The Rainy Season [Hardcover]

James P. Blaylock (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1999

James P. Blaylock has set a new standard for the contemporary ghost story. The Washington Post called him "a master." Dean Koontz has hailed his writing as "first rate." A masterful blend of psychological insight and unearthly phenomena, The Rainy Season blurs the lines between the past and the present, the living and the dead, fantasy and reality . . . It's a gray, wet winter in southern California, and Phil Ainsworth is alone. The sudden death of his young wife has left him shaken, and he senses an eerie presence in the big old house he inherited from his mother. Then a late night phone call brings him more bad news: Phil's sister has died, leaving her ten-year-old daughter Betsy in his care. It seems like a bad time to bring a child into this unhappy house, but the child is the only family he has left. What he doesn't know is that Betsy is a very special child. She can sense powerful emotions from the past, hear voices of the dead, and see the uncanny powers closing around this house...

A haunting tale of death, and dreams, and desires...from the award-winning author who has become "a singular American fabulist" (William Gibson).

"With acrobatic grace, Blaylock walks the dividing line between fantasy and horror." -Publishers Weekly

"One of the most brilliant of the new generation of fabulist writers." -Washington Post Book World

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The central conceit of this elegant, accomplished contemporary ghost story is that fuentesAsprings in which children have been ritually drownedAare portals of inexact time travel. A byproduct of the ritual, and of time-traveling, is that memory is cast off in the form of a crystal stone, which allows its holder to experience the cast-off memory, which "might be transferred to living flesh." Hale Appleton, leader of the Societas Fraternia, a spiritualist cult, creates one such crystal in 1884. The stone is then stolen, and pursued to the present day. Timelines and characters overlap here. Scenes from previous centuries take place on the periphery of the present story line, wherein Phil Ainsworth, an insular photographer who lives in Southern California, where Appleton made his sacrifice, gains custody of his niece. People from the past and present converge on Ainsworth in an attempt to get the crystal, or to block the portalAa well on his propertyAfrom being neutralized. Ambitious plotting and characterization augment Blaylock's (Winter Tide) lush language (ripples in a well "cast a hundred shifting shadows... crisscrossing in geometric confusion"). This is one ghostly tale that stands on very solid ground. (Aug.) ("Paper Dragons," 1986) and one for best short story ("Thirteen Phantasms," 1997).
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The coming of the rains to California's mission country releases a torrent of unusual activities surrounding a century-old mystery. Photographer Phil Ainsworth finds his life altered by the adoption of his late sister's child and the legacy she brings with her. As ghosts and strangers from the past seek redress for old grievances, a young girl's life hinges on the possession of a strange crystal and a magical well. The author of Winter Tides continues to display an uncanny talent for low-key, off-kilter drama, infusing the modern world with a supernatural tint. Blaylock's evocative prose and studied pacing make him one of the most distinctive contributors to American magical realism. Recommended for most libraries.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 356 pages
• Publisher: Ace Hardcover; 1st edition (August 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0441006183
• ISBN-13: 978-0441006182
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,267,458 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantasy that lives down your street, November 17, 2001

By 

Michael Battaglia - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Rainy Season (Paperback)

Blaylock's books in the last few years have slowly taken on a different tone and direction . . . all for the better, I say. Gone are the goofy scenarios with almost ridiculously comedic characters and bizarre fantasy situations that just happened to be set in a world we all might happen to recognize . . . those were darn entertaining but I think Blaylock would have undermined himself had he continued to write in that style. Instead he evolved and grew to the point where he's at now, writing a sort of "fantastic realism" where engagingly real people interact just barely with a world they barely understand and come into contact with things that don't make a whole lot of sense. The "magic" stuff is kept as far into the background as possible and the focus is squarely on people and how they treat each other and what makes them tick and what separates a "good" decision from a "bad" decision. In this novel, Phil Ainsworth winds up with custody of his niece after her mother dies but along the way becomes embroiled in an ongoing scenario a century old that might have something to do with the odd well on his land. The plot is gripping but not all that frightening, it's more tense than anything else and it's fascinating to watch people undone by simple obsessions and the lengths that those obsessions will drive them . . . by the end you're just reading rapidly, watching as they people circle each other and close in, ready to collide in something you know is going to be ugly. Blaylock evokes both the mystique and the wonder at the heart of magic while bringing to life a little corner of California. Night Relics is probably still his best book, the psychology cuts much deeper there, the characters have slightly more depth and the evil just a teensy bit more frightening but you would have a hard time going wrong here and it's really not that bad a place to start with him. I'll be looking forward to seeing what he does next.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Blaylock writes ghost stories the way they should be, August 7, 2000

By 

"sdixonsf" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rainy Season (Paperback)

It's a nice change to read a ghost story that mixes in a healthy dose of the magical and mysterious, instead of the bloody splatter kind of jump-out-and-get-you horror that seems so pervasive these days. Blaylock is a master of the eerie and moody chill, rather than the cheap thrill. He writes about haunted houses so evocatively that you long to visit them, to savor the charged atmosphere for yourself. Add to this a convoluted plot full of many disparate elements that couldn't possibly go together, but somehow do, and you have one of his best novels since The Paper Grail.

If you read this book, you will believe that Blaylock has been touched by magic at some point in his life, to describe it in words so evocatively.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A contemporary fantasy full of mystery, suspense, and heart, January 5, 2001

By 

Pauline J. Alama "Fantasy author" (Rutherford, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Rainy Season (Paperback)

It's an unusually rainy winter in southern California, with water brimming the usually dry well on Phil Ainsworth's property, when he learns of the death of his sister and accepts guardianship of her orphaned daughter, Betsy. What he has yet to learn is that rain awakens strange forces in a landscape that hides scars of loss, twisted love, greed, and human sacrifice. Unknowingly, Phil is bringing Betsy into the heart of a supernatural struggle for memories trapped in crystal -- and in this conflict, those who play for love are almost as cruel as those who play for greed.

In this beautifully written book, Blaylock has created believable characters -- notably including a believable 10-year-old, a feat beyond most authors of adult-oriented fiction -- and expressed truths of the heart in evocative symbols. That's what I think a fantasy should do, and that's why Blaylock is one of my favorite authors.