When the earth rotates into the debris field of a comet, all hell breaks loose as meteors wreak havoc and everything changes. The night of the event a boy witnesses a horrific crime, five years later a soldier returns to his hometown for a wedding, a formerly impoverished area in the Northwoods of Minnesota becomes the epicenter of a new boom with a flood of people coming to mine for omnimetal, a young woman deputy searching for her missing partner, a ruthless heiress who is monstrously big and strong, a scientist forced to torture her young subject, two wealthy companies trying to control all the mining, a cult, paranormal powers, and possible extraterrestrials. So much is concurrently happening in this cinematic tale that synergistically combines mystery, science fiction, supernatural powers, and corporate espionage while using comic book tropes would in less skilled hands be a mess but is instead unputdownable. It doesn't stint on sensitivity, chase scenes, or violence. Readers will be thrilled to know it is the first in a series.

I'm personally not a big fan of graphic novels because I'm not fluent in the language of images but I love them because they are important to so many readers. While this is not a graphic novel it conveys the power of one. One of the things I loved about The Ninth Metal is the descriptions that let me envision the larger than life characters and settings as comic book art.

In the first book of the Comet Cycle Trilogy, the scene is set in the town of Northfall, Minnesota, and how it becomes the epicenter of the comet debris striking the town and the fallout that ensues. The debris is made of a previously unknown ninth metal that they call omnimetal. It causes a mining boon, cults to pop up worshipping the omnimetal, increase in crime and prostitution, fighting over mineral rights and the government capturing and studying one terrified boy who got caught in the fallout and has now become impervious to pain. One family, the Frontier family, has the way and the funds to take it all.
This book was so good. It was non-stop action from start to finish. The author did an excellent job with world-building, and making this new world so immersible. The storyline is fresh and there are characters that you want to root for and others that you can't wait to see their downfall. I am already anxious to read the second book in the series, and see where the storyline goes next. I highly recommend this one!

This book was a really enjoyable read. I liked reading about the different characters and wondering how it would all come together. The author did a great job creating a story that keeps you guessing and comes together nicely in the end. The only thing I would have liked to explore a bit more is the omnimetal itself. We do get some basic information on the properties and some uses for this new material, but it's all mentioned almost in passing and not really explored in depth. As a first book in a series, this is a good and compelling introduction and I am dying to know where this story will go next.

Outstanding read, although it's almost guaranteed to be different from what you expect. It's a little bit sci-fi, a lot of drama, and a suspenseful thriller, all wrapped up in one. The characters are sympathetic, well drawn, and Wil, have you pulling for them or against them. The pacing is brilliant and the prose is tight and smart. Highly recommended!

4.25 stars for this one! I was hooked on the concept of this book from the moment I read the synopsis. I had really high hopes for the sci-fi/tech aspect of this based on the plot, but was slightly let down in that sense (hence not 5 stars for me.)

Northfall, Minnesota is at the center of a "boom" the likes of which have never been seen before. A previously unknown metal has fallen from the sky and upended everything people thought they knew about physics. Masses rush to the town, trying to strike it rich - completely changing the dynamics of the once small town.

The Ninth Metal follows several characters: some that have lived in the town all their lives, some that are new-comers, and one in particular, John Frontier, that has placed as much distance between himself and Northfall as possible. The book flashes back and forth between character story lines and time lines which gets quite confusing at certain parts.

The character development is phenomenal, but the transition between characters and story lines left something to be desired. I often had to go back several passages to find where the story flipped to a different character. One paragraph would flow into another with no sense of a story break and all of a sudden the topic would be something new, or the story would be coming from a different character's perspective.

I felt that the book delved more into the societal and familial politics of the "ninth metal" than it did the actual science. That is totally fine, and it was still an amazing book, just not exactly what I expected!

Overall, I really enjoyed this story and felt that the plot was exciting and kept me wanting more. As this is part of a series I am ABSOLUTELY looking forward to what comes next!! This book is for you if you love sci-fi, space, ecological disasters, economics, family politics, and/or thrillers.

I enjoyed this book, overall. I feel like the first half of the book was a bit drawn out and could have been condensed to allow for more to happen once the plot and story were set. I really enjoyed the backstory for John and would have liked to have seen a bit more on what he had done during his 5 year absence from the Frontier family. The glimpses we got were interesting and helped to evolve John as a character as well as his storyline. But I feel that it could have been explored a bit more to give him some more depth.

