Books like “The Ninth Rain”

What to read after “The Ninth Rain” by Jen Williams: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
The Unspoken Name
A. K. Larkwood · 2020
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Fantasy”
Csorwe was raised to be a sacrifice to the Unspoken One, until the wizard Belthandros offers her another life. Trained as his assassin and servant, she is sent to find a lost city and a door between worlds, and begins to wonder whether her second life is any freer than her first.
2
The Shadow of the Torturer
Gene Wolfe · 1980
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Fantasy”
- Dark Fantasy
- Quest
Severian is raised in the guild of torturers and exiled from his city after an act of mercy. He narrates his own travels across a dying world, but his perfect memory is perfect only in his own account, and the past conceals far more than he admits.
3
The Rage of Dragons
Evan Winter · 2017
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Fantasy”
- Dark Fantasy
The Omehi have fought an unwinnable war for generations, where a rare few can call dragons or transform into killing giants. Giftless Tau plans to escape, until betrayal murders those he loves. To avenge them he trains to become the greatest swordsman alive, whatever it costs.
4
Gardens of the Moon
Steven Erikson · 1999
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Fantasy”
- Dark Fantasy
The Malazan Empire is closing on the last free city of Genabackis, and armies, assassins and mages are converging for the siege. Beneath the politics of empire, old powers are waking and settling debts of their own, while ordinary soldiers and thieves are caught between them.
5
The Traitor Baru Cormorant
Seth Dickinson · 2015
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Fantasy”
- Dark Fantasy
When the Empire of Masks conquers her island home, Baru Cormorant hides her hatred and joins the imperial civil service. Sent to a restless province as an accountant, she works to rise high enough to free her people, even as her choices cost her the woman she loves.
6
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
N. K. Jemisin · 2010
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Fantasy”
- Dark Fantasy
Yeine Darr is summoned from her northern homeland to the city of Sky, where she is named an heir to the Arameri throne after her mother's death. As she learns the rules of a court that keeps gods as servants, she finds that the contest for the succession is also a trap.
7
The Shadow of the Gods
John Gwynne · 2021
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Fantasy”
After the gods fell, their monstrous children and the warlike humans left behind inherited a harsh land. A thrall seeking freedom, a huntress avenging her family and a noblewoman with a company of mercenaries are drawn into a new age of blood and gods.
8
The Warded Man
Peter V. Brett · 2008
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Fantasy”
- Dark Fantasy
By day the world belongs to people; at night, demons rise from the ground. Three children, Arlen, Leesha and Rojer, grow up in the shadow of the wards that keep the corelings out, and each finds a different way to fight back.
9
Mistborn: The Final Empire
Brandon Sanderson · 2006
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Fantasy”
- Dark Fantasy
In an ash-covered empire, a street thief is trained in allomancy, the magic of burning metals. She joins a crew planning to overthrow the immortal Lord Ruler, though the prophecy around her may be a lie.
10
Black Sun
Rebecca Roanhorse · 2020
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Fantasy”
- Dark Fantasy
- Quest
In the city of Tova a solar eclipse is coming, and with it an old prophecy of a god reborn. Xiala, a disgraced sea captain, is ordered to carry a strange young man to the city, while Serapio has been shaped since childhood for a ceremony he does not fully understand.
11
Nettle & Bone
T. Kingfisher · 2022
From the same world: “Witches”
Marra, a shy convent-raised princess, learns that no one will save her sister from a cruel prince -- so she decides to do it herself. Three impossible tasks, a gravewitch, a reluctant fairy godmother and a demon-possessed chicken later, she sets out to stop a king.
12
The Court of Broken Knives
Anna Smith Spark · 2017
Similar atmosphere: “Dark Fantasy”
- Dark Fantasy
In the dying empire of Sorlost, a ragged company of mercenaries is hired to kill the emperor. Among them is Marith, a young man hiding a noble name and a hunger for violence he cannot master. Their conspiracy drags the ancient city toward blood and fire.