Except that human blood turned out not to be their saviour, but their curse, for drinking blood brought incurable decease called Crimson Flux. To me, this book is all of those things – all of those comparisons. To me ‘the Ninth Rain is the 21st century Lord of the Rings’.

I was initially attracted to this series because of its awesome covers and I am glad the inside reflects this beauty too. The story follows three main characters and how their paths cross to restore the glory of Ebora. In short, there were on going wars with alien like creatures in the past and the God Tree would use the help of beasts to defeat them and things have been quiet lately but not for long! Dark Fantasy: Subverted, as one might be forgiven at a first glance for thinking that The Winnowing Flame is a dark fantasy series, given the setting of a poisoned world still recovering from centuries of war - first against alien invaders and then later against a race of blood-drinking warriors - haunted by ghosts that turn people inside out, and where vast areas of land are too dangerous to travel through without getting mauled by twisted monsters. But ultimately, the story is one of how love and the bonds people share can overcome even the greatest foe. The heroes are heroic with a few shades of grey, and all but the most out-and-out Eldritch Abomination villains are capable of redemption, and even the Jure'lia ultimately only want to continue the survival of their race - they only truly turn omnicidal once their eggs are destroyed and any chance of a future for their race is obliterated. Ultimately, the optimistic tone of the series renders it closer to Heroic Fantasy. We first meet Hestillion and Tor as they are younger. Through them we learn about this illness called the flux and how it is killing Eborans. While Tor decides to leave, Hestillion stays and through her perspective, we see how badly the flux is affecting the once majestic city and its inhabitants. Hestillion is a character we don’t get to know much on a personal level, though I see that changing for the sequel. However, she is determined to save her people and that is by saving a tree named Ygseril, who is kind of a life line for Eborans. A lot of her story centers around this task that she has taken on.Fluffy the Terrible: Hestillion names her war beast "Celaphon", after one of her favourite flowers. Said war beast is later fed Jure'lia growth fluid that causes him to grow abnormally large and vicious. 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. You can, however, read The Winnowing Flame series (its second entry, The Bitter Twins, is - dare I say it? - even better). And you really should. Heroic Sacrifice: Noon wipes out the Jure'lia with the largest blast of winnowfire ever generated, but dies in the process.

She Who Laughs, the self-proclaimed "goddess" and source of winnowfire. She witnesses one of the girls she blessed with her power - Noon - absorb the life energies of an entire clan of people before burning them all in a massive explosion of winnowfire and, rather than view the incident as a tragedy, is delighted and impressed that finally somebody was able to tap into the true power of winnowfire. She kidnaps Noon in The Poison Song and forces her to relive the incident (which Noon had understandably repressed completely) with the intention of furthering Noon's knowledge of winnowfire, and doesn't comprehend why Noon might be upset at remembering how she slaughtered her entire clan.Better to Die than Be Killed: Mother Cressin of the Winnowry cuts her own throat rather than be destroyed by Noon's winnowfire. The Bad: I. Have. Nothing. Bad. To. Say. About. This. Book. Deal with it. (Except for the fact this is a Jen Williams book without Wydrin the Copper Cat and I now want more Copper Cat books. Damn it!) The Aborans, creators of Ygseril, are an alien race of beings who treat races they deem "lesser" as little more than guinea pigs to experiment on. It was one such experiment that created the Eborans.