Tim Powers

The Anubis Gates, by Tim Powers.

A sleek, fancier copy of “The Award-Winning Classic of Time Travel.” When literary scholar Brendan Doyle, who specializes in the Romantic poet William Ashbless, gets a chance to travel back in time to listen to a lecture by Coleridge, he gets an even bigger surprise. Gypsies, body thieves, murder, mutilating beggar guilds, ancient Egyptian magicians, and true love affect his historical trip in more ways than he ever could have imagined. I seem to recall reading somewhere that this book had some sort of effect on William S. Burroughs, perhaps drawing his attention to Egyptian thoughts and themes again.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Softcover.

Last Call, by Tim Powers.

“Rich, top-flight mythic fantasy based on Jungian archetypes, Tarot symbolism, T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, and the Parsifal legend … The scene is Las Vegas, the subject supernatural poker using Tarot cards. Bugsy Siegel is the reigning Fisher King whose new Flamingo Hotel gambling casino is modeled on the Tarot's tower card, with the Flamingo as an inverted tower. Overthrowing Bugsy is Georges Leon, who assassinates Bugsy in his mistress's home in L.A. and prepares to become Fisher King. Leon has two sons, Robert and Scott. He has already spiritually gutted Robert and now can see through Robert's eyes, and is setting up five-year-old Scott for the same treatment while inducting him into playing-card magic. But Leon's wife shoots him in the groin, giving Leon the Fisher King's unhealing wound, and throws Scott onto a yacht that's passing by on a trailer. Scott, who has been blinded in one eye by Leon and become a one-eyed jack, is adopted and raised by the yacht's wizardly owner, Ozzie (who is much smarter than the Wizard of Oz). Scott faces his father in a weird poker game called Assumption, which uses Tarot cards and allows Leon to assume the bodies of losers for his future use, thus assuring him of immortality as long as he has a stable of bodies. When Scott loses to Leon, his objective becomes someday to beat Leon at Assumption and save his own soul by depriving his beastly father of bodies. Scott is aided by the ghost of Bugsy Siegel, which he meets at the bottom of Lake Mead. Knockout poker sequences give the symbolism real sizzle, while the genre is enlivened throughout with great lines from Eliot.” – Kirkus Reviews. This can only give a pale idea of this poetic yet gritty book, as Scott Crane travels through the modern Wasteland in search of redemption, fighting his own inner demons as well as his father’s machinations, and trying to reconcile with and protect his foster-sister, whose family has been imperiled by his own position. The first book in what has come to be a loose trilogy of Powers’ work, called ‘Fault Lines’.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Softcover.

Last Call, by Tim Powers.

A second-hand ex-library copy I got because it was a good hardback with a protected jacket. I remember I had a paperback copy, too, but I sold it or gave it away, I misremember which.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Hardback.

Expiration Date, by Tim Powers.

“The protagonists are Koot Hoomie "Kootie" Parganas, an eleven-year-old boy, and Pete Sullivan, a man in his early forties. The novel takes place mostly in Los Angeles in the year 1992. The main antagonists are Sherman Oaks and Loretta deLarava. As in Last Call, a prominent theme is the quest for immortality. Oaks' age is unknown, deLarava is seventy-six years old (but she often appears to be younger); both have been prolonging their lives by ingesting ghosts. There is a magical system surrounding these ghosts. In their digestible state, they are known as "smokes" or "cigars". Koot Hoomie Parganas has unwittingly ingested the ghost of Thomas Edison. However, because Kootie has not yet reached puberty, he is not able to digest it. In its undigested state, the ghost of Edison functions as a helper to Kootie. Because of Edison's powerful personality, this ghost is particularly sought after by both antagonists who wish to ingest it themselves. In addition, Loretta deLarava is pursuing Pete Sullivan, who would help her to locate Pete Sullivan's father's ghost, Arthur Patrick "Apie" Sullivan. Pete Sullivan has his own helper, a former psychiatrist named Angelica Anthem Elizalde.” – Wikipedia. This is my hardback edition. I had a paperback that I sent back with Kenny after one of his visits home from Florida, because I wanted him to read it. I now find that there are variations between some editions, and I wonder if this copy is the same as the paperback I first read it in, or if it makes any difference whatsoever. Alls I know is that it is a great and wonderful book and it shows what can be accomplished by weaving strange and seemingly unrelated real-world facts into a fantastic tapestry. The second book in the ‘Fault Lines’ trilogy.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Hardback.

Earthquake Weather, by Tim Powers.

In this book, Powers draws together the stories of “Last Call” and “Expiration Date” and we (and, I think, probably he) realize they are a trilogy. “It is the third in his Fault Lines series … It involves characters from both previous novels, two fugitives from a psychiatric hospital, the magical nature of multiple personality disorder, and the secret history of wine production in California. Parts of the novel are set in the Winchester Mystery House.” – Wikipedia. “A young woman possessed by a ghost has slain the Fisher King of the West, Scott Crane. Now, temporarily freed from that malevolent spirit, she seeks to restore the King to life. But Crane's body has been taken to the magically protected home of Pete and Angelica Sullivan, and their adopted son, Koot Hoomie. Kootie is destined to be the next Fisher King, but he is only 13 years old ― too young, his mother thinks, to perform the rituals to assume the Kingship. But not too young, perhaps, to assist in reuniting Scott Crane's body and spirit, and restoring him to life.” – Amazon. How? How? How does he do it? I stand in awe of Powers’ manipulation of myth and real life, and his masterful blending of them into an adventure/action story of fathers, love, and friendship. Kudos! Just Kudos! (Stands up, applauding, until he sits down, slightly embarrassed by his show of emotion.)

