Lives of Bitter Rain is a novella in the epic fantasy series The Tyrant Philosophers, written by Adrian Tchaikovsk and published by Head of Zeus. A novella that is set chronologically before Days of Shattered Faith (third novel in the saga), developing more about Sage Invigilator Angilly and her past, how she became the character she is, and more widely asking about when a character starts existing; a character-centrical novella in contraposition with the choral plays that are the bigger novels of the saga.

A novella that starts by showing us the loss of her parents while being stationed on Jarrokir, during their mission for the Pel Empire; a situation that it's used to kickstart a series of scenes following Angilly's life, moving through her life and career, showing how the Pel machinery starts the conquest of other lands in order to spread the perfection. An ambitious task where each one of the citizens is expected to play as a small piece of the big machinery.

What we have here is part character studio, showing how that resolved girl is molded by the Pel machinery, how she slowly absorbs the new world and how she learns to accept that many things just can't be changed, but also we can see Pel's conquest of a territory in its earlier stages, showing how it becomes about power and survival, subverting the own nature of the territory and its inhabitants.

Lives of Bitter Rain is chronologically a prequel to Days of Shattered Faith, but I personally recommend reading it after the novel, as not only fleshes out a central character to it, but also enriches our vision about Usmal with a fresh pair of eyes.
If you like character-focused novellas, this might be a good point of entry into The Tyrant Philosophers series; for the long-time fans of the saga, we get a bite-sized piece that continues developing an already rich world.