What do you think?
Rate this book
Dry Water
Shy writer Larry Ngitis travels to Dry Water in the hopes of restoring his career and is besieged by the town's less conventional denizens, including a witch, a mage-necromancer, and a ghost, who believe that he is a prophet. Original.
311 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
15 people are currently reading
219 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
December 14, 2016
Well, at 88% I'm throwing in the towel. It's been 6 months since I started Dry Water and I just CANNOT bring myself to read another page about Larry.
What happened? I LOVE Eric Nylund - From Pawn's Dream to Game of Universe, I'm right there with ya, Eric. But you totally lost me on this one. The pacing was all over the place, the plot was a strange concoction of fairy dust, ghosts, gold hunters, wizards, flagellating priests, time travel, enchantresses, and basically everything but the kitchen sink. Oh, no wait here it is...
And what was up with Larry? This guy just made me want to pull my hair out from the start. I couldn't stand this boring, average joe who is a constant prick about his ex (seriously, ). Oh, and not to mention he's got the ardent instalove of a gorgeous witch who is WAAAY out of his league. But hey, this paunchy recluse is just a lady-magnet now that his aura is just so powerful and sexy. That explains why, after trading a mere handful of sentences with this hunk of pure man, the beautiful Paloma couldn't help but fall head over heels.
Yeah...not buying it.
Oh well. This Nylund novel isn't the one for me. But plenty of other people think it's the cheese in the cheesecake - so give it a go. If you find yourself falling asleep mid-chapter, head back to the shelf and give Nylund's Game of Universe a try instead - it's worlds apart.
What happened? I LOVE Eric Nylund - From Pawn's Dream to Game of Universe, I'm right there with ya, Eric. But you totally lost me on this one. The pacing was all over the place, the plot was a strange concoction of fairy dust, ghosts, gold hunters, wizards, flagellating priests, time travel, enchantresses, and basically everything but the kitchen sink. Oh, no wait here it is...
And what was up with Larry? This guy just made me want to pull my hair out from the start. I couldn't stand this boring, average joe who is a constant prick about his ex (seriously, ). Oh, and not to mention he's got the ardent instalove of a gorgeous witch who is WAAAY out of his league. But hey, this paunchy recluse is just a lady-magnet now that his aura is just so powerful and sexy. That explains why, after trading a mere handful of sentences with this hunk of pure man, the beautiful Paloma couldn't help but fall head over heels.
Yeah...not buying it.
Oh well. This Nylund novel isn't the one for me. But plenty of other people think it's the cheese in the cheesecake - so give it a go. If you find yourself falling asleep mid-chapter, head back to the shelf and give Nylund's Game of Universe a try instead - it's worlds apart.
November 30, 2021
An urban fantasy with some really big ideas, occasionally some well-crafted sections that just drew me in, but overall this novel is all over the place in terms of pacing, plotting, and characterization, veering between some very vivid descriptive writing and some rather too sparse descriptions. The setting is an interesting blend of elements including Native American legends, Spanish conquistadors, the Old West, Greek mythology, European faeries, undead, time travel, witches, far future dystopias, and even dinosaurs, but it is hard to say they all blended together well. The motivations of the two antagonists were well fleshed out though I am not sure I really ever understood them as people. The main character was hard to really understand in terms of motivations or goals and I don’t think he was particularly sympathetic.
In a nutshell, the non-spoiler overview of the story is that a science fiction author named Larry Ngitis decides to abruptly leave his West Coast home and journey to remote Dry Water, Seco County, New Mexico (population 455, elevation 6580), a sort of hipster town of artists and authors out among the canyons and mesas. Larry can see the future, not as a general thing (as in he doesn’t know what will happen next Tuesday on the stock market) but he can look at people and things and see what will happen next (such as the impending death of someone, knowing how and when they will die, a fate he cannot apparently change, or at a storm cloud and knew when and where the next bolt of lightning will strike, which apparently he can avoid).
Leaving his long-time girlfriend Linda Becket in Oakland, California, Larry ends up crossing paths with two scheming centuries-old magic users in Dry Water, two people who have a long history together and though they have been lovers are now mortal enemies. Both of these people will be nothing but a problem for Larry. One is a local witch (though not originally from there, with her origins in Tibet) named Raja Anumati (usually just goes by Raja), who wants to find a sort of water that is not water, a “water in between worlds,” that if someone drinks it they can go back into the past and manipulate it, vastly changing history, something the witch is keen to do. The other antagonist is a necromancer, goes variously by the name Nick (short for Nikolos) or Judzyas, who has foreseen Larry’s arrival and fears the vast changes he will cause to history. Both of these antagonists view the other one as an obstacle and before they even directly cross paths with Larry, are fighting one another. Neither really wants to kill the other but both feel they have to in order to either get this dry water (Raja) or stop Larry (Judzyas).
