The Ninth Rain / Jen Williams

Title / The Ninth Rain

Author / Jen Williams

Publication Date / 2017

Star Rating / ★★★★

 

Goodreads synopsis: The great city of Ebora once glittered with gold. Now its streets are stalked by wolves. Tormalin the Oathless has no taste for sitting around waiting to die while the realm of his storied ancestors falls to pieces – talk about a guilt trip. Better to be amongst the living, where there are taverns full of women and wine.

When eccentric explorer, Lady Vincenza ‘Vintage’ de Grazon, offers him employment, he sees an easy way out. Even when they are joined by a fugitive witch with a tendency to set things on fire, the prospect of facing down monsters and retrieving ancient artefacts is preferable to the abomination he left behind.
But not everyone is willing to let the Eboran empire collapse, and the adventurers are quickly drawn into a tangled conspiracy of magic and war. For the Jure’lia are coming, and the Ninth Rain must fall…

 

*I received a physical copy from Bookbridgr in exchange in for an honest review*

Quite a few years ago I read the first book in William’s other series (the Copper Cat trilogy) and while I could appreciate it to be a great fantasy book, I just didn’t love it at the time and I never continued on with the trilogy. So when I heard that she had a new book coming out this year, I was interested. I ended up enjoying this book quite a bit. I didn’t know much about it going into it and while it did take me a little while to get into, after a few chapters I was hooked. I think I was initially a bit weary as the first couple of chapters jumps around in years and I can find that a little jarring, but it is just for the first few chapters and is used as a setup to the rest of the book. So it wasn’t a problem for me. The world building was fantastic. This is definitely a new favourite from me. I found the world to be rich, complex and interesting, but it never felt bogged down. I think in some first books in fantasy series the amount of information can become a bit of a burden sometimes but no with this book. The characters are definitely a strength in this book. I enjoyed reading about all of them and thought they were all very well written. From the very start I was interested in them and so it was quite easy to become invested in them. The three main characters are fantastic and I also found Lin to be quite an intriguing character, although a little unhinged, as well as Hest. Whether the character is an protagonist, antagonist or secondary they are all interesting and I just thought they were so good. Their relationships and interactions with each other was a pleasure to read about and I just loved how they developed throughout the book. I am very excited to see how things progress for the characters in the next books.

 

The writing is addictive, in my opinion. Pretty much from the very beginning, I was hooked. I never wanted to put this book down because I wanted to know what was going to happen next. Due to the writing I was so immersed in the world and the characters. This was beautifully written and the detail in the writing was wonderful. The action scenes are also very well done and are a pleasure to read. William’s does a fantastic job at mixing the more quiet scenes with action scenes – sometimes in fantasy books there can be a bit of info dumping or just constant action, but Williams blends the worldbuilding, quieter scenes and action very well, if that makes sense. The writing really does suck you in – it only took me a couple of days to read this because I was so absorbed. I just can’t really say enough good things about this book. I know your probably thinking why I didn’t give it five stars – I don’t really know but it just didn’t quite seem to make it for me. I did love this book though and I am very excited to see how things progress in the next book.

 

Overall I thought this was a fantastic book and I would highly recommend picking it up. The characters, world building and writing are all amazing and I was hooked from very early on. I am so excited about the potential of the next two books. I am a little sad that I now have to wait for the second book to come out, but I will definitely be picking it up whenever it’s released. I thought this was an amazing introduction to this new world. As I’ve said I highly recommend this, especially if you are a big fan of fantasy. It makes me want to revisit the Copper Cat trilogy as I read the first book years ago and did enjoy it. I’m hoping it can tide me over until the sequel to this book comes out. Have you read this book? What did you think? I hope you are all having a wonderful day and I will see you next time.

 

Pippa