Ninth Rain by Jen Williams - REVIEW
Ninth Rain is a 2017 fantasy adventure novel by English author Jen Williams. It is the first novel in the author’s Winnowing Flame trilogy. In 2018, the novel won the British Fantasy Award but has since languished in relative obscurity. Jen Williams doesn’t even have an American publisher, and as far as I know, Ninth Rain has not yet had a US release. I have to thank Petrik over on Goodreads for bringing this book to my attention, for without his review I never would have heard of it.
The story opens with a dying Empire. The once great city of Ebora finds itself on the cusp of extinction. Seemingly abandoned by their god, the Eborans – a race of long-lived superhumans akin to Tolkien’s elves – are dying in droves, their wealth and opulence waning with each passing day. Tormalin the Oathless, one of the last remaining Eborans, decides to leave the husk of Ebora and find a life outwith its walls. He enlists as a bodyguard for the adventurer Lady Vincenza ‘Vintage’ de Grazon, joining her on her journey to discover more about the mysterious artefacts left across the continent after the last cataclysmic war between Ebora and a race of otherworldly invaders. Tormalin and Vintage are further accompanied by Noon, a fugitive witch on the run from her cultic captors.
It is a wonder that this book is not more popular. It has all the right ingredients for an epic fantasy adventure novel – excellent, a central mystery, engaging characters, and giant bats used as mounts(!) I especially loved the sections of the book set in the ‘Winnowry’ – the fortress-like prison that held Noon and her kindred witches. The characters too are rather wonderful. Tormalin and Vintage are an especially lovable duo and have great chemistry.
However, I did have some problems with the book which does hamper it quite substantially. First, I didn’t enjoy the plot all too well. The story, at times, felt like a generic quest fantasy or a D&D campaign, and not all together original and engaging; a lot of it felt like our party going from one place to another based off of Vintage’s checklist. The writing style was also not my cup of tea. Whilst Williams can certainly write, I prefer my prose to be on the more lyrical and atmospheric than with what was presented here. The tone is oftentimes very breezy and conversational, which I felt did not do enough justice to the world created.
Furthermore, whilst I did enjoy the relationship between Vintage and Tormalin, I wish that we had got more of it. We don’t even see how these two came to meet, or how Tormalin entered her service. Indeed, it frustratingly felt like the best aspects of the world and story were left out in the gaps. I was very interested in exploring the decayed city of Ebora, and getting a feel for its lost splendour, but instead I was treated to hundreds of pages of Vintage and co. careening through the wilderness. Similarly, I wish (quite sadistically) that more time could have been devoted to the Winnowry and its history, an antagonistic force I found much more compelling than the “alien invaders”. Fortunately, I’m certain that the secrets surrounding the Winnowry will be divulged later in the series, which has somewhat assuaged my disappointment with the first instalment.
All in all, I would say that Ninth Rain is a solidly good fantasy book by any metric, and that you should not allow my criticisms to discourage you from reading this novel. If you’re looking for an underrated fantasy novel with interesting world-building, daring quests, mysterious artefacts, and a setting ripe for adventure then look no further. I think I will pick up the second book in the series at some point, but for the moment, I’m not rushing to do so.
Rating – 6/10