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Hardback.

The Stress of Her Regard, by Tim Powers.

An ex-library hardback that I got to supplement my paperback copy (which see). “As with a number of Powers' other novels, it proposes a secret history in which real events have supernatural causes: in this case, the lives of famous English Romantic writers—as well as political events in central Europe during the early 19th century—are largely determined by a race of protean vampire-like creatures known as nephilim. Drawing from European and Middle Eastern mythology, Powers depicts these beings as having qualities of vampires, succubi, incubi, Lamia, fairies, and jinn. Not only predators but sometimes benefactors of humans, they are the basis for both the Muses and the Graeae. The novel's title is taken from the poem "Sphinx and Medusa" by Clark Ashton Smith ("...Yet thought must see/That eve of time when man no longer yearns,/Grown deaf before Life's Sphinx, whose lips are barred;/When from the spaces of Eternity,/Silence, a rigorous Medusa, turns/On the lost world the stress of her regard."). The story begins shortly before the wedding of Michael Crawford, a doctor. The night before he marries Julia, he inadvertently places his wedding ring in the hand of a statue in a garden. When he goes to retrieve it, he discovers the statue has mysteriously vanished. Despite this mysterious event, the wedding proceeds. Julia's disturbed twin sister Josephine serves as the maid of honor. The next morning, Crawford awakes to discover Julia's horribly mutilated corpse next to him in the bed. Knowing he will be suspected of murdering his bride, Crawford flees to London and passes himself off as a medical student. He meets John Keats, who is also studying medicine. One day while visiting the wards they encounter the grief-stricken Josephine, who attempts to shoot Crawford to avenge her sister. A mysterious apparition saves him. Keats does his best to help Crawford understand what has happened. By placing the wedding ring on the statue Crawford unwittingly attracted the attention of one of the nephilim, who now considers herself Crawford's true wife. The nephilim killed Julia so she could have Crawford for herself. Keats, who has some experience with the nephilim, recommends that Crawford visit the Alps. There is a place high in the mountains where he may be able to free himself from "the stress of her regard". While traveling on the Continent, Crawford is called upon to assist another Englishman who is suffering from a seizure. The man is Percy Shelley, and is accompanied by Lord Byron, John Polidori, and Claire Clarmont. Byron and Shelley are also connected to the nephilim, which they see as both a blessing and a curse. The nephilim can prolong the lives of humans and serve as muses who help to inspire great works of creativity, but they are extremely jealous and will destroy anyone they see as a rival. Crawford and the two poets make their way up the Jungfrau, where it is said one might be able to break the bond with a nephilim. After answering a version of the Riddle of the Sphinx Crawford manages to free himself from his "wife". In doing so he also learns more about the nature of the nephilim. Yet the danger is not over for Crawford, the poets, and their loved ones. The nephilim are still active, and developments in Venice may threaten all humanity. Crawford, Josephine, Shelley, and Byron, all haunted by personal tragedy, must find a way to save themselves and the rest of the world from the nephilim.” – Wikipedia.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Hardback.

Declare, by Tim Powers.

“As a young double agent infiltrating the Soviet spy network in Nazi-occupied Paris, Andrew Hale finds himself caught up in a secret, even more ruthless war. Two decades later, in 1963, he will be forced to confront again the nightmare that has haunted his adult life: a lethal unfinished operation code-named Declare. From the corridors of Whitehall to the Arabian desert, from postwar Berlin to the streets of Cold War Moscow, Hale's desperate quest draws him into international politics and gritty espionage tradecraft — and inexorably drives Hale, the fiery and beautiful Communist agent Elena Teresa Ceniza-Bendiga, and Kim Philby, mysterious traitor to the British cause, to a deadly confrontation on the high glaciers of Mount Ararat, in the very shadow of the fabulous and perilous Ark.” – Amazon. Weaving together Biblical lore and Arabian tradition about the Djinn with espionage and a search for immortality and power. Tolkien (another fantasist who was Catholic, just as Powers is) once famously said that all stories are ultimately about death, the escape from the power of death, and Powers’ books are no exception. I think the conclusion is that if you accept your mortality you will still die eventually, but you escape the haunting power of death and can live.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Hardback.

On Stranger Tides, by Tim Powers.

A Subterranean Press Edition. Has the classic cover by James Gurney. A Hardback copy to back up my paperback (which see for the review). Disney basically only borrowed the title and the theme of the Fountain of Youth for their terrible fourth movie in a franchise that had been ripping Powers off for years. “On Stranger Tides features Blackbeard, ghosts, voodoo, zombies, the fable Fountain of Youth…and more swashbuckling action than you could shake a cutlass at, as reluctant buccaneer John Shandy braves all manner of peril, natural and supernatural, to rescue his ensorcelled love.” – Amazon.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Hardback.

