It's good to watch an author developing before your eyes. Jen Williams' previous books, The Copper Cat Trilogy were fun undemanding heroic fantasy, very clearly inspired by Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser. The easy road would have been to keep turning out the Lankhmar pastiches, but this new book is on a different level. I'm not going to go into plot (because spoilers) but this is a vividly imagined world, with a great sense of place and history, some original concepts and engaging characters. Fantasy is a field that is very prone to repetition and staleness, but this is one of the freshest books I've read in the genre for a long time. Part two is definitely going to the top of my want list, if I can stick waiting another year!

The Ninth Rain is the first in a new fantasy series from Jen Williams. Her previous series, the Copper Cat trilogy was a charming piece of swashbuckling fantasy; the short version is that this new work is just as entertaining and intriguing a read.

The world of The Ninth Rain is one shaped by conflicts, both internal and external. The external are devastating; creatures falling in waves, devouring everything they touch, slowly forming the land into something different, hollowing out people and using them as puppets. These are global conflagrations, their scars left in the earth, and in the scattered wreckage of the war hulks that poison the land around them. The people of this world have an ancient enemy, and although it’s now believed broken, or at least quiescent, there’s no denying the impact that these ‘Rains’ have had.

That said, this is a world with plenty of other issues. The cities of the Eborans, the long lived champions against the Rains, are broken. The Eborans themselves are decimated by plague, and eyed with a mixture of horror and suspicion by their neighbours. The mythical war-beasts they used in battle during the Rains have vanished. Whilst the Eboran empire falls to its knees, other polities fight against the rising mutation of the land by wreckage from the Rains – and a religious order holds sway over a group of women who can channel life from everything around them and make, well, mostly fire. The fey-witches are, they say, dangerous, and have to be controlled – that in doing so, the order makes tidy profit, is purely coincidental.

Into this world of shattered history step our three main characters. The first is Vincenza ‘Vintage’ de Grazon – sometime Lady, full time adventurer. Middle-aged, intelligent and rather feisty, she’s also an antiquarian, travelling across the world to investigate the artifacts left behind by the Rains, to try and understand what it is that brings them down upon the world. She has a streak of ruthlessness, matched by a strong sense of fair play and empathy. Vintage is an extrovert, seemingly strong, confident and riding a wave of self-assurance which batters aside a lot of the barriers that her rank and funding don’t. Watching her mix bluff energy and enthusiasm with incisive intellect is delightful.

Vintage is joined by one of the last of the Ebor, Tormalin the Oathless. He’s a man on the run from the broken shadow of his people. He’s now seemingly interested in decent wine, warm beds (his and others) and other aspects of the epicurean lifestyle. On the other hand, he’s extremely competent with an extremely lethal sword, and is Vintage’s long-suffering partner and/or bodyguard. If her past hides a few dark secrets, his own, wrapped in the decline of his people in plague and madness, is no more difficult. Tormalin embodies tragedy, and his efforts to break free of the mould, away from his people as heroes, and their new reality as diminished monsters are fascinating – you can’t help rooting for him, even when he’s being crass, arrogant, or just plain wrong – because he can also be warm, charming, and rather clever.

The last of the trio is one of the fell-witches. She’s first seen in confinement at the monastery which controls these practitioners, under less than ideal conditions. Where Vintage is world-wise, she’s an ingénue, albeit one with focus, determination, and the ability to summon fireballs out of thin air. Where both Vintage and Tormalin are clear, at least, in who they are, our fey-witch has never really had the chance to find out. She’s always been a thing – dangerous, valuable, lethal – and never a person. Her journey is one of discovering who it is that she wants to become, and that understanding of her personhood is handled with raw and genuine emotional depth.

I want to characterise the plot as fantasy archaeology with fireballs, and it absolutely is that. But it’s other things as well. It’s the story of family, for example, both those you’re thrown in with – as the group struggles to work together and solve the issues confronting them – and your own blood. It’s the story of the collapse of a great civilisation into blood and death, and the sacrifices that made that possible It’s got the potential to go into epic territory, with war beasts, great evils and disturbing villains – but also the petty evils of bureaucracy, and the petty triumphs of friendship.

Overall, this is a delightful, absorbing start to a new series for Williams; it’s got a lot of great ideas, intelligent things to say, and a cracking adventure running through them.

Ninth Rain

Jen Williams previous series, the Copper Cat Trilogy, quite rightly received buckets and buckets of praise. Williams had created not only interesting characters but also a novel and interesting world which handled fantasy tropes in a most interesting way. Her new book, The Ninth Rain, marks the start of not only a new story, but a completely new world. Could it be as good as The Copper Promise and her other previous books? Has the author done it again?

In short,yes, absolutely. The Ninth Rain is easily William’s best work so far, as the writer has a strong, clear and confident style that makes for compulsive reading. The world is also more intricate and more involved this time round. The book introduces at first to a charming pair of adventurers. Lady Vincenza ‘Vintage’ de Grazon is a wealthy and very experienced lady who has made it her life’s work to uncover the mysteries of the world. She’s aided by the pale and interesting Tormalin the Oathless, who belongs to a once proud race of near immortal beings who due to tragic events now occasionally needs the odd bit of human blood to live.

