Customer Reviews

Child of a Rainless Year

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

It's hard to believe that it came out in May and I'm just now coming across it, but Jane Lindskold's Child of a Rainless Year is the best new book I've read in a long time. I'd read some of her short stories here and there, but none of her novels had jumped out at me from the bookshelf until now.

I'm struggling to put into words exactly what it is that makes the book such a great read. A good part of it is the pacing, I think, as well as just the right balance (for me, at least) between between description and action, and between language and story. This may just be me, but with most fiction out there, I usually feel that either the language overwhelms the story or the story overpowers the language. This is one of the rare books where they are equally strong, complementing each other rather than fighting for my attention. Most of all, though, it's simply a damn good story.

I guess a brief summary would be that Mira grew up in a house that was very mysterious in many ways (and not in the cliched ways which are no longer mysterious at all), in New Mexico. When she's nine, her mother disappears and she is sent to live with foster parents who are required to move to a new state and change their names as a requirement of the mysterious trustees of her mother's estate. All sorts of things happen, eventually building up to a middle-aged Mira returning to the house she grew up in, which she'd now inherited. She starts trying to understand all of the mysteries that surround her childhood, her mother, the house, her foster parents, and her connection with art and color.

The book pulls together an amazing mix of art, local history and culture, psychology, hidden family secrets, and the paranormal -- and more importantly, all in a way that builds the story, rather than just dumping information here and there because the author had it.

Before picking up this book, I had not read much work by Jane Lindskold. I can assure you, I will be remedying that as quickly as possible. Child of a Rainless Year was a nearly perfect book. I loved it, and resented the time when I had to put the novel down to do something else.

The one thing that I have read by Lindskold in the past is Donnerjack-- the Zelazny novel that she completed post-humously after Zelazny's death. Unlike a lot of serious Zelazny fans, I really liked the book. I thought that Lindskold deserved credit taking on a truly daunting task in trying to complete it.

With that background in mind, it was with interest that I picked up Child of a Rainless Year. It had been recommended to me with the strongest possible praise by someone who generally does not do a lot of praising. I was also interested to see what Lindskold could do on her own.

No disappointments for me. The book brings to mind the best of the de Lint works, with enough personal touches from the author to make it unique and uniquely hers. I had no issue with the slow pacing. (In fact, I think that the pace may make this book a winner with people who are less fantasy fans than "normal" literature fans.) It was terrific to see a non-standard hero used in the book. The dramatic build worked perfectly with the concept and the plot. Lindskold is a skilled writer and she uses just the right level of description and detail to maintain user interest. The only little quarrel that I have is that I could have done with less New Mexico local color during the tours with Domingo, but that's a taste issue.

I suppose that how you react to this book will have something to do with your expectations. This is *not* a swords and sorcery fantasy novel. No dragons. No werewolves. No battles. Think Urban Fae and you are getting closer-- but without the fae. It is probably closest (as I said earlier) to the works of Charles de Lint. If you like the explosions and a lot of magic, this is probably not the book for you.

If you think that you are not really a fantasy fan, then I think that you should give it a chance. It's about the characters, not about the fantasy. That is what makes it such a good read.

The book is suitable for all ages. Probably even good for youngsters to see a main character over 25.

Mira Bogatyr Fenn is fifty-one and unfulfilled, having sublimated her artistic talents for reasons she doesn't quite understand. Her adoptive parents pass away, and Mira finds herself drawn to the Victorian house she inherited from her long-missing birth mother, and realizes there's more to her mother's disappearance than she ever suspected as a child.

Lindskold leads the reader into the mystery slowly, letting the weirdness accumulate until Mira can no longer deny it, which is a different technique than what I've seen in a lot of "urban fantasy" novels. It's more usual to drop a mundance character right smack into a supernatural event and go from there; here, it's a more gradual realization. And it works very well indeed.

The prose is beautiful, and the setting vividly painted.

It was also refreshing to see an older heroine. Not to mention a heroine who's plump and doesn't miraculously lose weight as part of her character development.

