The Ninth Rain Read-Along: Part IV

This month I’m participating in the Wyrd & Wonder read-along of The Ninth Rain by Jen Williams. I’m really excited the gang behind Wyrd & Wonder decided to put this one on because I’ve had the book for over a year and this finally gave me the push I needed to read it. The Ninth Rain is the first book in The Winnowing Flame trilogy. I’ll put the book blurb at the bottom of the post if you want to know more. Wyrd & Wonder is an online collaboration and celebration of all things fantasy in the month of May. I’ll add links about it at the bottom too.

This is the final read-along post for The Ninth Rain. I’ve really enjoyed the book and can’t wait to start book two, The Bitter Twins. The questions come from the book gods. I’ll try my best not to include too many spoilers, but it IS a read along and at some point there’s bound to come a time where I can’t avoid it. Hopefully if you’ve read the book you’ll get some enjoyment out of this. If you haven’t read the book I hope it sparks some interest for you and you’ll decide to pick it up.

OK, enough of that…on to the questions.

The revival of Ygseril does not quite go according to anyone’s plan… Were you surprised by what happened in the Hall of Roots? For that matter, what do you make of Hestillion’s chosen course of action?

To tell the truth by the time we got to this big reveal I wasn’t really surprised. I kinda felt like Ygseril and the Jure’lia and the queen were connected in some way based on all the hints we were getting. What I didn’t expect was the way in which the Ninth Rain (the war beasts, not the sword) played out. I wasn’t expecting a new rain of fruit. Instead I actually thought things were going to go a lot worse for our trusty companions.

As for Hest…I’m torn. I’m not sure she had complete choice in what happened to her, but lets be honest she didn’t seem as upset about the situation as one would hope. If fully given a choice in the outcome I’m not convinced she would have done anything different. I mean she DID try to bargain with the enemy! Anyway, Hest is on my naughty list.

We also learn Vintage’s reason for leaving so suddenly, and there’s a reunion in her cards! How do you feel about her departure now that she’s been reunited with Nanthema?

You know, I’m still kinda peeved with Vintage over this. She could have at least given Noon and Tor some kind of heads-up as to what she was doing instead of just running off. Basically she abandoned them and I still don’t like it. I’m happy Vintage found Nanthema, and it did give us some more information about the Jure’lia and all their weirdness, and yeah maybe there’s a cool new ally in the mix. But she could have handled it better. And what if she’d never found Nanthema? How much help might she have provided to Noon and Tor? Then again…she’s in love and I get it. And what would have happened to Nanthema if Vintage hadn’t gone after her? At this point would she be dead? I AM curious to get to know Nanthema a little better in future books. I hope.

I will say I enjoyed the way things played out in the ship as they were fleeing. The way the Jure’lia returned was kinda cool. After having spent so much time just lying latent in plain sight these ships come to life again and reanimate so to speak. I liked that. It makes the whole situation a little more creepy knowing they were always there…just waiting.

The Ninth Rain has fallen, and the truth about the parasite spirits is revealed. What’s your take on Noon having bonded with a war beast? 

So this went like I was expecting. Again I think Williams was telegraphing this reveal a bit. But, It was a cool twist that much like the reanimation of the ships was something unexpected for the people of this world. The things they feared most were actually their saviors. And that reveal kinda sucks right? I mean now that we know what the Spirits are how sad is that? Trapped all these years never being able to express who/what they are and instead of saving people they kill them. That’s pretty tragic.

Noon is already a bad ass in my opinion and the fact she’s bonded to this war beast (pretty much the king daddy of war beasts) is awesome. What I’m waiting to see is whether other fell-witches do the same thing, and whether they are used for good or ill by the Winnowery. Frankly at this point I could see the Winnowery trying to make the beasts serve their own ends and causing lots of complications for everyone.

Any other thoughts, reactions, theories about what follows?

Oh wow…I hesitate to speculate. I feel like things could have gone much worse for humans and Eborans. In truth where the book leaves off is bad for everyone but they haven’t suffered a major defeat yet. Something tells me that’s coming in book two. Something in the back of my mind makes me think the Jure’lia are gonna hit hard and fast and the next book is going to be one or more defeats for the good guys and ending maybe in a stalemate or worse for our allies.

Well that’s it for week three. Have you read the book? If so what are your answers to the questions? Answer in the comments. If you haven’t read the book but are now intrigued let me know.

Want To Join In?

Well, now it IS officially too late. But that doesn’t mean you can’t get caught up on the read-along posts, and you can most definitely pick up a copy for yourself and start reading!

Fellow readers this month included:

• imyril at There’s Always Room For One More
  • Week One Post
  • Week Two Post
  • Week Three Post
  • Week Four Post
• Lisa at Dear Geek Place
  • Week One Post
  • Week Two Post
  • Week Three Post
  • Week Four Post
• Sarah at Dragons and Zombies
  • Week One Post
  • Week Two Post
• Nikki the Bibliophibian
  • Week One Post
  • Week Two Post
• Mayri the bookforager
  • Week One & Two
• Annemieke at A Dance With Books
  • Review

Our reading schedule was as follows:

• THURSDAY 9th: Beginning through end of Ch10
• THURSDAY 16th: Chapter 11 through end of Ch23
• THURSDAY 23rd: Chapter 24 through end of Ch36
• THURSDAY 30th: 37 to the end

You can find more on the discussion on the Goodreads group page here.

You can follow along with Wyrd & Wonder all month on Twitter as well. Find their Twitter handle @wyrdandwonder. There are two read-alongs and a slew of other ways you can participate including reviews, giveaways, challenges, features and more. See more about what all’s going on in imyril’s post Quest Log The First: the party gathers.

The Ninth Rain, by Jen Williams

“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…” – Blurb from Goodreads.