Fantasy offers us a variety of takes on religion. From Martin’s Sparrows to Pratchett’s Omnians, religion add flavor and plausibility to a secondary world. It is a part of the human condition, and good fantasy treats it with same complexity as any other aspect of humanity. The worldbuilding that I appreciate does not pose faith or religion in a binary system of good and evil. Instead, faiths and practitioners of that fantastical faith who exhibit the subtleties of what it means to be human make the stories I want to read. Tracy Townsend’s The Nine does just that. She has created an interesting religion that makes her secondary world unique. In this series opening novel, Ms. Townsend introduces us to a unique world. This is another top quality book from Pyr.

TL;DR: An excellent, weird fantasy debut that sets the pace for a promising series.

From the publisher:

A book that some would kill for…

Black market courier Rowena Downshire is doing everything she can to stay off the streets and earn enough to pay her mother’s way to freedom. But an urgent and unexpected delivery leads her face to face with a creature out of nightmares.

The Alchemist knows things few men have lived to tell about, but when a frightened and empty-handed courier shows up on his doorstep he knows better than to turn her away. What he discovers leads him to ask for help from the last man he wants to see–the former mercenary, Anselm Meteron.

Reverend Phillip Chalmers awakes in a cell, bloodied and bruised, facing a creature twice his size. Translating a stolen book that writes itself may be his only hope for survival; however, he soon learns the text may have been written by the Creator himself, tracking the nine human subjects of his Grand Experiment. In the wrong hands, it could mean the end of humanity.

This unlikely team must try to keep the book from those who would misuse it. But how can they be sure who the enemy is when they can barely trust each other? And what will happen to them when it reveals a secret no human was meant to know?

What attracted me to The Nine was the idea of a book writing itself. That image alone is enough to get me interested, and then to add to that the possibility that the author is the Creator of that particular universe? I’m in. The characters guess that the book is actually an experiment journal in which the Creator is observing nine humans. In the world of The Nine, religion is reason. It’s not faith or mysticism; it follows the scientific method. The Creator is a scientist that created the world – potentially the universe – as part of some larger experiment. In this debut, we learn of one religious institution reminds me of the Catholic Church, except it’s devoted to reason and not belief. The priests are even titled Reverend Doctors, and they believe that the way to know the Creator is to observe and know the universe. But there are clues that other religions existed, and these religions have analogues in our world. This is a work of excellent worldbuilding.

The Nine takes place in a city, though, I couldn’t tell you the name of the place. The time period of the novel definitely has a New Weird vibe to it. It contains element of steam punk, flint lock fantasy, and particle physics. Blended up together, the mixture works well. Magic exists as well, I think. More on that later. The urban setting seemed Victorian-ish. I was reminded of New Crobuzon, and that is high praise. In this story, we didn’t get to see much of the city, but we glimpse different districts, different locales that hint at depth.

There are a lot of characters in this book. The three that I would call main characters are Rowena Downshire, Anselm Meteron, and the Alchemist. We follow these three the most, but they are not the only POVs that we get. Each character felt whole, not just serving a purpose in the story, but like an individual with agency. While each character had an edge, they were all distinct. Rowena is given the task of carrying the story, and she succeeds. I enjoyed her POV chapters the most. She’s in over her head for most of the story, but that doesn’t stop her. Her lot in life is one of survival, and she’s very good at it, but she’s also smart enough to recognize that merely surviving isn’t going to change things for her. Her journey is the most satisfying in the book. Anselm is a character that I wish we’d seen more of. He’s a retired rogue, who seems to be a mirror image of Rowena in some ways. He challenges her to be more but as a mentor, not a father figure. He’s rich, ruthless, and intelligent. The Alchemist is a mystery, and though we learn much about him by the end of the novel, it feels as if we’ve but scratched the surface. In a world guided by a religion of reason, the Alchemist stands out. He is considered outside of the church, a heretic and reputed witch. Whether he practices magic or just a different form of science, we don’t know.

Since the Creator and the Grand Experiment are such important parts of this novel, one would expect that the main characters are religious in some way – either pro or con. But here, the three are portrayed as neutral towards faith. It’s not a factor in their immediate goals and concerns. For Rowena and others, immediate concerns of food and shelter don’t allow time for contemplating the spiritual. In other words, religion and God play parts in the novel, but they are the main components.

The opening was a bit slow because it built the world. It’s worth continuing as the novel takes off at 100 pages in. As we learn about the main characters, we learn how interconnected they are. Each is within one or two degrees of separation from each other. It stood out a bit, but soon the history of the city and the characters became apparent. What came before set the stage for this novel. Finally one of the races, the aigamuxa, were menacing, interesting, and creative monsters. However, their anatomy is implausible. Evolution doesn’t seem to be a factor in their development. Maybe in future volumes we’ll learn that they were created. Also, Ms. Townsend shows us a glimpse of another race, the Lanyani. They are sentient trees, and unfortunately, we don’t get to see enough of them. I look forward to learning more about this species and their place in this universe.

The Nine was a fun book built around a creative, weird world. It starts some interesting questions about the nature of that world that I hope get explored in the following books. Rowenna is a character that’s worth following on her continued journeys, and I look forward to the sequel. 7.5 out of 10!