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Rainy Season [Hardcover]

James P. Blaylock (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 356 pages
  • Publisher: Ace Books (27 Oct 1999)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0441006183
  • ISBN-13: 978-0441006182
  • Product Dimensions: 21.1 x 14.7 x 3.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 3,581,271 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Synopsis

While grieving over the unexpected death of his young wife, Phil Ainsworth finds his life further shaken by the death of his sister and the arrival of his young niece, Betsy, a child with a special talent to hear the voices of the dead and see the uncanny forces closing in around the old house he ha
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First Sentence
COASTAL SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA IS A SEMIARID LAND crosshatched with mountain chains, narrow valleys, and dry riverbeds. Read the first page
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars A stream of consciousness 24 Jan 2008
By Patrick Mullane
Format:Mass Market Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The author writes evocatively of past events, which while affecting the principle characters to a profound degree, it is their actions and deeds in the present that make them who they are. The characters have the free choice of good or evil, and if the latter then the author still provides a degree of empathy between them and the reader.
As well, the description of the Californian landscape nearly qualifies as a fully fledged character, with the opening rain storm conveying both the rejuvenating and destructive power of the rainy season.
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1 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect, again! 16 July 1999
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
I am not going to review the story: read it and be amazed at Mr. Blaylock's wonderful gift for fantasy! I recommend this story to anyone who loves a really imaginative and well written book. Both my spouse and I also admire his basically optimistic view of humanity that can even surface in the most unlikely places.

Read it!

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com: 3.6 out of 5 stars  24 reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantasy that lives down your street 18 Nov 2001
By Michael Battaglia - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Mass Market 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 7 Aug 2000
By "sdixonsf" - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Mass Market 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 5 Jan 2001
By Pauline J. Alama - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Mass Market 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.

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