Rumors of Spring

by Richard Grant, Gervasio Gallardo (Illustrator)

An astonishing odyssey is about to begin.

Gone are the wild grasses and rolling meadows. Gone too are the towering trees--except in one last forest in a forgotten corner of the world. Until something totally unexpected, remarkable, and frightening happens: The forest begins to grow. And grow. And grow. Mother Nature is back with a vengeance and mankind's very survival is at stake. Now a crusade of unlikely allies is venturing boldly into the heart of this dark and majestic world to learn its awesome secret--only to make the most breathtaking discovery of all.

A shimmering fantasy brimming with magic, fun, and adventure, Rumors of Spring is a true fable of our times--a novel alive with imagery and humor, lush with power and grace.

"A rare and marvelous tale."--Los Angeles Daily News

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction, Dystopia, Science Fiction Fantasy, Adventure, Adult Fiction

464 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 1, 1987

About the author

RICHARD GRANT was born in Norfolk in 1952, attended the University of Virginia, and served in the U.S. Coast Guard. He lives in Rockport, Maine, where he has been a contributing editor of Down East magazine, chaired the literature panel of the Maine Arts Commission, and won a New England Journalism Award for his column in the Camden Herald.

After a 20-year career writing science fiction and fantasy, he turned to historical fiction.

Reviews

[Marisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essentially, my favorite book. I own three copies. One reader's advance copy. One first edition. One mass market paperback. I love this book. The spare illustrations. The poetry of it. The fact that this cautionary tale was written SO long before sustainable growth and ecological awareness became popular causes. It's an ecologically aware fairly tale written for adults.

[Metaphorosis · Rating 4 out of 5]

reviews.metaphorosis.com

4 stars

A little over half a millennium into the future, the once-shrinking Carbon Bank Forest is on a rampage, and a small, mismatched Crusade sets out to discover why, and what mysterious ancient geneticist Amy Havata had to do with it.

I read Rumors of Spring when it came out at the end of the '80s.I'd never heard of the author, and I assume I was taken with the title. In any case, I loved it, and bought his other books as they came out (until he lost his way a decade later). Rumors is still the one I like best, and so when my mind turned to Grant recently, it was this volume I picked to re-read first.

I recalled the book as being a somewhat opaque but lyrical consideration of the concept of plant mentation, and that's true. I'm not a fan of opacity for its own sake, but Grant pulls it off, in part because he has his characters constantly asking "But really, what's going on?" They never fully answer, but they're engaging in their effort. In particular, a curious teenage girl and a differently curious boy are central to the story; in some ways, this is a sophisticated young adult novel.

Grant throws out a number of threads, but he doesn't tie them all off; in fact, he doesn't really try. There are references, both direct and oblique, to fairy tales, religion, mythology, and they largely work. But some of the central mysteries are left unresolved. That worked better for me the first time around; this time, I was much more aware of the seams, and of the somewhat unsatisfying tangle at the end.

If Rumors of Spring isn't as striking a quarter century on, it's still a very good book. I recommend it to anyone looking for intelligent, subtle speculative fiction that combines conscience and story.

*It turns out Mr. Grant was for a while married to the equally talented writer Elizabeth Hand - also worth checking out.

[Junoimelda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poignant and magical. This is one of R.G.'s best books, in my humble opinion. If you are just discovering this author I would recommend this as a good starting book. I love the fragile, slightly dystopian and disrupted world he creates here. I love his very slightly disjointed writing style - he throws in enough random botanical stuff and short phrases to create a mood without completely muddling up the story. A wonderful coming of age story in addition to being great eco-fantasy. Love, love, LOVE this book.

[Derek Pegritz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm re-reading this for the first time in...damn--more than fifteen years. I loved it when I was younger and its gorgeous imagery spoke directly to the nature-lover in my heart. Even today, with so many years of disillusionment and bitterness weighted upon me, this book manages to lift my spirits and make me dream of lush woodlands filled with wildflowers.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

fantasy with a sense of humor--and humility. This beautifully written book is gentle in a way that few things are: it recognizes the brutality of life, yet places it in a frame of healing. I can think of few novels that have affected me as deeply as RoS: some of Arthur C. Clarke's stories, the first book of the Foundation Trilogy, Dune...a wonderful story placed in a necessary world.

[Geoff Clarke · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a cheerful book with a cartoon bad guy. It's a story of teen love. It's a wish-fulfillment fantasy about rectifying climate change. It's fantastically well-written: "The Deep Game Room at the rear of The Silent Partners' Club might have existed for no reason other than to perfectly fulfill one's most paranoid ideas about Society: that it was an exercise plotted out behind closed doors by a select and secretive group of people, mostly men, past middle years, shadowy of mien and habit, chummy, prone to dozing during the evening news or glancing wryly among themselves as what minor catastrophes they had engineered that day were at once made too much of and trivialized by the Press." It's got a sort of misdirection at the end. It's big reveal is spoiled by the opening of the book. It's a fairy tale with a slightly wry narrator. It would never be marketed as Science Fiction if it were published today (which it could be, and probably sell more).

In sum, it's a Richard Grant experience, and we are the better for it.

[Onewooga · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always loved this book. I read it in high school, many years ago, and got permanently hooked on the idea of plant evolution hostile to people. Not in any cheesy "feed me, Seymour" way, but as a simple Darwinian response to nature's biggest destroyer, man.

Soundtrack: Rush's "Presto" album, especially the song "Red Tide"

[Kat Heatherington · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most vibrantly pantheistic books anywhere out there. it's fun, flighty, quirky, all over the map, brilliantly pagan (without ever coming right out and saying it, either). a shining jewel. Most highly reccomended.

