L.A. CIGAR--TOO TRAGICAL
I've been rereading the works of Tim Powers at a great rate lately. Expiration Date last week, Last Call the week before, The Stress Of Her Regard and Hide Me Among The Graves longer ago--during my move at the beginning of June, in fact--and Three Days To Never and Earthquake Weather more recently. Other novels I mean to revisit soon are Dinner at Deviant's Palace and my all-time favorite On Stranger Tides. That leaves The Anubis Gates, his relatively unsung early books The Skies Discrowned and Epitaph in Rust (unless those are the same book re-edited, will have to check), and The Drawing of the Dark, as far as novels go. More on all these later.
Hm. He's written more books than I'd realized. Oh, and Declare. I have hazy memories of that one being all hotshot spy action, which bored me ten years ago because I have a much harder time buying Ian Fleming/John le Carre intrigue and violence than I do buying into ghosts and nephilim and time-traveling body-snatching werewolf Egyptian sorcerers.
There really is no one like Tim Powers. I've no idea what his other fans are like, but I'd imagine you either love or hate his work, no middle ground. I love it. With any less engaging author, I'd usually step back and go, "Wait a minute, you can't mush ten genres together like that, they'll clash," but the wonder lies in the way he prevents clash. (Most of the time. There are clunking moments on occasion when he goes so far over the top it jerks you out of the story, but they are rare.) Last Call, for example, is a horror/mystery/mythological fantasy about professional poker players, Tarot fortunetelling, bodysnatching evil sorcerers (there is a theme here) and the Fisher King of California. It all fits together quite well.
That said, On Stranger Tides is my favorite partly because it's unified in tone and I love the tone. Powers did pirates-and-Caribbean-magic-and-the-Fountain-of-Youth before anybody else ever thought of it; he was first and best. (I never posted about PotC: OST because I hated that film. They finally admitted they were ripping off Tim Powers and came right out and paid him, and then they made boring, gutless rubbish with those ideas. I hope Powers took his money and ran. PotC: DMC at least ripped off Powers' work in an entertaining fashion.)
When I turned eighteen I wrote fan letters to a lot of authors I'd been enjoying recently, among them Powers. He wrote back a gracious and friendly reply which I have filed safely even now.
Hm. He's written more books than I'd realized. Oh, and Declare. I have hazy memories of that one being all hotshot spy action, which bored me ten years ago because I have a much harder time buying Ian Fleming/John le Carre intrigue and violence than I do buying into ghosts and nephilim and time-traveling body-snatching werewolf Egyptian sorcerers.
There really is no one like Tim Powers. I've no idea what his other fans are like, but I'd imagine you either love or hate his work, no middle ground. I love it. With any less engaging author, I'd usually step back and go, "Wait a minute, you can't mush ten genres together like that, they'll clash," but the wonder lies in the way he prevents clash. (Most of the time. There are clunking moments on occasion when he goes so far over the top it jerks you out of the story, but they are rare.) Last Call, for example, is a horror/mystery/mythological fantasy about professional poker players, Tarot fortunetelling, bodysnatching evil sorcerers (there is a theme here) and the Fisher King of California. It all fits together quite well.
That said, On Stranger Tides is my favorite partly because it's unified in tone and I love the tone. Powers did pirates-and-Caribbean-magic-and-the-Fountain-of-Youth before anybody else ever thought of it; he was first and best. (I never posted about PotC: OST because I hated that film. They finally admitted they were ripping off Tim Powers and came right out and paid him, and then they made boring, gutless rubbish with those ideas. I hope Powers took his money and ran. PotC: DMC at least ripped off Powers' work in an entertaining fashion.)
When I turned eighteen I wrote fan letters to a lot of authors I'd been enjoying recently, among them Powers. He wrote back a gracious and friendly reply which I have filed safely even now.