Nona the Ninth Sneak Preview
Tamsyn Muir
Is this a Tor power move?
Nona the Ninth comes out 13-Sep-2022. On 12-Jul-2022 Tor.com released Nona the Ninth Sneak Peek, which you can buy for the low, low price of $0.00 on Amazon.com. Sneak Peek is the first six chapters of Nona. I will get to the content, but the first question I want to tackle is this: what does it mean that Tor is giving away the beginning of the book for free? The first thought that comes to mind is, "You don't give away free previews if you think the readers are going to say, 'That's enough for me. I don't want to read any more.'" The second thought is "Who spends time reading the first six chapters of a book that's coming out in full in a month? Well, *ME*: someone who is all-in enthusiastic about the Locked Tomb series, and is hopping on one foot with impatience to get the next one! Or maybe I need to pee." I'm assuming that Tor.com believes (accurately) that Tamsyn Muir owns us, body and soul, and that by this trick they can recruit an army of zombie publicists who will tell the world to go out and buy Nona. Do it! Pre-order now!
Now, I realize that not everyone thinks the Locked Tomb books are Great Literature. Indeed, I have read the other reviews and know that there are a lot of folks out there who can't abide them. And I agree! To an extent... Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth are difficult, spikey books that are hard work to read and understand, They are problematic in many ways and are not easy to swallow -- they hurt going down. If no one hates a book, it is not Great Literature. (Alas the converse is not true. Being hated is not a recommendation. I contend only that it is not a disqualification.) They are also, IMHO, utterly brilliant!
Harrow the Ninth ended with an epilog about a girl surviving somehow in a bombed-out city with three people, "the person who went to work for her", "the person who taught her", and "the person who looked after her". The last words of the epilog were,
"Have you worked out who I am?"
"Not yet", said Camilla.
We now know that the girl is Nona, but that is just what she's called -- it is not an answer to the question "Who am I?" We also find (this is in the publisher's blurb, so not a spoiler) that the three people she lives with are Pyrrha and Camilla and Palamedes, whom you will remember from Harrow and Gideon. Presumably we will eventually learn who Nona is in the full book.
Sneak Peek contains little new information, in the sense of factual answers to questions about what's going on. What is does is introduce us to Nona. After reading Sneak Peek you will feel you know Nona much better.