The conclusion felt a bit rushed and Talia seemed brash without enough development to fully understand why. Also, her death was unceremonious and almost seemed like it was an afterthought. I feel there should have been a bit more given to the development of Talia as a character as well as treat her death with more urgency and impact. You knew she had to die with how reckless and crazy she handled herself and the business. It was the only logical conclusion to make the story come to an acceptable end. However, it just didn't have the impact on the characters or the story that I felt it should have had.

The idea of Omnimetal and its multiple uses was intriguing as well. I am sure that if there is a follow-on book, this will be explored more, but it could have been expanded upon in this book. The magical and extraterrestrial properties were hinted at throughout the book and then shown in full force when the metal eaters disappeared in a portal. However, it was all very abrupt and sudden with little to no explanation or understanding of what and why and how it happened.

I would definitely read this book again and would recommend it to friends and family. And if there ever was a sequel, I would certainly pick it up to see how the story continues.

No one could have predicted that a comet would lead to omnimetal but anyone could predict what that would mean to a community, in this case, Northfall, Minnesota. The town is pulled on both ends by the avaricious companies that want the resources until....John Frontier steps up. His family is exploiting the metal, and the community, but he finds himself in the unlikely position of superhero. Yep. No spoilers from me because frankly I'm not sure how to describe this. It crosses genres with a wicked sense of satire. The characters are good, the local color pointed, and the plot zips along. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Not my usual read but I enjoyed it and am looking forward for the next in the cycle.

I'm not even sure how to express all my thoughts or even how to do so in a way that makes sense. This book has a lot going on and Percy somehow makes it all work. I've come to really enjoy his writing; in this novel he takes us on a speculative ride into his new world that feels like our reality but is at the same not.

Benjamin Percy has a way with bringing humanity to life on paper in all aspects, including the not so pretty ones. I thought that The Ninth Metal was a great mixture and balance of character- and plot-driven. Speaking of characters, we get the POVs of John Frontier, Victoria Lennon, and Stacie, the rookie cop with a couple of small secondary character POVs thrown in. I felt like we got enough time with each of these three characters to get a good sense of who they are, however, I could tell (hopefully) that Percy was just skimming the surface. There are two more books, so I imagine that we'll get to know them even more plus a couple of the other characters better.

The plot was pretty action packed but still had depth. There was either something going on with the Frontier family and their business, someone trying to kill this person or did kill this person; this person gets kidnapped. And all this time, the Frontier business is competing with one other big mining company over this one big spot that is supposed to have a huge vein of the omnimetal. And that all ends up connecting to Victoria and what's happening in her DOD lab. I got hooked fairly early on in the book and kept wanting to know how it all was supposed to come together. I also liked that it wasn't super heavy on the sci-fi elements .. it's definitely a mixture of sci-fi with it's subgenre of dystopia with some action/adventure reminiscent of Westerns thrown in. Oh and some superhero elements too.

Weirdly, the book didn't end in a cliffhanger, which is something that I both liked and disliked; it was just very vague. I am definitely interested enough to want to pick up the next book (hopefully I remember to do so).

Okay, now that was an unexpectedly pleasant reading surprise: A popcorn novel that combines Western, SF, horror and thriller elements in an old-fashioned, yet surprisingly effective, manner. Think ‘Stranger Things’ combined with some of the darker and crazier ‘The X-Files’ episodes, and you’ll get a sense of what a fantastic read this is.

Also, if you enjoyed ‘The Institute’ by Stephen King, where a dastardly top-secret government organisation experiments on inculcating latent superpowers in vulnerable children, you will love this. Yet Percy’s take on the trope is a tad more ‘X-Men’ than King’s, with a good dollop of tentacular Lovecraftian cosmic menace thrown in for good measure.

Described like this, ‘The Ninth Metal’ should by all rights be a complete hodgepodge, not to mention a hot mess, but Percy’s deft characterisation and expert control of the narrative tension simply sucks the reader in. There is a lot of fun to be had in the details as well, and a vein of humour running throughout the story like the extra-solar omnimetal that is omnipresent in Minnesota itself.

I have no idea if Percy’s ‘ninth metal’ is a deliberate reference to the ‘Nth Metal’ of the DC Universe, described as “a special metal with gravity negating effects.” Of course, omnimetal does a lot more than that, and is therefore an expert nod at the many McGuffin Magic Materials that prop up so many SF novels.