The world itself is scarred from various invasions by creatures known as the Jure’lia. These monsters come down from the skies to cause havoc and death in great events called ‘Rains’. They are horrific, insect like fiends that hollow out humans and turn them into murderous drones. Fortunately they’ve not been about for some time, but they’ve left a great many artefacts and dotted around the world.

This is a land in which women with supernatural power are locked away in nunnery like prisons called the Winnowry. The inhabitants of this place (and what it means for the rest of the world) are a major plot point, so we won’t spoil it, but suffice to say, it features witches on giant flying bats, which is just cool.
Yet again, Williams has created an addictive and coherent fantasy world filled with all sorts of deliciously interesting things. The setting is diverse, different and interesting. The characters feel real and you want to know more about their lives with every turn of the page. This is fantasy adventure at its very best. Go check it out.

9/10

Jen Williams has written a wonderful fantasy book here, with a cast of warm and lively characters.

Lady Vintage is a travelling scholar, researching the remains of what appear to be alien ships that crashed to earth in a failed invasion attempt. She has a strong and kind personality and she doesn't let problems stop her, almost refusing to acknoledge them. Vintage is still mourning the loss of her Eboran friend (lover?) Nanathema who disappeared 20 years ago.

Tormalin is an Eboran Lady Vintage has hired to help and protect her on her travels.Tormalin left his home in Ebora 50 years ago to escape the Crison Flux disease that is slowly killing his people.

Noon is a fell-witch, drawing on a life source she is able to summon green fire. Fell-witches are feared and hated and she has been locked in the Winnory prison since she was young. This is a horrible place that mistreats the women and houses in squalor while profiting from their witch talents.

The story and the world Jen Williams has created has some original and inventive ideas, making it stand out from the bog-standard fantasy norm. She has included some diverse characters too, and the women aren't just damels in distress but major players in the story.

THere's a lot to the story, but information and clues are fed to us slowly allowing us to build our own picture of the world and make guesses at what is happening. There are no big information dumps here!

While I liked the story, the characters are what make this book so enjoyable. Their relationships and banter are funny and intelligent and they all just sprang to life in my mind.

The Ninth Rain for me is the book equivalent of a warm blanket and a big cup of tea, or snuggling with my partner. It left me with a warm, happy feeling after reading it.

I'm not happy about having to wait for the next book. I had to go out yesterday and buy the first one of The Copper Cat series to keep me going.

The Ninth Rain is the first book of a new trilogy from my new go-to author Jen Williams. As in her previous books, Jen Williams creates a world like no other, a world where witches, vampires (of a sort) and giant bats coexist to an extent; a world where gods existed and massive war-beasts once lived and fought, where parasitic beetles are the enemy.
I invite you all to most heartily buy this book, read this book, pause and read it again and again.
Once again Jen Williams has created a trio of characters to love in similar veins to her Copper Cat trilogy, though different in their individual way:
Noon - a fell-witch from the plains imprisoned in the Winnowry for her crime of being born with power.
Lady Vincenza 'Vintage' de Grazon - A human scholar with a love of all things Jure'lia, a constant hunt for knowledge and cash to splash.
Tormalin the Oathless - an Eboran mercenary trained in the ways of The House of the Long Night.
Three brilliant characters that each bring their own special flair to this book. Tor is witty and sarcastic, Vintage is much the same but show her eccentricities and has a heart of gold, Noon originally so frightened comes into her own on the journey she shares with Vintage and Tor. Another perfect trio of characters.
The plot for this book resolves around the Jure'lia- or worm-people- who came to Sarn and waged war; the Eighth Rain came from the Eboran God Ygseril, a silvery birth of war-beasts who fought off the Jure'lia and their Behemoths and then passed on themselves. Since the end of the Eighth Rain the war-beasts have been extinct and Ebora started to die.
The book follows Vintage and Tor on their journey through Mushenka and the rest of Sarn in pursuit of knowledge of the Jure'lia- eccentric explorer Vintage's Poison of choice. They enter the Wild and come across Noon, an escaped fell-witch masquerading as an agent of the Winnowry and from then on their journey becomes a lot less regular and and lot more interesting!
Lots of fire! Lots of action and the sweetest romantic creation I've read in a long time - a minor bit of romance that does not detract from the overwhelming fantasy that is this book.
Jen's world building skills are akin to no other, her cities are ancient but with a modern flair, her enemies disgustingly brilliant and savagely evil, her heroes full of charm and heart. The writing style sucks you in and doesn't let you go until long after you've hit the end of the book and leaves you wanting more.
There are no words strong enough for me to describe how utterly brilliant The Ninth Rain was - not just the story the name comes from but the overall storyline. The characters, plot, balance between good versus evil and everything in between - outstanding.
A great read with heart and soul and epic beasties. I highly recommend this book