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Entry tags:	book review

FIREFLY RAIN by Richard Dansky
The cover text: In a small town built upon secrets, one man struggles to find a way out before the spirit of the town can find a way in. Mystery lovers will devour the clues. Fantasy readers will be captivated by the sense of magic and atmosphere. No one will be able to put this book down until the very last twist comes to light.

That, friends and neighbors, is about the worst book description I’ve ever run across. If I saw that description on a dust jacket for a hardcover book, you may rest assured I would not part with my hard earned money for the novel in question, probably not even if it was Stephen King’s latest. The good news is, I was reading an Advance Reading Copy of the sort sent to reviewers and the editor was nice enough to send the real thing my way for one and all to see.

The real cover text: “Fireflies hated my land, hated and feared it. If brought onto it, they'd flee. If they couldn't flee, they'd die. But under no circumstances would my parents' grave ever see their light.”

Jacob Logan hasn't been home in years.

With his parents dead, his career a thousand miles away, there didn't ever seem to be a reason to go back. But things change, and the time has come for him to return to a place, a life, he'd long ago turned his back on.

It's time to go back to a house that may not let him leave a second time.


Isn’t that MUCH better? I certainly think so…

Here’s the thing. FIREFLY RAIN is the first fiction novel for Wizards of the Coast’s new imprint, Discoveries. If you’re not familiar with Wizards of the Coast (that’s WOTC for short), they’re the folks responsible for the collectable card game Magic: The Gathering. If you still aren’t familiar with the publisher, then you have successfully avoided one of the most addictive trends to hit the world in the last twenty or so years. Quickly, run out and buy a few starter packs for you and your friends, so that you, too, can spend your future children’s college tuition.

WOTC is not new to publishing, not by a long stretch. They been doing novels based on their various and sundry fantasy worlds for quite some time. I believe, though I could be mistaken, that a few of their novels have even made it to the NY Times best seller list. They’ve done a stellar job of finding writers and probably made a few careers along the way.

And now, they’ve decided to give a go at speculative fiction in general. I‘m sure there will be horror, science fiction, fantasy and a few others coming from Wizards of the Coast Discoveries as time goes on.

Does that have us up to date? Good. In that case, let’s get on with the review.

As is often the case, I know the author in question. I’ve known Rich Dansky for a long time, and it used to be he hired me to do work for him, back when he was a developer for White Wolf Games. That was a long time ago. These days he works in computer games. We stay in touch because he’s a nice guy. He’s also a hell of a writer. You might have actually seen some of his work already without knowing it. He’s worked on a myriad of computer games ranging from high fantasy stuff to damned near everything that has the name Tom Clancy associated with it. He works as a writer, but it’s a very different type of writing.

Having said that, I eyed FIREFLY RAIN the same way I eye any first novel (not counting media tie ins) by a friend of mine: I eyed it like a snake that might or might not be venomous and that was currently rearing back while regarding me as a potential meal.

Why? Because, damn it, I’m expected to read the damned thing. And I’m expected to be completely truthful. See, it’s different when you’re a writer. You can’t just give a nod and a smile and say “hey, yeah, I really dug it.” Well, you can, but it makes you a heel in my book. Like working in restaurants and telling they man who just served you skunk gland ice cream that it had a lovely bouquet and would revolutionize the desert world as we know it instead of being truthful and explaining that while original in concept, the ice cream tasted and smelled like dead skunk with a side of rotting meat. Professional ethics must take precedent over friendliness if you want to help your friends further themselves in the industry, which can already be pretty damned harsh, if you get my point.

Still, Rich had asked if I’d be interested and I’d said yes, so now it was time to open the first page and get to the story. I mean, I’d read a few smaller pieces and liked them, right? Surely this could be done without too much fear…

I started reading and stopped on page sixty. I didn’t really want to stop, but at some point I have to rest my eyes and sleep and I’d started late. I took the book with me to work, because, hey, sooner or later I get to take a break and I could get in a little more time.

While reading FIREFLY RAIN I was writing a 30,000 word novella and then starting a short story that’s already been sold. I’m on deadlines, people, and I have work to do. FIREFLY RAIN slowed me down a bit.

The novel has a smooth style, one part Southern Gothic and one part Noir mystery. Sounds like a strange combination to some folks, I suppose but damned if Dansky didn’t pull it off. I don’t think I could have. Southern Gothic isn’t normally my thing. I tend to want to crank up the wattage on the violence too much, I suspect. Dansky hit it like an old pro, keeping the pace steady and the prose subtle. You barely even know the book is progressing, but it is. The speed is there, but hidden behind a rich tapestry of atmosphere and character interaction. Adding to the challenge is that the story is told in the first person and done right. You learn as much about the main character from what he doesn’t say as from what he says. You can almost feel him holding back certain aspects of what’s going on and from time to time, I wanted to shake our narrator until he ‘fessed up to what he was hiding, not only from me, but from himself.

FIREFLY RAIN takes place in a small Southern town, and the atmosphere is dead on. Cities and towns and everything in between feel different, but Dansky’s prose is just right for capturing the feel of a proper southern speck on the map town with nothing to draw a tourist’s eye and little to keep the folk living there from going stir crazy. It was vital to the story that he get it right, too, because while this is a ghost story, it’s also one that slaps a few conventions in the face. Yes, the narrator is coming home again (aren’t they almost always?) but beyond that simple fact, little holds true to the standard cookie cutter plot of a story about a haunting. No, I won’t get further into it, much as I’m tempted, because I still loathe giving away plot points.

The characters are well fleshed out and vivid, even the ones who seem at first to be insignificant have life. And there are mysteries lodged within enigmas throughout the plot of FIREFLY RAIN, most of which come together in the end to show you how carefully Dansky has been leading you along. The clues are there, but they don’t give themselves away too easily. The conclusion of the novel is perfect for me, leaving a few things unanswered and leaving me wanting more. Damned if I wouldn’t love a sequel just to catch up with everything that happens after the tale is told. That’s a sure sign of excellence in my book, because it means I care enough about what happened and to whom to want to keep the characters in my life. Rest assured, I’ll be reading FIREFLY RAIN again in the not too distant future.

FIREFLY RAIN is everything I hope for in a first novel. The characters are solid, the story is both subtle and intense. Rich Dansky may have never had an original novel before this one, but I eagerly look forward to the next one he composes. If I could say that about all of the first novels I’ve run across, my life would have far less awkward moments when someone asks me what I thought of their hard work.

FIREFLY RAIN is coming out early next year, and is, again, the first novel from WOTC’s new imprint. If they keep up with the same level of intensity, I think they’re going to go very far in the world of publishing. The novel comes out in hardback in early 2008. Get a copy. Hell, the only thing that could make the book any better is if it came with a unique Magic: The Gathering card.


James A. Moore