January 2021

Ok you definitely piqued my interest with your art of Gideon the ninth and I keep seeing the description of "lesbian necromancers in space" but I did some ~research about the book and apparently the protagonists are just friends?? Like I really want to buy this book and I know there's still one left to be published so there's hope but man I'm traumatised by queerbait. I guess my question is.. do you trust this author/know if they have the intention of actually following through with this relationship? Or is the story more focused on something else? Sorry for the long ask

Hi there! So sorry for the late reply (was finishing up Harrow The Ninth!)

For starters: Do not worry about The Locked Tomb series being queerbait.

This is an insanely saturated queer work that regularly and respectfully revolves around queer characters, jargon and framework. So a big hell yes to that!

However the way I am interpreting the other part of your question is more like: Is there going to be a ‘happy ending’ for all of this? 

(Personal disclaimer: I realize ‘happy’ and ‘how love should be’ can look so differently from person-to-person. So simply relying on “these characters’ endgame relationship has to be canon at the end” as the only means to hallmark something as a good book or as ‘the only way to validate a story of love’ can be a bit harsh or even prove to be unfair to the art of the narrative sometimes)

So with much difficulty and for spoiler reasons, my answer to that is:
I genuinely have no idea and I am still so excited for what the final book Alecto The Ninth will bring.

If it helps, both of the main characters Gideon and Harrowhark (individually and together) are incredibly integral characters and their relationship is very queer, complex and evolves around being so terribly loving of each other in their own way that it is challenging to come to a stark black-and-white answer about how their relationship is / what it will become. In this, you can just tell that Tamsyn Muir maintains so much pride and love in the way she wrote and fleshed out all the characters - she’s definitely earned my trust in how she’ll handle taking this work to the finish line!

Oof so overall I really hope this answer didn’t at all discourage you from reading this series. It truly is plot-heavy, refreshing, visceral, gritty, masterfully whipsmart, deliciously provocative and queer as fuck! I’ve been recommending it to a handful of my mutuals who are LGBTQIA+ and even allies as well who enjoy grimmer detailed works. So far everyone I know who has read it is bewildered and in love.

I fully understand how hurtful and toxic much of queer media can be in recent decades - at the end of the day, all we really want is just something good that won’t hurt our communities for once and that we can celebrate it. This is definitely one of those reads for me!