Book Review: ‘The Ninth Rain’ by Jen Williams

The Ninth Rain is the first book in Jen Williams’ epic fantasy series The Winnowing Flame Trilogy.

Throughout its history the world of Sarn has fought off the Jure’lia (invaders from the stars) with the last attack occurring 200 years prior to the start of the novel. At the end of this war the Eboran’s god-tree Ygseril died and the slow decay of its people began. Behemoth ruins, the vessels used by the Jure’lia to travel to Sarn, now pollute the world and that pollution is spreading. After two centuries of apathy, the citizens of Sarn become fearful that the Jure’lia will return in the prophesised ‘Ninth Rain’ – only there may not be anyone strong enough left to stop them.

As the first book in a trilogy, The Ninth Rain focuses on establishing the world of Sarn, its long history, and introducing the cast of characters. The story has three main protagonists/narrators:

Lady Vincenza ‘Vintage’ de Grazon is a fifty-something year old human explorer and scientist. Instead of a quiet life on her family’s vineyard (as befitting a lady of noble birth) Vintage has dedicated her life to research Behemoths and their effects on nature.

Tormalin the Oathless is an Eboran; whose height and red eyes instantly mark him out as an outsider when he is amongst humans. After choosing to leave his homeland rather than watch it slowly die of disease, he gained employment as Vintage’s bodyguard.

Noon has the misfortune of being born a witch. Her fiery powers are seen by others as a sin against Sarn and a sign of her black heart. Noon is imprisoned in the Winnowry but, following a vision about the Jure’lia, she escapes and accidentally gets caught up in Vintage and Tormalin’s adventures.

The Ninth Rain is a sprawling epic of a fantasy adventure with multiple locations and characters. It’s a lot of information to take in and ordinarily this might pose a problem but Williams came up with a clever solution to help her readers understand the world of Sarn. The majority of chapters begin with either a letter from Vintage to a favourite relative or an extract from an essay she has written about her travels. Each one discusses something (either a location, a person, or a piece of history) that relates to the chapter it immediately precedes. I found these additions to the chapters incredibly helpful. They armed me with just enough knowledge and context that I never felt lost or overwhelmed when reading the story.

While I do refer to and would categorise The Ninth Rain as a fantasy novel, the inclusion of the Jure’lia and their other worldly origins means that this book also stretches into the science fiction genre. The Jure’lia are entirely alien to Sarn and their biological Behemoth ships are technology far beyond the skills of Sarn’s inhabitants. Although I haven’t encountered many examples of combined fantasy/sci-fi stories I’ve always believed the two genres should be kept separate. The Ninth Rain made me rethink this opinion as Williams manages to lightly weave the science fiction with the fantasy in a way that felt completely natural.

This is exactly the sort of immersive fantasy book that I enjoy reading and, from a writing and storytelling point of view, the novel has a lot of positives but for some reason I just couldn’t connect to it.

I’m still not really sure why. The book is over 500 pages so perhaps the slower-paced plot was a factor. With the exception of Noon, I also didn’t fall in love with the characters the same way I have with other novels. While I never disliked Vintage and Tormalin I also didn’t look forward to their chapters as much as I did Noon’s.

Despite my uncertainty I am glad that I read the book to its end because the final few chapters were my favourite. In the closing chapters all of the characters (main and secondary) have gathered in Ebora to see if Ygseril can finally be revived. These chapters felt much more fast-paced and their intensity combined with the high stakes made these the best chapters in the book.

I can fully appreciate that The Ninth Rain is a good novel but unfortunately it just wasn’t for me. I suspect the problem is with my own tastes rather than a flaw within the book itself. Williams has clearly put a lot of though and effort into her book and I know there are plenty of fantasy readers who will enjoy this story and characters.

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