Bro Review #2: The Ninth Rain

Chatgpt's interpretation of a scene I described from The Ninth Rain.

First Impression

So far (80 pages in) it's got notes of Nausicaa, Stormlight Archive, and Magic Lessons. Perfect day for a fantasy novel with plant based vampires.

Full Review

Aaaand, done! Williams gifts us with a smart, weird, sometimes steamy world full of vampires and witches.

You'll recognize some of the elements and tropes. There's an enemies-to-lovers situation. There's a woman who's too smart for society’s rules. But then there's some weird and cool stuff too, like magic alien bugs and vampire tree elves.

The writing is accessible and interesting, and felt reminiscent to me of Brandon Sanderson crossed with N.K. Jemisin, and for me, at least, there were distinct overtones of Nausicaa, another studio Ghibli production. The world is set on a planet that has had regular semi-apocalyptic alien invasions, and the landscape is scarred with wrecked crafts that corrupt the nearby landscape and wildlife. Something went wrong during the last invasion (several hundred years ago), and now people across the land are having the same nightmare in their sleep: the alien bugs are coming back.

The cover on my kindle at my favorite coffee shop.

The magic system in The Ninth Rain is well done and well-balanced, with a cost associated with most things that feels realistic and fair in the logic of the story. We get to see several different uses of witch’s fire power, and the elves ability to enter other people's dreams plays a major role in the plot.

Even at the end of the book, though, some mysteries remain to be explored and exploited in the next two books in the series. I’m hooked, and I’ll definitely be reading on.

Pick it up when you need a new story to get lost in.
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