The Ninth Rain by Jen Williams

The great city of Ebora once glittered with gold, but its god is dead and the once grand city is crumbling to pieces around the few survivors. Tormalin the Oathless has no desire to sit around and wait to die so he abandons Ebora to be among the living, where there are taverns full of women and wine. When eccentric scholar, Lady Vincenza de Grazon, takes him on as a hired sword, he eagerly agrees even when the job involves facing down monsters and retrieving ancient artefacts. Even when they are joined by a fugitive witch with a tendency to set things on fire, Tormalin has no intention of ever returning home.  But not everyone is as willing to let Ebora fade away, and Tormalin is slowly drawn into a tangled mystery centuries in the making.

The Ninth Rain is a hefty classical-style high fantasy, and the first book of the Winnowing Flame trilogy. If I'm being honest, I found it quite hard to get into at the beginning and wasn't entirely convinced about the whole concept of alien invasions in a fantasy world. Also, there was a LOT crammed into a few short chapters with witches, vampires, monster plants, and aliens. And yet, once the story really got going, it all kind of works. The world-building is rich and detailed and so cleverly done so that it fades into the background - you always know what you need to know, but the story never gets bogged down by exposition. 

Also, I really liked the diverse and lovable characters, particularly the three protagonists who are the heart of the story, and their experiences give The Ninth Rain its depth and complexity. I rooted for all of them, and the banter between them made me giggle. Plot-wise, like I said, The Ninth Rain started slow and the 'OMG, I have to know what happens next!' page-turning feeling didn't hit me until about a quarter into the book. However, once that happened, I flew through the chapters as the characters became more and more entangled in a web of magic, prophecy, and ancient mysteries.

Original, fun to read and full of diverse and likeable characters, The Ninth Rain is a great start to an exciting fantasy series. Get through the first few chapters, and you'll be rewarded with a story full of heart, humour, and heroics.

Recommended For: Fans of classical fantasy full of quests, magical creatures, ancient enemies, and heroes you can root for.

Read On: The next book in the trilogy is The Bitter Twins. If you love epic fantasy with a lot of heart, you'll like the Amra Thetys series by Michael McClung - the first book is The Thief Who Pulled on Trouble's Braids.

Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett

As Sancia Grado lay facedown in the mud, stuffed underneath the wooden deck next to the old stone wall, she reflected that this evening was not going at all as she had wanted.

There's not much in the way of work for an escaped slave like Sancia Grado, but she has an unnatural talent that makes her one of the best thieves in the city of Tevanne. When she's offered a lucrative job to steal an ancient artefact from a heavily guarded warehouse, Sancia agrees, dreaming of leaving the city behind - but instead, she finds herself the target of a murderous conspiracy. Someone powerful in Tevanne wants the artefact, and intends to kill Sancia to get it.

Foundryside is a action-packed epic fantasy full of heists, innovative magic, and ancient mysteries. It's exactly the kind of fantasy I love with immersive world-building, a magic system with rules, tangled politics, a clever protagonist, and a dangerous conspiracy right at the centre of it all. I really liked the characters, especially Sancia, and the banter between them adds a sly humour to a dark tale. Honestly, just a fab book, and I can't wait for the sequel to come out!

Recommended For: Fans of slightly darker fantasy with imaginative magic systems.

Read On: Other fantasy stories involving the problems of stealing something that you probably shouldn't have are The Palace Job by Patrick Weekes and Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. And if you like Robert Jackson Bennett, try his Divine Cities trilogy, beginning with City of Stairs.

City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett

Bulikov, the Divine City, is a shadow of its former self. Once it was the seat of a mighty empire protected by gods and miracles. Now its gods are dead, the city is fractured beyond repair, and the whole continent is ruled by the descendants of the Saypuri people it enslaved for centuries. When a controversial scholar is found dead in his office, spy Shara Komayd is sent to investigate but soon finds herself ever more tangled in a tinderbox of politics, history, and religion that only needs the tiniest of sparks to erupt into a devastating war.

City of Stairs is a full-blooded political fantasy novel and the first book in the Divine Cities trilogy. This is the kind of fantasy I love to read. The world-building is excellent; the clash of cultures and the complex geopolitical situation added a whole other dimension to the story and raised the stakes of each decision. I particularly liked the setting which had a feel of early Soviet-era Russia with people living in the ruins of splendour while their history was erased and their gods forbidden. The plot was well paced and twisty with enough exposition to understand the context of what was happening and enough action to keep me reading the next chapter. My favourite aspect, as always, were the characters. I love a clever protagonist with a mind like a corkscrew who is more likely to think their way out of trouble, and Shara Komayd is exactly the kind of protagonist I root for. She and the other main characters are complicated, well written, and just fun to read about. If I had any niggle with this book, it's that Robert Jackson Bennett kept a light touch with the backstory but I suspect these stories may reveal themselves more in the later books.

At it's heart, City of Stairs is about identity in the face of an uncertain future. It asks whether society should try to go back to what it once was, or shake off the old and step into a brave new world. It's a fantastic start to the Divine Cities trilogy with original world-building, tangled geopolitics, lots of action, and an awesome female protagonist. 

Recommended For: People who like slightly gritty political fantasy with a sense of humour.

Read On: The next in the trilogy is City of Blades. For something a little darker and violent but with the same sense of humour, try The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie.