Ninth City Burning (War of the Realms, #1)

by J. Patrick Black

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 fledging 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.

• ISBN10: 1101991461
• ISBN13: 9781101991466
• Publish Date: 6 June 2017 (first published 6 September 2016)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Imprint: Berkley Publishing Corporation,U.S.
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 544
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9781101991466

Reviews

[Jane]

I received a copy of this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for a review. As always, my opinions are my own and not based on how I came to receive any product.

I'm surprised I enjoyed this book. I was excited to receive the email from B4B about series pilots available to review, and they all sounded exciting, but Ninth City Burning intrigued me, so I selected it.

I seldom read books over 300 pages and beyond 400 pages, but I feel I accomplished something reading a book with 536 pages. :)

The gist:
- Character development is ON FIRE.
- There's not a lot of romance, which is GREAT, but I'd've preferred to know how two major characters came to develop feelings for one another instead of just being told they did; I'd rather have fallen with them.
- 'Twas beautifully written.

Full review up on my blog: https://janepedia.com/ninth-city-burning/

[ayla_abbott]

I didn't think I'd like this much, it has a vibe of other stories that are pure classics. I tend to not enjoy children and teenagers as main characters, and lengthy military fiction often bores me. But I stuck with it and by the end I was genuinely interested in how this all plays out. A great blend of magic and technology. A good mysterious baddie that I'm sure has a backstory.

[Beth C.]

TK