The Ninth Rain

The Winnowing Flame Trilogy, Book 1

By: Jen Williams

Narrated by: Jot Davies

Length: 20 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

The first in a blistering new trilogy from Jen Williams, acclaimed author of British Fantasy Award-nominated Copper Cat trilogy. Epic fantasy for fans of Robin Hobb and Jay Kristoff's Nevernight.

Jen Williams, acclaimed author of The Copper Cat trilogy, featuring The Copper Promise, The Iron Ghost and The Silver Tide, returns with the first in a blistering new trilogy.

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....

©2017 Jennifer Williams (P)2017 Headline Digital

Critic reviews

"An original new voice in heroic fantasy." (Adrian Tchaikovsky)

"Fantasy adventure at its very best." ( Starburst)

"Williams excels at eldritch world-building." ( Guardian)

Takes some time to get going

Good story if you don’t mind the build up. Took 1/3 of the book before I got to the point of not being able to stop listening. Glad I stuck with it. I like it. Looking forward to the next.

Couldn’t put it down!

This novel is so full of mystery and adventure, I couldn’t put it down. It’s so unique, I can’t believe I hadn’t heard of it before. If you love fantasy and sci-fi stories with great characters, you’ll love this! I already purchased the 2nd book in the series.

Such a creative story

I’ve never read anything like this. It’s a very complex world that mixes several unique ideas.
The characters are gripping and I found myself very invested in them.

Creative interesting characters action packed

5Star story and performance
Creative story with relatable characters that left me happy to read book 2 in the trilogy. Not a dull moment. How will the players interact and what powers are needed to regain control of their shared world. I’m about to find out. Highly recommend

Interesting

The story never got going to where I cared about the people
Cool concept, maybe second installment improves on character and premise

Stop giving me old stuffy British guys

As narrators for stories by and (primarily) about women. Enough is really enough already.

Unique world. Fun characters

I really liked the dynamic and interaction between the characters. The mystery surrounding the history of this land is also very intriguing and was a good hook. A good example of “show, don’t tell.”

What A Fantastic World!

Typically, I'm in it for the characters...and it's a good thing that this book has some excellent characters. But what this book really has that's special is the world building!

I love the idea of starting after a world has started to die. The world (or parts of it) are decaying and the people who live in it still have to live. It's almost a post-apocalyptic fantasy in that way. The characters are rich and compelling. The magic system is interesting. I am definitely going on in the series.

Let down

I was really looking forward to this series after reading reviews. I bought all 3 books, but after finishing The Ninth Rain, I’m not invested in continuing.

The concept was there, I was intrigued. However I found it lacking all around. The world building, character development, and epic battles just weren’t there (especially in comparison to The King Killer Chronicle & The Bloodsworn Saga, this book paled in comparison).

Also, I didn’t love the narration. Particularly, the whisper “yelling” was cringeworthy.

Pretty standard fantasy in a cool world

I don't feel like I wasted my time listening to this because it had some really cool ideas and the writing was decent. The characters were okay, but nothing really stuck out as great (Bern was the best but he was only a minor character). There was some lazy writing, I think "like a sack of potatoes" was used multiple times, maybe she put it in there to keep moving and planned on going back to change it later but never got to it?

I think the worst part was there didn't seem to be a purpose to the wanderings of the characters for a long time, maybe the first half of the book.