There are several other characters in the story, notably Paloma (a sort of apprentice for Raja who becomes a love interest for Larry and a pawn for Raja), Matt Carlson (a gunslinger whose spirit is trapped in Larry’s hotel room, at least originally, as that was where he was gunned down, and becomes a friend and ally for Larry, as for some reason Larry can see and interact with him though pretty much no one else can), and Spencer, another local of Dry Water, a mechanic who befriends Larry and a man Larry can see will die very soon from the strange homemade beverage he keeps drinking. There is also a ghost that can manipulate electricity, whether manmade or natural as in lightning, that is a servant of Judzyas.
I think one of the book’s biggest problems for me is the main character. Larry just isn’t remarkable. He is described early on as “rather plain” with “an unremarkable body.” He ditched his long-time girlfriend because he saw a boring, safe future with her thanks to his powers, but that really came off as not any different than anyone fearing commitment and a sedentary, middle-aged lifestyle (didn’t look too bad to me). For all his powers to see the future, he doesn’t do much with those powers…until later on in the book when suddenly he has vast powers, sorry if this is spoilers, but while using the dry water he can visit alternate timelines or summon dinosaurs to the present to fight armies of undead summoned by Judzyas. It just felt like he rarely had any grand schemes of his own other than a growing interest in Paloma and to work on his novel, though at the end I would say he was heroic. He was mostly a trophy to be fought over or an enemy to be eliminated by Raja and Judzyas and any ally of Larry’s faced grave danger. Larry was bothered by this but didn’t seem to do a whole lot to protect anyone until it was too late.
The best writing in the book were vignettes in the past, of when the characters in the present interacted with or controlled to change history. Some of that was rather engaging writing and sometimes more engaging than the present-day writing. I think author Eric S. Nylund could definitely do a good historical novel.
I liked Matt as a character and he added some nice touches of humor and grounded the book some, though his Western gunslinger diction could be a little cringey at times. Paloma and Linda didn’t seem to be as much characters on their own as story elements to further along the overall conflict or Larry’s character development. I did like how though both Judzyas and Raja did do evil things their overall grand scheme wasn’t necessarily evil or if it was evil, it was definitely principled evil. I enjoyed the southwestern setting and the central concept of the story – magically altering all of world history – was a really cool concept and what I saw of it I enjoyed. I think that cool central concept got buried in so many story trappings with lost silver mines and faeries and undead armies and the rivalry between Judzyas and Raja and the mess of Larry’s life. Larry did point out some issues with Raja’s plans to alter world history and they were excellent questions that weren’t answered to my satisfaction, so that too affected my enjoyment of the book. Also some of the setting rules, such as what powers the dry water gave people, how they knew how to use it, how people went in and out of being dead (as several characters died for a time and then recovered), could have been better explained. There is also a shaman character that helps and protects Larry for a time but I simply did not understand well at all in terms of abilities or motivations.
In a nutshell, the non-spoiler overview of the story is that a science fiction author named Larry Ngitis decides to abruptly leave his West Coast home and journey to remote Dry Water, Seco County, New Mexico (population 455, elevation 6580), a sort of hipster town of artists and authors out among the canyons and mesas. Larry can see the future, not as a general thing (as in he doesn’t know what will happen next Tuesday on the stock market) but he can look at people and things and see what will happen next (such as the impending death of someone, knowing how and when they will die, a fate he cannot apparently change, or at a storm cloud and knew when and where the next bolt of lightning will strike, which apparently he can avoid).
Leaving his long-time girlfriend Linda Becket in Oakland, California, Larry ends up crossing paths with two scheming centuries-old magic users in Dry Water, two people who have a long history together and though they have been lovers are now mortal enemies. Both of these people will be nothing but a problem for Larry. One is a local witch (though not originally from there, with her origins in Tibet) named Raja Anumati (usually just goes by Raja), who wants to find a sort of water that is not water, a “water in between worlds,” that if someone drinks it they can go back into the past and manipulate it, vastly changing history, something the witch is keen to do. The other antagonist is a necromancer, goes variously by the name Nick (short for Nikolos) or Judzyas, who has foreseen Larry’s arrival and fears the vast changes he will cause to history. Both of these antagonists view the other one as an obstacle and before they even directly cross paths with Larry, are fighting one another. Neither really wants to kill the other but both feel they have to in order to either get this dry water (Raja) or stop Larry (Judzyas).