[Nick DD · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm intrigued by this book. I became interested in reading it after seeing it pop up on a number of lists. After reading some reviews - i felt like it might be worth my time. This is not a quick read, but only because a reader must take his/her time in order to fully appreciate and follow the author's often poetic language. At times, this story is absolutely beautifully written - and during these instances - I found myself re-reading sections to make sure I could follow what exactly was going on. The story has highs and lows, but is generally very rewarding. The end of the book feels somehow both satisfying and, strangely, a bit rushed. I enjoyed this book - but I'm not sure I could recommend it to someone. It's definitely unique - and probably requires more than one reading. A good change of pace for me though - and a different style of book than I'm used to. I could easily see this becoming a 4 star upon a 2nd read-through, but for now, I'll stick with a solid 3.

[Troy Tradup · Rating 4 out of 5]

This eco-SF/fantasy mashup is wildly ambitious (perhaps overly so) and way ahead of its time. I used to push this book on other people all the time, which makes it a great illustration of how much more patience I used to have as a reader than I do now. This reread, while still enjoyable, felt perfectly endless.

"Well, times were easier then, he told himself. And the honest part of his mind replied: Maybe."

The basic story concerns a distant, ecologically decimated future, where "the last great forest in the world" has decided to bring the war back to humanity — the trees are on the move and ready to take back the planet. A group of haphazardly thrown-together Crusaders trek into the forest hoping to find answers at a long-abandoned science station and instead find deeper mysteries.

"She nodded, finding — like most young people — the notion of the end of the world quite plausible."

It seemed, back in the 80s and 90s, like Richard Grant was going to have a fairly significant career somewhere along the border between SF, fantasy, and mainstream fiction, but then he just sort of disappeared for a time. He emerged later with a couple of historical novels, but his early work remains out of print. Bantam still has a print-on-demand version of Rumors of Spring available, and I'd conjecture that's a bastard move on their part to keep the rights from reverting back to the author. I know Grant was considering what to do with his back catalog a decade ago, and I can't help but wonder if Bantam is the logjam there.

Grant writes with a poet's eye and, often, a twisty syntax that requires some effort. That's probably why the book felt exceptionally long this time — many of the sentences, while brilliant, demand a slowness and concentration that I rarely have anymore at the end of a long work day or reading in short fifteen-minute bursts before bed.

"You don't know, do you, when you give something up, how much, how terribly much you will miss it."

Here are a couple of images that really jumped out at me this time:

"The hush that lay on the water caused him to walk more slowly, with an affectation of reverence, like an atheist entering a temple."

"Owing to its military origins, the transport had no windows. It was lit inside by a series of dull crimson bulbs, the color of headaches, placed here and there where there was nothing especially to see."

And these character descriptions:

"[He was] a short man with a large mouth that was very dark inside, as though all sorts of unkind sentiments were brooding there."

"Tattersall rose to his feet. He looked ... well, undignified might not be putting it too unkindly. Everything about him was asunder — everything but the eyes, which had regained their impetuous fervor. 'Well,' he said, sweeping his personality into one neat pile again."

It's a good book, perhaps not great as I once thought. There's a bit too much tweeness now for this old man and some of the forced humor is downright cringey. But, the parts that work still REALLY work, so I'll go three and a half stars and round up to four for my long history with the book.

"For one must take what solace one can from the arrival of yet another April."

[Travis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started this novel waaaaaay back in the day, but then didn't finish. But it always lingered in my thoughts. Mostly the ideas, but also somewhat the characters.

The print, trade paperback has some gorgeous artwork that is worth the price of admission if you are able to score a copy.

I'm not sure why Richard Grant doesn't have a huge reader base. But 'Rumors of Spring' is filled with engaging characters who feel like they'd be at home in a Mervyn Peake storyline. And the fantastical ideas are something that really jibed with my reader sensibilities.

'Rumors of Spring' is very much worth the time investment.

[Catherine · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF at 180 pages.

The problems presented in this book are intriguing, but I don't want to slog through every long-winded paragraph to get any answers. I like the detail but at LEAST half of the smug rambling should have been cut. Also, everyone just trusting Thrull seems stupid beyond belief.

[Jonathan Palfrey · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a strange experience, technically well written but puzzling. I don’t regret reading it once, but I haven’t read it again.

[Scott Burtness · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read it in college, circa 1995, and loved it! Last summer, I stumbled across a copy at a used book store. It’s every bit as odd and enjoyable as I recalled.

The story in a nutshell:

Mankind has been abusing nature for far too long, and nature has decided to fight back.

This wonderful blend of fantasy and science fiction is odd and intense and full of genuinely creepy moments. The characters are delightfully strange, and the humor is right up there with Adams and Pratchett.

[Ayesha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book when it first came out and own a copy of the first edition. I've since laminated the cover and read it many times. I love this sci-fi ecological fantasy. I can see this story one day on the silver screen. I hope soon this book will be available on e readers. Because I'm afraid my only copy will crumble with constant use. One of my all time favorite reads!

[Ari]

Richard Grant's garden/ecological sci-fi novel was a great companion for me over the last month or so. I slowly made my way through it and found the literary style and quirky characters interesting and fun. It is an unusual book and I'm glad that I read it.

[Jhaltom · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was a surprise. A great coming of age fantasy quest. Dry, witty, funny and moving. I'll be looking for more Grant to read

[Bonnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Third time. I love this book.

[Priscilla · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of those all-time-favorite books.