Joined in 2023 
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She Who Laughs - an ageless spirit of pure energy who is the source of all winnowfire. She propelled the Aboran's Seed Carrier through the cosmos for untold aeons, before abandoning them when they came to Sarn and styling herself as a goddess instead. This is such a hard book to describe because it’s many different genres in one. It is a fantasy first, but it also combines elements of horror, sci-fi, and mystery. The world that Williams has crafted is so interesting. There are so many parts of the world we get to see due to the characters being in different places. The Jure'lia themselves seem straight out of a horror novel and their habits and the way they take over communities, while terrifying, was also extremely interesting and innovative.
Physical God: She Who Laughs, the source of all winnowfire. She blesses those women whom she deems to be the strongest with her power, and manifests herself through the bodies of her worshippers, who allow themselves to be given to her on their deathbeds. I won't, obviously: because - heh! expensive. And also possibly illegal, what if I hurt someone. But seriously, guys - whether you like fantasy or you're not familiar with the genre but are open to the idea of giving it a try (it might reassure you to know that it received a nod from The Guardian, no less - even though I do wonder if this Eric Brown person read the book before writing his article: Tor crass?! Puh-lease. The man is as haughty as they get and he would not appreciate being called "crass" by a puny human, not even one writing for a famed newspaper) do yourself a favor and grab The Ninth Rain, switch off your phone, tell your family & friends that unfortunately you came down with a terrible headache and really need to be left alone for a while, toss a handful of kibbles to your cat (it's not like she'll starve in a matter of minutes, despite what she wants you to believe) curl up on your couch and get ready for an Adventure. The Bitter Twins: Ygseril was an experiment created by a race of alien beings known as the Aborans, and the Eborans are just humans who were mutated upon drinking from Ygserils' sap. This is one of those big, classical style fantasy books that could so easily have been lost to cliche and repetition if not for the skill and direction of the author.
Speaking of Noon, I really think she is the character we get to know the most. She is a fell-witch, which means she can take life energy from anything with a life source and use it to create this powerful fire called winnowfire. I loved this element of the story that Williams created. It was so interesting to slowly learn more about the fell-witches and their history and there is still so much we don’t know. Noon was a great character to choose to do this because she was very easy to root for. There is still so much we don’t know about the Winnowry, the place Noon is trying to escape though. A huge part—superb storytelling aside—on why this book became so addictive to read for me was due to the characters; the characterizations were tremendous and the main characters were super easy to root for. Vintage reminded me of a female version of Indiana Jones. I’ve mentioned before that I’m not a fan of Indiana Jones franchise; I found them to be okay and I failed to see what’s so special about them. However, this wasn’t the case with Vintage; I found her character to be charming. Then, we have the Fell-witch, Noon. At first, I thought she would be the weakest POV to follow, but I couldn’t be more wrong. Halfway through the book, her storyline and Tormalin were hands down my favorites. As someone who’s quite obsessed with being organized and clean, I have a terrific time reading Tor’s well-placed obsession with his clothes; it was super amusing that a vampiric-elf who is extremely skilled at swordsmanship put his clothes and how he looks as his top priority. Also, I’d like that to add that Williams’s characterizations and developments for her female characters were spectacular. The Atoner: Hestillion survives the events of the series, but it's implied that she will spend the rest of her long life making up for the irreperable damage she caused to Sarn and its people. There’s just continuous fascination in this book which was provided through its rich world-building. Honestly speaking, I’ve been getting fatigued from reading medieval-European fantasy setting. I have nothing against it—I love it, actually—but this particular setting is everywhere; stumbling upon them more than ten times in a row can get very tiring. The intricate world-building that Williams has created in this book/series was a delightful feast for my imagination. I’m serious, the author has some morbidly vivid imagination. Creatures conjured out of nightmares, a giant tree named Ygseril—most likely inspired by Yggdrasil—that dropped fruits that became war-beasts, then giant bats as transportation, behemoths, and many more intrigues that I suggest reading firsthand. I simply need to read more of this world. The days of Ebora's glory have long passed, and after the mysterious death of their tree god during the last war with Jure'lia, the Eborians, magically touched creatures who were once endowed with god-like features and very long lifespans, were reduced to less than a shadow of their former selves, having to invade nearby settlements and brutally drink human blood to give them a portion of the rejuvenation their tree god used to give. However, the temporary euphoria human blood gave them came at the cost of triggering a terrible disease that decimated their bodies and led to a slow and painful death. Therefore, the Eborians were left with two options, either choose to bask in the temporary benefits of human blood only to succumb to the terrible disease it eventually brought, or slowly wither away to old age. Tormalin the Oathless, one of the few Eborians still surviving, decides to leave this dying world behind and spend the last years of his life exploring the world alongside its sensual pleasures. He eventually meets up with an eccentric explorer, Lady Vincenza 'Vintage' de Grazon, who is on a mission to discover the secrets left behind by the Jure'lia, particularly, their flying transports called Behemoths, which attract mysterious glowing spirits all around them, spirits that brutally kill any human they touch by turning their flesh inside-out. A third member eventually joins their party, a girl called Noon, who is a Fel-Witch, considered to be an abomination by society and imprisoned on an island by an organization called the Winnowry, who make use of Fel-Witch magic to create dreamless sleep inducing drugs. After a horrifying nightmare showing the return of the Jure'lia, Noon manages to escape and joins the party.
Gostei quando foi mencionado as bestas de guerra que lutaram ao lado dos guerreiros de Eboran, que podiam ser desde dragões alados, grandes aves, griffos, animais de 4 patas (raposas, lobos, felinos) concebidos por Ygseril. Incredibly hard to put down and absolutely captivating, The Ninth Rain is classic high fantasy transfigured with a unique voice. Then there was the top-notch world building. As I said before, the world felt as grand in scope as that of Tolkien’s Middle Earth, and The Ninth Rain is quintessentially the age-old tale of good vs evil, of a quest to save the world. However, Williams doesn’t allow this novel to become a cliche; instead, she adds her own refreshing take into the mix. For example, the Eboran Empire felt very reminiscent of Rivendell, and the Eborans were akin to the elven race in the Lord of the Rings. There was a significant difference in this book though, as the Eborans became more vampire-like than elf… and if you want to know why, well then you’ll just have to read the book!
One-Winged Angel: After being destroyed by Noon and Vostok in The Poison Song, the queen of the Jure'lia reforms herself from the bodies of her subjects, and keeps going - absorbing more and more of them into her until she becomes a full-blown Eldritch Abomination and marches towards Ebora, swearing revenge for the destruction of her eggs.
The Ninth Rain was an amazing and captivating start to a trilogy; simple as that. I have a really good feeling that The Winnowing Flame Trilogy will become a new and long-awaited addition to my list of favorite trilogies of all time ' Seriously, I want to buy a thousand copies of The Ninth Rain and go around tossing them to clueless people that don't know this book exists.
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Insectoid Aliens: The Jure'lia, whose ranks are made up of spiders, beetles, giant maggots, and almost any other creepy-crawly one could care to name. Big Bad: The Jure'lia queen, imprisoned within Ygseril's roots until she is unwittingly freed by the protagonists, at which point she revives the worm people to lay waste to Sarn once again.
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