the bottom-line question that confronts a reviewer of this book is, if you loved Gideon and Harrow, will you love Nona? And: obvs. You already know.

Nona the Ninth is very on brand in that it completely scraps the previous book. That’s right: all that painstaking lore and the complex relationships and shifting webs of allegiances you spent hundreds of pages learning? Right out the window. And – still on brand – it works, somehow.

Bottom line: Tamsyn Muir can do anything. Like Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth, Nona keeps on attempting the most audacious, ridiculous, awe-inspiring feats of storytelling – and nailing it every single time. As an author I’d be nauseous with jealousy, if I wasn’t having such an ecstatic, blissful time. Nona the Ninth manages to be non-stop fun–and hilariously funny – and deeply, painfully, blisteringly moving. Sometimes all in the same paragraph.