Surprisingly, omnimetal is not the main focus though. We learn about the catastrophic meteor shower that deposits it on earth in brief flashback chapters, while speculation about its function and composition is just detailed enough to be convincing without derailing the propulsive main narrative with too much info-dumping. That is a common problem of SF novels of this ilk: Never let the science take the place of the story or the characters; Andy Weir and Liu Cixin, take note.

And in terms of the main narrative, it is a real corker: Two diehard and equally weird Minnesota conglomerate families (the cult is actually the normal one) go head-to-head (as well lots of other body parts) to claim exclusive rights to the miracle of omnimetal and its potential to totally transform life on Earth as we know it. And probably literally, as we suspect from the get-go. But, as in all good Pandora Box tales, getting your heart’s desire is only the beginning of a long road of unintended consequences.

Unusually for a multi-volume series, this opener ends on a real cliffhanger, yet is still complete enough for the ending to be a perfect conclusion to the overarching story. However, Percy really sets a high bar for himself at the end, so it will be intriguing to see where he takes his motley crew next when the ‘The Unfamiliar Garden’ is released early next year. Metal is!

Four stars instead of five for this exciting book that kept me reading far too late into the night because a couple of the characters are so mean and violent, I couldn't see them as real. That's the only negative. I was immediately drawn into the story by Hawkin. John, Stacie, Jenna, and Yesno are intriguing, too. I can't wait to read the next volume to find out how this story ends.

The Ninth Metal is a genre bending sci-fi-ish, action packed fantasy with an smidgen of crime thriller.

Minus the sex, this book reminded me of Sin City. Gnarly, gritty characters; flawed heroes, exciting villains, and an antagonist that is ultimately an analogy for the monsters within us; rotating perspectives that seem to run parallel to each other til they finally intersect; a setting in a broken down town full of ~sin~.

It must be made absolutely clear that this is book 1 of a trilogy, so it ends with questions unanswered and characters we are left wanting more of. I see some reviews that criticize the book as if we knew it was a standalone, but Percy is just getting us amped up for whatever comes next! I can't wait to read the next books!

Some books strike me as being especially perfect and begging for a screen adaption, but I kept thinking that this one would make a great comic book. The gritty characters with their individual quirks like Stacie with her candy, Talia with her brutishness, John and his scar and sharp features, all would translate sooo well onto comic panels. It's so hard to articulate, but the way Percy transitions his scenes is uniquely comic book-ish in a way that other authors don't do. Of course, I gave myself a face palm when I was reminded that Benjamin Percy is a respected comic writer! That made this book all the more fun to read and the creativity is inspiring.

Even as I write this review and think through it, the more I like it. It's thought provoking and unique. I'm so interested in following what this author does.

Thank you NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for an ecopy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

TL;DR

Action, murder, corporate intrigue, all fill The Ninth Metal. This book has it all, and I enjoyed each mystery as it unfolded. Recommended.

Review: The Ninth Metal by Benjamin Percy

Someone once said that all fiction is either someone coming to or leaving from town. In other words, all fiction is about change. In The Ninth Metal, Benjamin Percy brings the comet Caine to Earth. As the comet flies over Northfall, MN, it drops a new kind of metal on the small community. This new metal, omnimetal, changes the world forever and brings new life back into this small mining community. The Ninth Metal shows how the community responds to the changes, the influx of people, and to the vast riches suddenly strewn across Northfall. As ever, humans rushing to exploit new resources causes tension, and Benjamin Percy is quite good at depicting this tension on a person to person basis. The Ninth Metal is a book filled with mystery and secrets. Will John’s return home give him closure?

John Frontier returns to Northfall for his sister’s wedding. John is also the troubled son of the Frontier family, owners of the mining company that used to sustain Northfall. With omnimetal’s appearance, the Frontier family is once again raking in the money, and they’re faced with stiff competition from an out of town company. John’s father, the CEO, must fend off competitors and the government, who seek omnimetals uses as a weapon. John’s sister, heir to company, will do what it takes to protect her family’s interests as she tries to bring Frontier into the modern era. Victoria Lennon gets an offer from the government to conduct top secret research, but she regrets taking the job. Her research strains her marriage, strains her sanity, but she’s unable to quit.

