hild of a Rainless Year is a stand-alone contemporary fantasy from Jane Lindskold, author of the popular Firekeeper novels. It opens with a graceful backsweep into Mira Fenn's early childhood, when her exotic mother is still alive. Mother and daughter wear custom silk dresses, and silent female servants tend to their every need—often before Colette or Mira even asks for anything. Mira doesn't know anything about her father. As for Colette, she's distant and beautiful, and she's obsessed with mirrors. In fact, mirrors are everywhere in Phineas House.
One day, when Mira is still quite young, her mother disappears. With no trace of Colette anywhere, Mira is shipped off to live with foster parents, and she spends the rest of her childhood living normally in Ohio. She no longer wears custom silk dresses. She has to wash her own dishes. She has an ordinary room in an ordinary house with few mirrors. Having a gift for color, Mira becomes an accomplished artist, but rather than practice her craft she settles down to become an art teacher. Mira never marries.
Still single in her early 50s, Mira is crushed when her foster parents, Aunt May and Uncle Stan, die in a car crash. She's lost the only family she's ever known since her mother disappeared so long ago. An ample trust fund exists, and Mira leaves her teaching job to return to Phineas House in Las Vegas, N.M. It is here that the bulk of the story takes place.
She meets a kind man, Domingo Navidad, who befriends her and hints at romance. Domingo is obsessed with the old house and has spent most of his life fixing it, painting it with lavish colors, tending to its every need. Both he and Mira feel that the house is alive in some way.
The house is drawn to Mira, and Mira is drawn to the house. The mirrors, which face each other at odd angles in every room of the house, hold a key to Mira's past, to her mother's disappearance and, indeed, to the nature of what Mira really is, where she really comes from, and where it's possible for her to go. And where Mira can go is no ordinary place.
Coming of age at middle age
Child of a Rainless Year gives readers a picture of life in Las Vegas, N.M.: hot, dry days and a slow way of living. The story is languid and elegant, just like its setting, and it seems to unfold like a long, hot southern day. But the pace is perfect for this story, holding the reader with a delightful tingle of imminent mystery and climax. Death, intrigue, ghosts, oracles, "other" places: These are the bolts that define the tale of Mira Fenn.
This book packs a punch at the end: a giant twist that leaves the reader surprised and in awe of Lindskold's creative abilities. This is an "idea" book that delivers what every reader of fantastic literature craves: something new that just might be possible.
The main character, Mira Fenn, is beautifully drawn and believable. Her supporting cast, however, is weaker in substance. Even her love interest, the ever-faithful Domingo, feels barely real. Aunt May and Uncle Stan are key to the overall story, yet come across as little more than a woman who wants freedom from the confines of a stifling marriage and a husband who supplies love in very old-fashioned ways. Colette is a fascinating character who appears in few scenes. She would be a marvelous choice to star in a sequel to Child of a Rainless Year.
Also of great interest are the silent female servants in Phineas House. Who are they? Why are they in Phineas House, seemingly forever? And why are there no silent men serving the needs of the inhabitants?
And finally, just how much power does Phineas House have? Can it kill people? Can it change the course of events? Does it have a personality and needs of its own? What would happen if Phineas House were destroyed or seriously damaged? If Phineas House destroys other magical houses, do the silent servants in those houses wither away and never appear again?
These are all questions that remain unanswered as Child of a Rainless Yearcloses. The reader is left wondering if this novel is part one in a series.
