Review of The Rainseekers by Matthew Kressel

It's always an interesting question: what will the current generation go down as when all is said and done. It's an interesting question because, the youngest generation always faces the harshest criticism, yet seems to defy that criticism in interesting ways as time goes on. It's still too early to tell with Gen Z, but one thing for certain is that their youth will be youth, going off doing the wildest, logic-defying things that the youth of every prior generation did. Optimism is priceless, but only for a time, when a price must be paid. Matthew Kressel, in his 2026 novella The Rainseekers, features the lives of people reflecting on their youth.

The Rainseekers is a quasi-frame story. It is ostensibly about Sakunja, former holo star on Earth now journalist on Mars. She recounts for the reader this path, including her joining a group of people on an excursion to be the first to witness rain on the red planet. During the overland journey, she talks with her fellow travelers, and agrees to write the stories of two for her newspaper—an orphaned engineer and a reformed Muslim truck driver. That is, until a not-so-proverbial wrench is thrown into the works of the excursion.

Other reviewers have pointed out, the setting of The Rainseekers has a strong Paul McAuley/Kim Stanley Robinson vibe. The solar system is slowly being fitted out for human life in realist fashion, including underground dwellings and a primitive, terraformed atmosphere on Mars. But the setting is not front and center. The lives of three characters, from youth to adulthood, is. Filling the interstices is zeitgeist's greatest hits—social media, AI augmentation, internet fame, narcissism, recreational drug use, sexual deviancy, socialism, chat shortcuts, alternate pronouns, thin skinned people, homosexuality, multiculturalism, immigrants, etc.—is. Kressel does not appear to have a political agenda—the zeigeist can be a powder keg. Rather, these pieces are deployed more as social stage setting—like an electric guitar in a Youtuber's backdrop. It's there because it “should be” there.

Upon finishing The Rainseekers, the question What is the theme? turned over and over in my mind, much more than most books or stories. It isn't big, obvious, arrows pointing at it. Is theme inherent to the story itself—somewhere in the characters, setting, events, or combination thereof? Or is it meta—an overarching commentary or observation? I still don't know. If it's the former, then the reader's ability to relate to the three personal stories which carry the novel will determine what theme is—relief from suffering being the obvious candidate, but everybody faces that, so not sure how deep down that rabbit hole the book truly goes. If it's the latter—a macro-level theme, it's possible the book is some kind of commentary on modern times, though precisely what, I don't know save perhaps, as I wrote in the intro, be patient with the generations. Youth will be youth, and someday adults.

The main challenge with the novella is the realism of the main character, Sajunga. It's clear Kressel wanted to create a realistic person, a living, breathing character. He does, mostly. The niggle is Sajunga is one of those characters in novels who has unearned success. Another way of putting this is, a person for whom fame and prosperity fall into her lap—the accidental princess, just as much the farmboy who discovers special powers, blah blah blah. A different character approach would have created a stronger, more realistic character, and in turn created a stronger, more relatable story. Princesses and magical farmboys are, after all, the stuff of fantasy.

As a Gen X'er, I wanted to dislike The Rainseekers. Much of the contemporary noise around gender, privilege, diversity, safe spaces, etc. doesn't make much sense, not to mention the novella has challenges—a larger-than-life main character and structure that doesn't feel whole. But Kressel won me over. Characterization as a whole is colorful, encompassing. Dialogue is believable, mostly natural. And the ending, while inching toward maudlin, never crosses that line; from the title to plot motivation, the reader knows what's coming, and yet its telling still pulls an emotional string or two. Credit needs to be given where it's due, and this is a solid novella—wholly 2026, but for worse and better.