There are several other characters in the story, notably Paloma (a sort of apprentice for Raja who becomes a love interest for Larry and a pawn for Raja), Matt Carlson (a gunslinger whose spirit is trapped in Larry’s hotel room, at least originally, as that was where he was gunned down, and becomes a friend and ally for Larry, as for some reason Larry can see and interact with him though pretty much no one else can), and Spencer, another local of Dry Water, a mechanic who befriends Larry and a man Larry can see will die very soon from the strange homemade beverage he keeps drinking. There is also a ghost that can manipulate electricity, whether manmade or natural as in lightning, that is a servant of Judzyas.
I think one of the book’s biggest problems for me is the main character. Larry just isn’t remarkable. He is described early on as “rather plain” with “an unremarkable body.” He ditched his long-time girlfriend because he saw a boring, safe future with her thanks to his powers, but that really came off as not any different than anyone fearing commitment and a sedentary, middle-aged lifestyle (didn’t look too bad to me). For all his powers to see the future, he doesn’t do much with those powers…until later on in the book when suddenly he has vast powers, sorry if this is spoilers, but while using the dry water he can visit alternate timelines or summon dinosaurs to the present to fight armies of undead summoned by Judzyas. It just felt like he rarely had any grand schemes of his own other than a growing interest in Paloma and to work on his novel, though at the end I would say he was heroic. He was mostly a trophy to be fought over or an enemy to be eliminated by Raja and Judzyas and any ally of Larry’s faced grave danger. Larry was bothered by this but didn’t seem to do a whole lot to protect anyone until it was too late.
The best writing in the book were vignettes in the past, of when the characters in the present interacted with or controlled to change history. Some of that was rather engaging writing and sometimes more engaging than the present-day writing. I think author Eric S. Nylund could definitely do a good historical novel.
I liked Matt as a character and he added some nice touches of humor and grounded the book some, though his Western gunslinger diction could be a little cringey at times. Paloma and Linda didn’t seem to be as much characters on their own as story elements to further along the overall conflict or Larry’s character development. I did like how though both Judzyas and Raja did do evil things their overall grand scheme wasn’t necessarily evil or if it was evil, it was definitely principled evil. I enjoyed the southwestern setting and the central concept of the story – magically altering all of world history – was a really cool concept and what I saw of it I enjoyed. I think that cool central concept got buried in so many story trappings with lost silver mines and faeries and undead armies and the rivalry between Judzyas and Raja and the mess of Larry’s life. Larry did point out some issues with Raja’s plans to alter world history and they were excellent questions that weren’t answered to my satisfaction, so that too affected my enjoyment of the book. Also some of the setting rules, such as what powers the dry water gave people, how they knew how to use it, how people went in and out of being dead (as several characters died for a time and then recovered), could have been better explained. There is also a shaman character that helps and protects Larry for a time but I simply did not understand well at all in terms of abilities or motivations.
October 13, 2016
To be perfectly honest, I did not think I would enjoy this book at all.
I found myself very pleasantly surprised. It was an exciting read, and held my attention from start to finish. The characters were interesting and fun and I thought the pacing was pretty good. Well done.
I highly recommend this book.
I found myself very pleasantly surprised. It was an exciting read, and held my attention from start to finish. The characters were interesting and fun and I thought the pacing was pretty good. Well done.
I highly recommend this book.
January 18, 2025
This is my first Eric Nylund novel outside of the original halo books he wrote. I quite enjoyed it, but I enjoyed it more than it's quality deserves. First off, the protagonist I felt was pretty weak. He's a very average, unremarkable character, which is by design, stuck in these events bigger than himself, who somehow gets the attention of a smoking hot witch who becomes infatuated with him for some reason.
And the other thing is that this story has really cool ideas! Like, I really love the idea of this story and what it's trying to do. But Eric crammed so many mythological elements into this one story that it just kind of spiraled and felt cluttered. The pacing suffered as a result. But again, I enjoyed it. I felt the prose was weaker in the beginning (it's written to be accessible to most readers, not poetic or elaborate or anything like that), but becomes stronger later on. Enjoyed it. I've heard this is the weakest Nylund novel, and I liked it, so I'm really looking forward to reading the rest!