Omnimetal has profound properties that change U.S. society. John returns to Northfall on a bullet train made of and powered by omnimetal. Its ability to absorb and distribute energy make it valuable for new technologies. But, for some, the metal is a new a drug to be smoked, and a small cult of addicts has built itself around a woman calling herself Mother in Northfall. Upon ingestion, the users’ eyes light up blue. John’s brother, Nico, becomes a user, a metalhead.

The novel opens prior to the comet’s arrival. A young boy witnesses the invasion of his home by a man with a shotgun. He hears his mom and dad get shot. In case, there’s any wonder about the tone of the novel; this sets it. Action, murder, corporate intrigue, all fill The Ninth Metal. It is a brutal novel about regrets and how the past stays with us.

Regret

The past haunts The Ninth Metal throughout. John is filled with regret, and it fuels much of his story. One of Percy’s strengths is how the past still affects the character’s present. The past haunts the whole Frontier family in a number of ways, from recent past to the start of the Frontier company. Their history dictates their actions in the present, and Percy excels at making those past events create decisions that complicate their actions.

Characters

I loved a lot of the characters in this book. Percy has a lot of points of view in this book, and each felt unique. Despite the large cast, I never got lost; Percy does a great job about giving each character description and differentiation. Character makes entertaining books, and I enjoyed all the character work done here.

The reader spends most time with John, and his complicated history drives the story. A big part of the joy of reading this book is unraveling the mystery of John. He wants to be a good person, but can he? That’s a big question in the book. Throughout whenever you think you have an idea about John, Percy unveils a new aspect.

Conclusion

Benjamin Percy’s The Ninth Metal showcases the effect of a new ‘gold rush’ on a small American town. Omnimetal changes the nation, the community, and the characters. This opening to the Comet Cycle introduces readers to a new world through the unique lens of Benjamin Percy. I recommend following John Frontier’s return to his hometown.

This intriguing, action packed science fiction story grabbed me right from the get go and didn't let go!! I so thoroughly enjoyed reading it, the characters and unique story just pull you right in. The story begins with a comet meteor shower that turns into a worldwide event when large pieces strike all over the earth with devastating effects. In Northfall, Minnesota, a young boy named Hawkin is caught up in the fall and physcally changed forever. This new metal from the heavens, named Omnimetal, has properties that suggest it is a phenomenal new energy source. This leads to huge changes in technology and makes Northfall the center of a new mining industry which completely changes the town and not always for the better. One company at the center of all this is Frontier Mining and John Frontier has just returned from being gone for 5 years to his home that has changed forever. John does not want to be drawn back into his dysfunctional family, but events put him at the center of disappearances, murder, and a business dispute with deadly consequences.
The science behind the story is so interesting and also plausible since we don't know if there are other metals out there in the universe and what their properties might be. The physical effects it has on people and the lengths that the government would go to to explore these effects is frighteningly real. But it really is the characters that draw you in, from the upstanding deputy Stacie to morally gray John and some very scary others whose actions actually make you cringe as you read them. The pace of the story combined with these wonderful characters keeps you turning the pages to find twists you don't see coming, action and consequences that definitely make me want the next installment in the series!! I highly recommend this exciting story to science fiction and thriller lovers!!

A great Sci-fi, dystopian read. The Frontier family gave me Yellowstone/Dutton family vibes for sure - complete with an underhanded and off-the-wall sister character. She's definitely got some issues! Overall, this book was one that made me want to keep turning pages. I was invested in some of the characters, was super intrigued by the "powers" that some of them have due to that fateful night where the world changed. Stacie - one of my favorites. Her relationship with her father and her patience in investigating the things that don't sit well with her - these things made me want to know more about her. I'm hoping that future books in the series bring her in as more of a main character.

I will say that I felt like the end of the book was rushed, but I also realize that more information may be coming in the second book in the series. I want to know what happened to everyone who was there and then wasn't (no more details given as I don't want to ruin this for someone else). I will be putting the second book on my TBR. Can't wait to see what happens with the characters who are still kicking.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read an ARC of this book.

E-book/Science Fiction: I want to thank NetGalley for giving me an advanced reader copy of this book. I really enjoyed it. It has not been released, so I will only give my impressions, not the plot.

I am hoping this is a trilogy I can get immersed in like the Passage, The Strain, Wool, Lightless, or Plague Year. What I love about these books isn’t just the new world faux ideas, but that you can get so wrapped up in a character and two pages later the character is dead, or not. I also compare this because all the characters have start out with a story that and you impatiently wait for all the storylines to mesh together at the end. This book isn’t as long as I wanted at only 304 pages. There is a lot of immediate dialog between characters, which I like. (I don’t like one person saying something, then three pages of exposition, and then the answer). There is a lot of descriptions while keeping up the mystery.

Benjamin Percy’s novels consistently use heightened phenomena to explore grounded questions, and The Ninth Metal is no exception. But in this case, the genre elements of the story were fundamentally less engaging than the emotional journeys of the characters. Which is not necessarily a bad thing — the world of a small town undergoing a radical change is ultimately just more compelling than any sci fi hook. But it did leave me wanting less heightened action and more human drama.

Minerals that have high value and has a lot of function can easily be a thing that everybody wants. Either they intend to use it for the betterment of humankind or use it to control everyone who wants it. Gold and Oil are just the two examples of it. So when a meteor shower had happened and brought the Ninth metal called “Omnimetal” the world was shocked. The Omnimetal can be a source of power, has the highest conductive rate among metals, and have an unexplained impact on people who were exposed near it. So just like how supply and demand works, two big companies were already after this Omnimetal. The military is not an exception for they also had their study if this can be used to their advantage.
John Frontier thought he had escaped and already put his family at the back but he finds himself being with them again because of his sister`s wedding. He, later on, discovers that his family is at war for gaining rights and mining operations. I thought John was a straightforward character like he will just take us on his journey but it was different. It was as if John is leading us to something that we already predicted but turn out to be something completely unexpected.
It was not just John and the story that was good but also its side characters. Stacie, A rookie cop who was slapped by the hard reality of life, and Physicist Victoria, the one who leads the research for the Omnimetal. There are more and side characters that are not just included in the story as extras. They have their own stories that gave a beautiful touch to the main story.
I admire how this was well-written. There are still a lot of questions I want the book to answer but being left with these questions is a good thing for this book is a series that just had begun. A series I would definitely look after.

Review of Advance Uncorrected Proof

A comet streaking through the sky leaves a debris field that creates a crisis for Northfall, Minnesota as the planet spun through the debris. Meteors rained down. And when there were no more, there was omnimetal left behind to create a modern-day gold rush. Omnimetal proved to be an amazing energy source . . . and an unimaginable weapon.

Soon the ruthless Frontier family is embroiled in a cutthroat war to control the mineral rights and mining operations for omnimetal. After five years away, John Frontier returns home for his sister’s wedding, only to find lawless corporations vying for control amid sabotage and nightmarish secret experiments. Will he be able to stop the murders, the crooked cops, and the violence?

First in the author’s comet trilogy, the story works well as a stand-alone, with no cliffhangers [although it is clear that there is more to come in the story]. The characters, however, were mostly unlikable as they fought for control of the exotic metal. Some plot twists and unexpected revelations kept the pages turning.

The largest disappointment is that the omnimetal, which lies at the heart of the story, remains unexplained; perhaps its origin will play a role in future books in the series. Despite this, there’s a lot for readers to appreciate in this suspenseful science fiction tale of extraterrestrial material, human greed, and family dynamics.

Recommended.

I received a free copy of this eBook from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt / Mariner Books and NetGalley
#TheNinthMetal #NetGalley

What an interesting concept, this was.

I love anything that deals with space and science fiction, especially if it brings some sense of reality in the mix. And this delivered everything I wanted.

This follows several characters as they deal with a world-wide crisis where meteors are raining down on the planet and risking life as we know it.

If you like stories about characters coming together to beat unbeatable odds, this is for you.

When coming into this novel I didn't know what to expect - the synopsis makes it sound like a 'near' future dystopian western which sounded a little strange. However, I was surprised at how easily I was able to get into this as it is more about the character building than the world itself. Man, I loved to hate these characters, eliciting a response in me as none of them are 'good', rather, they all paint themselves in shades of grey. The new metal that is at the heart of this story plays a pivotal role, however, isn't explained as well as I would have liked - still more novels to come in this trilogy so who knows whether that will change. Ultimately, a good read with some not so nice characters in a world weirdly similar to ours. Enjoyable.