Review: The Continuing Saga that surveys Australia's history, the Aborigines, and Love
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 20, 2014
Author Ryn Shell (who is also Kathy Shell the cover artist) is a woman of many talents and monikers. Having read and enjoyed many of her books it feels strange to have never tasted her Dreaming Billabong Series. Jumping in medias res to book five - Billabong Pebbles - may be a disadvantage to understanding all the background of the series, a background that seems to impact the joy of reading this book. Not that this book is lacking in substance or in interest or in fascination: reading it makes the reader yearn for a bit more knowledge to flesh out the experience.Shell provides some background for the title: `The lagoon, known as Dreaming Billabong, formed when Massacre Creek changed course, reflects every color of the Rainbow Serpent that rests in its depth. When the serpent sleeps, silver ghostly plumes of mist rise from the still waters and even life-hardened swagmen swear they hear the ghost.'  `Dreaming Billabong is a rural saga that seamlessly weaves historical facts with fiction, to provide a fascinating and sometimes disturbing window into Australia's past. The niece and nephew of cattleman, Iain Fife, inherit Aboriginal Australian and Scottish ancestry plus a payback legacy that began when their grandfathers were boys.` Cattleman and heir to the Fife Downs Cattle station, Iain Fife, son of Alan Fife, is of Scottish and Aboriginal Australian decent. Fife Springs is an inland country town with characters striving to survive in dangerous situations.'With this background in mind it is easier to appreciate the story as it unwinds further in what appears to be mid 20th century. The main characters whom we met are the young Emily, her brother Harry, their mother Lesley (the father is imprisoned) and Jarrah - the handsome 16-year-old lad who is Emily's closest ally. There is a rooming house will all manner of interesting and diverse folk who weave in and out of the story adding great color and contrast to the coming of age relationship and friendship of Emily and Jarrah. When Jarrah (apparently a descendent from the Aboriginal Woggan-Wandong family) is taken to the hills of the Outback to undergo his initiation (his coming of age ritual) a new form of crime is discovered - a landowners' feud. Cattleman, Iain Fife, has more than he knows how to deal with in his attraction to a married woman. His sister, Lesley is a victim of crime, and his teenage niece and nephews struggle to adjust in the paternalistic environment of the fifties amid fear that Jarrah might lose his chance to own and protect the Dreaming Billabong. What proceeds in a breathtaking manner is a story that combines that strange period of our lives called coming of age, familial struggles and incipient love that conquers all danger.A beautifully scripted tale that makes the reader eager for more. Ryn Shell takes up where Doris Pilkington left off in `Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence. Grady Harp, March 14