Title: The Rain Never Came
Author: Lachlan Walter
Genre: Science Fiction/Dystopian
Opens:
The teams started brawling as soon as they stepped onto the oval of dying grass, egged on by a crowd hungry for some rough entertainment and a diversion from the dry grind of life.
Blurb:
In a thirsty, drought-stricken Australia, the country is well and truly sunburnt. As the Eastern states are evacuated to more appealing climates, a stubborn few resist the forced removal. They hide out in small country towns – where no one would ever bother looking.
Bill Cook and Tobe Cousins are united in their disregard of the law. Aussie larrikins, they pass their hot, monotonous existence drinking at the barely standing pub. When strange lights appear across the Western sky, it seems that those embittered by the drought are seeking revenge. And Bill and Tobe are in their path. In the heat of the moment secrets will be revealed, and survival can’t be guaranteed.
My thoughts:
As Australia suffers one of the worst droughts for many a year THE RAIN NEVER CAME is based on a very topical fear. In fact the current weather situation makes the whole scenario to be not so far-fetched – it could become reality. The descriptions are all too familiar with the scenes being played on my TV on the nightly news.
…It was a desiccated void, thousands of acres of desolate pasture, all that remained of a land where cattle and sheep used to roam, where corn and wheat had grown tall and strong, where nature had run rampant and wild, where life had once thrived. All of that was now gone; all that was left was a barren dustbowl…
Set in small Victorian town in the near future, THE RAIN NEVER CAME is fast-paced over a short period of time. It tells the story of two men who have had a longstanding friendship and the people they come across as they try to navigate the dangers of dried new world they live in. When the Australian climate turns irretrievably bad, the government forces people to evacuate north to better living conditions.
Bill, Tobe and many others, have to refuse to leave, and are living hand to mouth, with no assistance, to assert their independence. They all face a daily struggle for survival, and are constantly short of food and water. Friends and family have died – and Tobe disappeared for a long time but as the book opens he has returned.
The government doesn’t like rebellion and armed thugs nicknamed Creepers are rounding up the stragglers and sending them off to concentration camps for an uncertain future – possibly transportation north behind the Brisbane line.
After mysterious explosions and a bright light in the night sky, which everyone thought might have been the first rains for decades, Bill and Tobe fear it might be from some government retaliation somewhere and move out to investigate the event. The land does not improve as their road trip progresses.
…I could see to the horizon – a parched land of dying trees, bleached grass, and dead towns. A world of thirst and ruin that sprawled as far as we could see…
Bill is the narrator and as the story is from his point of view Tobe’s character always remains elusive, what makes him tick is a bit of a puzzle, this is exaggerated by his mysterious comings and goings, his reluctance to share information. Bill describes Tobe as a little manic. The dramatic events and horrible scenario is balanced by humour. Only Aussies can crack jokes in the most horrendous conditions. And the witty back and forths certainly lightened the emotions so this reader didn’t plunge into the depths of despair with the unrelenting grimness of their life. I would have like to know why people chose to remain behind with no assistance – and why the government is so brutal in relocating them – there are deaths and massacres. None of this was never fully explained – it just was the way it was. In fact at the start there were a lot of unknowns such as what happened to Bill’s family? Who’s in the mystery grave he tends? Why does Tobe feel he owes Bill? Where did Ruby come from? Who are the Creeps, and why are they called that? You find out about the creeps, and the grave but never really the whole story – there are lots of gaps – but this didn’t detract from the story as communication was non-existent as information was just oral rather than by internet or radio. Tobe and Bill knew the background and didn’t need to talk about it other than in a cursory way.
THE RAIN NEVER CAME is not promoted as a series – and this will sound strange but even though the story is completed it feels that overall in the scheme of things that it seems to start after the beginning and finish before the end – so there is room for Lachlan Walter to expand if he wants. As I really enjoyed this book I certainly hope there’s more to come.
Rating:
Excellent Stuff – a real page turner and hard to put down. I carved out extra reading time just so I could finish it. This book got carted into the bathroom with me, read over meals, read at work, and/or kept me up late at night. If this author has more work, I will certainly read it.
I wish to thank the author Lachlan Walter for my copy to read and review
Books and Musings from Downunder 