Table of Contents
Preamble
I first heard about The Ninth Rain from a list of witchy books for the fall season from the booktuber Elliot Brooks. At the time I thought that the premise of the book sounded intriguing so I put it on my ever-growing to-be-read pile. I didn’t get around to this book until November, so it became more of a early winter read for me rather than a fall read.
This is the first in the completed Winnowing Flame trilogy of books. A completed fantasy series is appealing because if I enjoy the first book, I know there are more for me to read. In addition to that, this is also an epic fantasy series and that is very much a genre I love and want to keep diving into and there is no better way to do that than a completed series.
This is my first time reading anything by Jen Williams, my quick research shows that she generally writes fantasy and has written another fantasy series (The Copper cat series). So new series, new world, and new author all in a genre I like make the ideal trifecta of reasons for me to consider reading a book.
So, without further ado, let’s get into the book.
The Book
The Ninth Rain starts off by introducing the history of the fantasy world the series is set in. The prologue is set two hundred years in the past from the present timeline of the book, chapter one is fifty years in the past, chapter two is five years in the past, and chapter three is where the book jumps to the timeline it stays on for the rest of the book.
The first quarter of the book is all set up – it is setting up the world, its lore, its characters and the general vibes of the story. The vibes here are one of decay, ruin, and fear. People in this world live within essentially what are fortress towns/villages and do not venture out into the poison stricken Wilds (yes, the book capitalizes this word). I generally liked how the book did this set up process, it gave me a good understanding of the various aspects of the world in this book.
Characters
The story follows three main characters – Tormalin (or Tor for short), an Eboran who left Ebora to be a mercenary. Lady Vincenza “Vintage” de Grazon, a wealthy eccentric explorer/scholar who employs Tor and the fel-witch Noon who can make use of winnow fire magic and who escapes from a prison (The Winnowry) specifically made for such witches where they are exploited to make a drug that the Winnowry then sells to the public.
The cast of characters here are quite colourful and I liked all of them. I especially grew fond of Vintage and her various eccentricities. Most chapters start off with a quote from a letter or a journal entry that Vintage wrote and I love these as they are where the writer continues to expand upon the fascinating lore of the world. The tone of these journal/letter entries reminded me of the journal entries from Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries which I also loved.
Story
At the heart of the story is the mystery of the Jur’elia, who are presented as these alien invaders who invade every so often and are then fought off by the long-lived Eborans with the help from their tree-god Ygseril (I like this bit of cribbing from the Yggdrasil of Norse mythology). The fall of Ygseril and therefore the Eboran people make for a very potent background setting and I think the book does a solid job of connecting the fate of the Eborans to the rest of world and the events of the book.
There is a good amount of sexual and romantic tension between two of the main character in this book but it is by no means the focus of the book. This is very much not a romantasy title. I thought the romantic/sexual tension was handled well and the banter between the two characters was genuinely quite funny and charming at times.
Prose
The prose in this book is what I would call serviceable. It is not particularly flowery or grand but it gets the job done and I generally liked Jen Williams’ writing style in this book. Where the prose really shines is when the author writes character interaction scenes. The various conversations that characters have with each other is elevates this book to being better than the average epic fantasy.
A side effect of not having flowery prose meant that I didn’t have any quotes to put at the beginning of this review. This is not meant to be a criticism of the book or the author’s writing style. Some books just aren’t particularly quotable. With this book, it shines in other aspects that more than make up for that deficiency.
Conclusions
I had a good time reading The Ninth Rain. As far as epic fantasy series go, it is not one of the best I’ve read, but it’s intriguing world, lore and its fun cast of characters make it a series that I want to return to at some point in 2026 when I have finished reading other series that I am prioritizing (namely the Green Bone Saga trilogy by Fonda Lee).
Elliot Brooks continues to be a good source of fantasy reading recommendations and I am glad to have her in my YouTube subscriptions feed. If you are a fantasy reader like me and like watching booktube videos, you should go check her out.
That’s all from me, see y’all in the next one.
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