塔姆辛·缪尔

Tamsyn Elizabeth Muir (born 14 March 1985) is a New Zealand fantasy, science fiction, and horror author best known for The Locked Tomb, a science fantasy series of novels. Muir won the 2020 Locus Award for her first novel, Gideon the Ninth, and has been nominated for several other awards as well.

Biography

Muir was born March 14, 1985, in New South Wales, Australia. Her family moved to New Zealand when she was nine months old, so Muir grew up in Howick, New Zealand. In 2010, she earned a degree in education. She is also a 2010 graduate of the Clarion Workshop. She currently lives and works in Oxford, United Kingdom.

Work

Muir's short story "The Deepwater Bride", published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in 2015, was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novelette, the World Fantasy Award—Short Fiction, the Eugie Award, and the Shirley Jackson Award for best novelette.

Gideon the Ninth, Muir's first novel and the first book of The Locked Tomb series, was published in 2019. It was awarded the 2020 Locus Award for Best First Novel and the 2020 Crawford Award, presented annually by the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts. It was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel and the Hugo Award for Best Novel. It finished third in the Goodreads Choice Awards for best science fiction in 2019.

The second book in The Locked Tomb, Harrow the Ninth, was published in August 2020, and was a finalist for the 2021 Hugo Award for Best Novel. It was followed by Nona the Ninth, a surprise addition to the planned trilogy of Gideon the Ninth, Harrow the Ninth, and Alecto the Ninth, in 2022. Alecto the Ninth, now the series' fourth instalment, was initially announced for release in 2023, but a cover and release date have not been revealed.

Muir's fantasy novella Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower was published in July 2020. It received a starred review from Publishers Weekly. Muir spoke several times about the sequel, which was to be titled Queen Floralinda Takes Her Throne. In October 2026, Cosmopolitan published the cover reveal for Princess Floralinda, which will combine both her original novella and the intended sequel into a single book, to be released on July 27, 2027 by Tor. It will be her first published novel outside the Locked Tomb series.

Muir wrote the teleplay for the twelfth episode of Secret Level, based on the video game Spelunky, which aired in 2024. She adapted Siobhan Carroll's short story For He Can Creep into the tenth episode of the fourth volume of Love, Death & Robots, which aired in 2025.

In 2020, Muir announced that after completing The Locked Tomb Tor would be publishing her cyberpunk western novella trilogy, beginning with Go Marching In.

Publications

The Locked Tomb

—— (2019). Gideon the Ninth. Tor Books. ISBN 978-1250313195.

—— (2020). Harrow the Ninth. Tor Books. ISBN 978-1250313225.

—— (2022). Nona the Ninth. Tor Books. ISBN 978-1250854117.

——. Alecto the Ninth. Tor Books.

—— (2027). Princess Floralinda. Tor Books. ISBN 9781250479631.

Related short stories

0.5 —— (2020). "The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex". Tor.

2.5 —— (2021). "As Yet Unsent". Harrow the Ninth (trade paperback reprint ed.). ISBN 978-1250313218.

3.5 —— (2023). "The Unwanted Guest". Nona the Ninth (trade paperback ed.). ISBN 978-1250899132.

Related Essays

—— (2020). "A Little Explanation on Naming Systems". Gideon the Ninth (trade paperback reprint ed.). ISBN 978-1250313188.

Novellas

—— (2020). Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower. Subterranean Press. ISBN 978-1596069923.

Comics

Apothecia (written by Muir, drawn by Shelby Cragg) (2014)