And the other thing is that this story has really cool ideas! Like, I really love the idea of this story and what it's trying to do. But Eric crammed so many mythological elements into this one story that it just kind of spiraled and felt cluttered. The pacing suffered as a result. But again, I enjoyed it. I felt the prose was weaker in the beginning (it's written to be accessible to most readers, not poetic or elaborate or anything like that), but becomes stronger later on. Enjoyed it. I've heard this is the weakest Nylund novel, and I liked it, so I'm really looking forward to reading the rest!
February 21, 2025
worth a re read
I must’ve read this book before, my stars were two, then.
However I’d forgotten that I had, some of the book was familiar. Some not so.
But i enjoyed it better this time.
I love the character of the cat.
The story is as enigmatic.
I must’ve read this book before, my stars were two, then.
However I’d forgotten that I had, some of the book was familiar. Some not so.
But i enjoyed it better this time.
I love the character of the cat.
The story is as enigmatic.
January 5, 2026
Five stars for inventive magic and vivid descriptions, three stars for a torturous main plot that segues through extended historical side plots. Definitely goes on my off-the-wall-imagination-at-work shelf. Unique.
June 12, 2017
Enjoyed it immensely. No black and white characters, no sappy nirvana save the world ending. Was satisfying.
October 17, 2023
Not my type of book- didn’t know what to expect. I skimmed it.
November 26, 2015
Fantastic...
Though, it took me more time to read it since I have a hard time imagining scenes and I keep rereading paragraphs 2 or 3 times and going back and forth in the story.
It's honestly a good book, for now at least. My mind couldn't take it all in so I had to take 5 minute breaks every 2 chapters just so I can take a breatger and let the words sink in so that my mind won't explode(I was also reading 3 different books). I bought this for barely a dollar (in good condition) at BookSale because it had a cool cover and I was not able to even guess what was going to happen next. Of course, maybe in a few years time, I'll be able to take it a bit better but for now, I'll leave this here.
Though, it took me more time to read it since I have a hard time imagining scenes and I keep rereading paragraphs 2 or 3 times and going back and forth in the story.
It's honestly a good book, for now at least. My mind couldn't take it all in so I had to take 5 minute breaks every 2 chapters just so I can take a breatger and let the words sink in so that my mind won't explode(I was also reading 3 different books). I bought this for barely a dollar (in good condition) at BookSale because it had a cool cover and I was not able to even guess what was going to happen next. Of course, maybe in a few years time, I'll be able to take it a bit better but for now, I'll leave this here.
December 19, 2020
Entertaining enough, but the writing isn't terrific. The bar is set by "[the milk] was always sour, just like their relationship," on the second page. I enjoyed the tributes to Zelazny, though. Not the worst book I could have spent my time on, I suppose, but it's definitely on the lower side of average.
June 28, 2007
Fantastic book. It's a mix of time travel, mysticism, ghosts and honest detective work all set in the deserts of the Southwest. If you're looking for something that will bend your mind a bit, check out this work!
April 22, 2008
strange fantasy. I was waiting for gilgamesh to rear his 1/3 god head. . .
hadn't read anything quite like it, so it gets two snaps for originality.
not sure I'd want to read something like it again
hadn't read anything quite like it, so it gets two snaps for originality.
not sure I'd want to read something like it again
March 31, 2010
I thoroughly enjoyed Dry Water (I read it a looong time ago and then again recently) and I have to say... Eric Nylund is quite the underrated writer.
Actually I have no idea whether he's rated highly or not, so I suppose I just made that up.
Actually I have no idea whether he's rated highly or not, so I suppose I just made that up.
January 10, 2009
Funky and engaging. Definitely a potential read for those making the shift into fantasy/supernatural. Reminds me a bit of American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Worth picking up.
April 9, 2009
fasinating. one of those books you think about years later and have no idea why.
May 28, 2017
My sister Mary borrowed this book to read and never gave it back. I have wanted to reread this for a long time but can't. I am bitter, because I like this book a lot. Give me my book back Mary!
May 15, 2013
Interesting book set in New Mexico. This one has shamans, ghost, witches, necromancers, fairies, dinosaurs, magic and mystery. Future, past and multi-verses. This was a good one read book.
August 26, 2014
I generally liked this book. It kept my interest and wasn't always expected. I had some issues with the ending but all in all an enjoyable read.
March 19, 2016
I should have really loved this novel - shamans, witches, cross-dimensions.... but i am completely lost as to what is going on....so am giving up
Want to read
October 16, 2016I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14180951
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14180951
March 2, 2011
I love love love this book!
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews