Ninth City Burning
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4.0 • 27 Ratings
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
For fans of Ender’s Game, Red Rising, and The Hunger Games comes an explosive, epic science fiction debut...
Cities vanished, gone in flashes of world-shattering destruction. An alien race had come to make Earth theirs, bringing a power so far beyond human technology it seemed like magic. It was nearly the end of the world—until we learned to seize the power, and use it to fight back.
The war has raged for five centuries. For a cadet like Jax, one of the few who can harness the enemy’s universe-altering force, that means growing up in an elite military academy, training for battle at the front—and hoping he is ready. For Naomi, young nomad roaming the wilds of a ruined Earth, it means a daily fight for survival against the savage raiders who threaten her caravan.
When a new attack looms, these two young warriors find their paths suddenly intertwined. Together with a gifted but reckless military commander, a factory worker drafted as cannon fodder, a wild and beautiful gunfighter, and a brilliant scientist with nothing to lose—they must find a way to turn back the coming invasion, or see their home finally and completely destroyed.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Black is a fresh new voice who pays respect to the classics of SF in this enjoyable adventure debut. The mighty defenses of Ninth City stand together with the remaining cities on Earth to protect humankind in a centuries-long war against an alien race. Black takes care to represent each stratum of the war-focused Earth: advanced societies in the cities, outpost towns that exist only to supply the war effort, and the marginalized "unincorporated" people who live beyond the protection of the cities. And he creates memorable characters, including the powerful human fontani (who are few but vital to the magic/technology hybrid weapons) and a factory worker drafted into the Legion, to inhabit his thrilling scenarios. Though the array of protagonists slows the pacing and the exploration of the strategy and magic systems diverts too much attention from the main plot, the details eventually come together in a fascinating world. Given this strong foundation, readers can expect more thrilling adventures from this new author.
Customer Reviews
Ninth City Burning
The thing I liked most about this book was I could not determine if it was Sci_Fi or Fantasy until I got at least a third of the way through it. I finally decided on Sci-Fi. Even though the time frame in the book was relatively short, the author showed well how each character evolved into a better person and sometimes a more competent and confident one. The novel is about growing up but it is against a backdrop of a terrible war that has changed humanity in ways we don't like to imagine. In this novel, both the young characters and humanity's leadership grow up together.
Amazingly Complex Debut Novel
Ninth City Burning is the first book by J. Patrick Black so I wasn't sure what to expect. What I found was an amazingly complex novel and far more than I expected in a debut novel. This is a standalone with no cliffhanger, though it is open-ended for future books in what I hope will be a series. I really enjoyed this book and had a hard time putting it down. There is violence, as this book is about a war with an alien species.
At times this novel seemed more like reading a textbook. Not surprising since the first part of the book is set in classrooms, with pre-teen and early-teen "kids". Ninth City Burning will appeal to those those readers who are more left-brained. Other readers will find parts of it, especially in the beginning, too dry and too educational. It gets better if you keep on reading through the dry parts.
The book blurb adequately describes the storyline so I'm not going to repeat that all of that info here. The author did a great job of explaining the "magic" (thelemety) as simply as possible so a complicated subject could make sense to the reader. This is a story of science, magic, battle strategy and saving Earth and what's left of humanity after centuries of war with the aliens. It definitely kept me riveted.
I look forward to reading more of his books and really hope he continues this story as a series. I received an ARC copy of this book from First to Read in exchange for an honest review.