THE RAINY SEASON

By James P. Blaylock
World Fantasy Award nominee!
Ace Books $21.95, hc
 

James Blaylock (author of Night Relics, Winter Tides, Paper Grail) here strays into Tim Powers territory by creating a whole new mythology of water. He hasn't exactly left his trademark ghost stories behind, as that influence is obvious here, but he returns to the gentle, almost nostalgic, yet still dark-tinged fantasy of All the Bells on Earth and The Last Coin.

Where photographer Phil Ainsworth lives in the hills of California, the wells possess a strange power, one which the Catholic missions have been attempting to suppress for centuries. A hundred years ago, a cult flourished in the area, a cult with a penchant for sacrificing dying children by ritual drowning. When drowned in such a well during a rainy season, portions of the children's memory are transferred to strange glass objects, like paperweights with vague animal-in-the-clouds shapes. But there is an even more bizarre effect the wells have on living people, and the two strange properties combine this season in the well on Phil Ainsworth's property.

Recently widowed, Phil now learns of his sister's death, and suddenly becomes his niece Betsy's legal guardian; much to the dismay of dotty Mrs. Darwin, who loves Betsy, and may love Betsy's glass inkwell even more. Meanwhile, strangers are sneaking around Phil's well, including a priest and a beautiful antiques dealer. Until one night, when a mysterious woman named Jeanette climbs out of the well...

Linking arcane cult practices and rituals with the greed and selfishness of a modern age, and entwining past and present as only a master fabulist can.  James Blaylock again blends California Gothic with magic realism to create a hybrid mythological fiction.

 "Broken things have to be repaired quickly, or else the pieces get lost." Once acquainted with Blaylock, you won't rest until you've sought out his other books and let them curl gently into your soul.