Richárd Meillear’s Lord March Rain: The Borders of Existence opens with the death of an ordinary man named Pierre, the kind of person who doesn’t attract attention. His soul reunites with the spirit of Lord March Rain, to whom he belongs. Lord March Rain is an ancient spirit residing in the first-grade spirit world named Huazoma and still in quest to complete his evolution. He carves a deep shard from his being, which touches every layer of his past lives and sends it to Earth as a boy named Gabriel. The story follows Gabriel’s journey through family chaos, first love, migration to Ireland, and marriage to Lorna. As he experiences illness, visions connect him to his past incarnations as a Persian prince, a pirate captain, a grieving baker, and even a corrupt Egyptian priest. Will he be able to reach enlightenment and reconnect with Lord March Rain to complete his spiritual evolution this time?

Richárd Meillear’s character work is the main strength of this speculative, philosophical novel, and the idea of reincarnation is skillfully explored in the book. We encounter a character who keeps reincarnating in different periods in time and wearing different faces. Gabriel is flawed, tender, and funny, and the metaphysical themes are anchored in his humanity. I also enjoyed Lorna, whose particular delights in life balance the spiritual currents of the story with human warmth. The pacing in Lord March Rain is unhurried, and the story is engaging with the tangled plot, the well-composed backstories, the poetry, and the dialogue. The worldbuilding is a unique achievement, and elements like the Road of Evolution, the Mayan-named Huazoma, and dragon-bound evolution are meticulously developed. The book features ancient traditions like the Egyptian Maat. The book is about karmic debt, reincarnation, love, and forgiveness, and will make readers think about the afterlife.

As we encounter familiar souls during our earthly journey, the boundaries between lifetimes can sometimes become blurred. Richárd Meillear takes readers on a spiritual adventure in Lord March Rain: The Borders of Existence. The story is told through the eyes of a soul who discovers his spiritual identity by revisiting previous incarnations, unfolding a rich diversity of experience in the process. His meditations bring to the surface memories of death and dying, followed by a feeling of being etheric and free from a physical body. His spirit guide takes him on the journey “home”, where he is taught about the cycle of life, death, and the lessons to be learned. He undertakes a road trip to acclimatize, discovering libraries, clubs, and meeting familiar souls. It is a world of telepathy, manifestation, and taking on alternative forms such as those of dragons. He explores different levels of evolution and how to navigate through the layers. The past life experiences are a mix of happiness, trauma, poverty, wealth, slavery, and nobility. These are spread over many lifetimes in different countries, in different periods in history, and in diverse family settings. This brings about the need for spiritual closure. We meet many of the same people again in later lifetimes, providing the opportunity to correct past wrongs and clear karmic debt, in the hope of doing better the next time around.

Richárd Meillear blends fantasy and metaphysics to dig deeply into the topic of reincarnation and life between lives. He points out that remembering our past lives is essential to our spiritual evolution. This leads to forgiveness, learning to trust, and letting go of fear. Between our incarnations, we review our previous lives to uncover the lessons. We forget our plans when we incarnate, and we do not have full access to our previous sojourns while on earth. Topics covered include the loss of a loved one, success and failure, rejection, estrangement and reconciliation, and the inevitable career ups and downs. The planning of a new life is particularly interesting, as are the instances where we recognize those whom we have been with before as we begin to understand their roles. The poetry adds a new dimension, as does the inclusion of dragons. There are some themes that readers may find disturbing, but these mirror real-life experiences, forming an integral background to the tale, and are not unnecessarily explicit. Lord March Rain makes for fascinating reading and offers a fresh look at spiritual evolution.