This book sucks you right into it. It is magical realism that transported me right out of the work-a-day world into a world of make believe. For the time it took me to read it,I was somewhere else. And isn't that just what a good novel should do?!

I JUST HAPPENED to be walking thru our public library (unusual...i usually order all my books thru amazon) and happened on this book in the "new" section. Sat down to read it, got hooked; checked it out and finished before nightfall! COULD NOT put it down!! Will no order myself a copy!! HAve never read Ms. Lindskold before and this was just FANTASTIC...cross between The Chili Queen (Sandra DAllas) and Time Traveler's Wife. BIG Thumbs up (and i'm REALLY picky about what i read!!)

This book is contagious! Everyone I've loaned it to has gone out and purchased their own copy to loan or give to someone who "needs" to read it too! Both my 17-year-old daughter and I loved it. Beyond being a very entertaining story, "Child" is so well written that even though I couldn't wait to find out what happened next, I couldn't stand to skim through any of the fascinating and incredibly well-researched details. By the end of the book, I "knew" the people and was sure I could just drive to Las Vegas (New Mexico) and see that house! Definitely a book to be enjoyed on many levels. I highly recommend it as a gift, and it would be a superb "book club" book!

Mr. Kahl's review is dead-on in that this riveting book starts off as an excellent novel about the mundane world, and the reader is almost startled by the gradual appearance of the fantastic in the superb story. In this respect, the storytelling in this terrific book reminded me (in the best possible way) of Stephen King's better stuff. Ms. Lindskold certainly develops the history of her lead character in the mundane world much more than does, say, Charles DeLint (in anything of his that I've read - not to run him down in any way) - the book has a richness of character detail that reminds me of the best of Amy Tan's writings.

Ah, but when the fantastic starts to become revealed, the pace is perfect and the mystery draws one on and on. This was another book that was excruciatingly difficult to put down at bedtime - I managed only when I became so tired that my eyes could no longer focus on the words. (And then I promptly finished it upon picking it up the next morning.) I found the story to be delightful and satisfying, a real treat that I'm looking forward to sharing with friends.

Other reviewers have discussed the storyline in plenty of detail, so I'll stick to these short compliments about Ms. Lindskold's writing. I loved, Loved, LOVED this book!

Never ran across this author before; grabbed this from the "new fiction" section of the library. I can certainly see where science fiction might have been her area before. I was surprised that a book which started out as a rather dull life story became riveting in such a short time. Risky for an author. Proves that the writing was really good since I didn't cast it down after five pages, although I thought about it. But I gave it a chance and I am very glad that I did. It turned out to be a great find.

For anyone who wants all ends neatly tied up as in a Hollywood movie, forget this.

The author writes, "I knew I spoke nonsense, but I knew also that what I said was right in a fashion that had nothing to do with logic." Hear, hear.

The author's research into her subject (considering it's fiction) is impressive. I would welcome more, although this book has probably tapped out the author's resources on this subject. Anyway, a well-told tale can't be repeated. Good show.

What a lovely novel!

I was unfamiliar with Ms. Lindskold's work -- I picked this up on a whim in the bookstore, largely due to the comment by Charles de Lint inside the cover. I always love his work, so I thought it was worth it to take a chance on an author who's work he likes. I'm so glad I did! I just odered five more of her novels and can scarcely wait for them to arrive.

Mira is a quietly compelling protagonist -- totally captivating. Her story drew me in gently but inexorably; I became unable to put it down. It's lyrical, magical, yet utterly and resolutely real.

Elegant like de Lint's work, intelligent like Sherri S. Tepper's writing, with characters I like so much I hated to finish their tale -- this is a great read.

I loved this book. It is so beautifully written and evokes so many memories of what I loved about New Mexico. The characters are so well realized that you feel as if they are well-beloved friends. It is so refreshing to read about a woman who is older and not beautiful, and does not get an extreme make-over during the course of the story. I have enjoyed other books by this author; but with this work, she has taken her craft to a whole new level.