u/GhostWolfGambit

I feel Reddit mods have too much power and should at least be required to justify why they banned someone.

I also think bans should only be permanent if breaching serious rules.

On a thread about October 7th, I responded to some comments criticising Israel. As did other commentors. After a few comments, I received in my inbox a permanent ban from the sub. For breaking the sub's "rules"

No reasons given.

I was not attacking Israelis. I was not attacking Jews. I was not spouting hate speech. I was solely criticising the Netanyahu government and talking about New York Times investigations.

I asked to speak to a mod several times to understand WHY I was permanently banned (no warnings, no temp ban, PERMANENTLY banned).

Today, they permanently muted me.

There is no way to talk to them. No way to appeal. And I still never got a single reason, nor did they point to which specific comment "broke the rules"

I am now banned for life.

FYI there were literal comments calling for all "Gazans to be exterminated" etc

Massive spoilers - not sure how to spoiler tag the entire post

This is a tough one to review because I was hooked, desperate to find out the ending, and also simultaneously disappointed and growing weary throughout. Am curious to hear other points of view and if anyone agrees/disagrees.

Once again we have a new protagonist, a new POV, new mysteries, which can be frustrating. The next book is 'Alecto', so... I guess it'll be a while before we get back to Harrow or Gideon, if ever.

I liked the worldbuilding and the dystopian, more 'grounded' city life - for a while. And I was certainly hooked by John's dreams uncovering what happened to him and Earth. And I was certainly curious about who Nona really was and how it all ties back to books #1 & #2.

But... this is the first time I really saw the author as a fan-fiction writer and this book felt like a fan-fic. The exact moment I felt this? The reveal of Gideon/Kiriona.

I KINDA felt this way with the reveal that Gideon is actually the daughter of the Emperor - why?! Did she need to be? Isn't it cool that Harrow is a Chosen One and Gideon was just a badass who grew up alongside her and trained with the sword and rose up against all odds (ie everyone hating her)?

But HONESTLY, UGH. I liked the whole body-swapping, eye-colour-is-important, "people might not be who you think they are" etc but Nona takes this to new levels.

We have Lyctors / cavaliers swapping bodies, we have souls puppeting corpses, we have no idea who Nona is until the end (just some hints etc), we have Harrow is in a dream with John but is it even really Harrow - and then the EXACT MOMENT I felt like I was reading a fanfic was the moment of "Gideon is back FINALLY but it's her reanimated corpse and actually their name is Prince Kiriona and it's not really Nav at all but —"

Ugh.

My patience waned. Moments like this sound like a very enthusiastic Locked Tomb fan very excitedly and breathlessly explaining their own fan-fic spin-off.

However, this didn't kill my enjoyment too much. I just felt like the book didn't really go anywhere until the end (then again Muir LOVES dumping big reveals at the end) and once again we're left confused about Harrowhark who is... no longer the protagonist? Seriously - it's going to be a shame if Alecto is all about Alecto's POV, as I guess it'll be several years until we get back (if ever) to Harry.

I'm now finding it hard to bond with the protagonists. I really liked Gideon, then I really liked Harrow in book 2. But now we had a book of Nona and I'm presuming a next book about Alecto. I guess what I'm trying to say is I am growing weary of the unreliable narrator and it was great for 2.5 books but towards the end of book 3, I guess I just wanted answers but, nope, gotta wait until the actual ending.

I was still hopeful that H and G could find a way to be together, but I guess if that happens it will be a big reveal later in the series, but still. I feel like Muir makes you bond with these amazing, deep characters and then just gets too excited with trying to be clever and have you unsure who is who, or pulling away a protagonist for an entire book, etc.

I will say it's definitely the mysteries etc that keep me going. Nona was still a real page-turner. But having just finished, I don't think for me it reached the heights of 1 or 2. And I liked the John reveals but I REALLY hope he's "lying" in some way because did anyone else think the origins of how he got his powers were...... really lame? Like Alecto just "chose him" and was like "here, become God"

?!?!?!

Anyway - overall I'm conflicted. I really like the series, I like Muir's writing and description, but I guess I'm at the point where the WORLDBUILDING and LORE is now way more interesting than "ooooh the narrator is unreliable again! Who are they really?? What's real and what's not! Wait and see heheh" and also, I'm growing tired of the "actually THIS character is in THAT character's body!"

So I just finished the second book and loved it but found it extremely confusing overall! I know this isn't a new sentiment but I wanted to add my voice to the River and share some thoughts.

I consider myself pretty smart but even in the first book I found myself getting confused. There are a LOT of characters and whilst you're also trying to get to grips with necromantic theorems, there is this awesome worldbuilding to unravel AND mysteries/hints dangled - and whilst all that's going on, you have to remember the character names etc!

Not only the character names but sometimes they're called by their title, or their surname, or even a nickname, and once I finished book 1, with the confusing >!third person "flashback"!< chapters of book 2, you have to remember them all over again! I genuinely forgot for a second who >!Camilla!< was at the end of the book, which I guess undid the BIG REVEAL as I was like, "wait, who was that again"?

I didn't mind the >!third person flashbacks!< as much because as confusing as it was, I knew something was amiss, but it also was quite frustrating initially because there's already so much going on in the book.

Then you have the whole >!Gideon the First reveal and people using other people's bodies and the reveals about God all crammed into a confusing revelation, meanwhile Lyctor eye colour is important and who was actually who way back when and!<

—whew.

This reads like a critique but I really enjoyed it. I was hooked and read it in the course of a few days. Can't wait to read the next book but I'm definitely finding the sheer number of characters very difficult and sometimes forgetting who is who!

I'm very confused about >!Anastasia, Annabel and Alecto. I think I've seen hints without spoilers luckily that Alecto will be more revealed in the next books but was Annabel Lee just him referring to a poem? I thought that Anastasia was the body but Anastasia was in the process of attaining Lyctorhood when God killed her - is that right? And we don't know much about the Body in the locked tomb except the other Lyctors wanted her dead? I'm super confused on this point!<