Hide Me Among the Graves, by Tim Powers.

A sequel to “The Stress of Her Regard”. “There were enough loose ends that it always seemed plausible that Powers might come back to their world. One of the secondary characters was John Polidori, Lord Byron's physician. Polidori is connected to another set of poets: his niece and nephew, Christina and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. One of the fascinations of the new book, Hide Me Among the Graves, is the way that Powers weaves their well-documented lives into the story of how Crawford and Josephine's son John go looking in the London underworld for the daughter he didn't know he had fathered. His relationship with the former whore Adelaide is as difficult, thorny and ultimately touching as is his father's with the mad Josephine. One of the strengths of Powers's books has always been that they are primarily about people and only secondarily about the huge set-pieces and gaudily complicated ideas. Nonetheless, the ingenuity of these two books is one of the reasons for reading them. Powers's specialty is secret supernatural histories of the world that offer far more plausible explanations for everything than, say, Dan Brown, and are conceptually far wittier. He is an intelligent, emotionally complex writer with a taste for elegantly conceived nightmare.” – The Independent.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Hardback.

Three Days to Never, by Tim Powers.

“A 2006 fantasy novel by Tim Powers. As with most of Powers' novels, it proposes a secret history in which real events have supernatural causes and prominent historical figures have been involved in supernatural or occult activities. The action mostly takes place in Southern California, in a few days during August 1987. Frank Marrity (a widower) and his loving twelve-year-old daughter, Daphne, are drawn into a dangerous occult world when his grandmother (affectionately called "Grammar") dies in bizarre circumstances. Soon, Frank and Daphne are pursued by agents who know much more about their lives than they do — for example, that Grammar is Lieserl Maric, the daughter of Albert Einstein, and that she was friends with Charlie Chaplin — and that all three of them had discovered secrets to time travel and had found how to change prior events, perhaps to please themselves.” – Wikipedia.  I found myself not quite as engaged with this Powers book, but I think that probably says more about the mood I was in when I read it and less about the book itself. It is a good book with everything a Powers novel needs, but I don’t believe I was a good reader at the time, and the story (unfairly) still carries an emotional taint for me.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Science Fiction/Fantasy. Novel. Hardback.

Medusa’s Web, by Tim Powers.

“A phantasmagoric, thrilling, mind-bending tale of speculative fiction in which one man must uncover occult secrets of 1920s Hollywood to save his family. In the wake of their Aunt Amity’s suicide, Scott and Madeline Madden are summoned to Caveat, the eerie, decaying mansion in the Hollywood hills in which they were raised. But their decadent and reclusive cousins, the malicious wheelchair-bound Claimayne and his sister, Ariel, do not welcome Scott and Madeline’s return to the childhood home they once shared. While Scott desperately wants to go back to their shabby South-of-Sunset lives, he cannot pry his sister away from this haunted “House of Usher in the Hollywood Hills” that is a conduit for the supernatural. Decorated by bits salvaged from old hotels and movie sets, Caveat hides a dark family secret that stretches back to the golden days of Rudolph Valentino and the silent film stars. A collection of hypnotic eight-limbed abstract images inked on paper allows the Maddens to briefly fragment and flatten time—to transport themselves into the past and future in visions that are both puzzling and terrifying. Though their cousins know little about these ancient “spiders” which provoke unpredictable temporal dislocations, Ariel and Claimayne have been using for years—an addiction that has brought Claimayne to the brink of selfish destruction. As Madeline falls more completely under Caveat’s spell, Scott discovers that to protect her, he must use the perilous spiders himself. But will he unravel the mystery of the Madden family’s past and finally free them. . . or be pulled deeper into their deadly web?” – Goodreads.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Fantasy. Novel. Hardback.

Strange Itineraries, by Tim Powers.

“Strange Itineraries takes you down haunted byways into the heart of Tim Powers country, where you will find turbulent ghosts, secretive immortals and mysterious Ether Bunnies. Containing Tim Powers' short fiction from 1982 to 2004, including his delightful collaborations with James P. Blaylock, Strange Itineraries will enchant you and lead you astray.” – Google Books.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Short Stories. Collection. Softcover.

Salvage and Demolition, by Tim Powers.

Novella published by Subterranean Press, Illustrations by J. K. Potter. “"Richard Blanzac, a San Francisco-based rare book dealer, opens a box of consignment items and encounters the unexpected. There, among an assortment of literary rarities, he discovers a manuscript in verse, an Ace Double Novel, and a scattering of very old cigarette butts. These commonplace objects serve as catalysts for an extraordinary-- and unpredictable-- adventure. Without warning, Blanzac finds himself traversing a 'circle of discontinuity' that leads from the present day to the San Francisco of 1957. Caught up in that circle are an ancient Sumerian deity, a forgotten Beat-era poet named Sophie Greenwald, and an apocalyptic cult in search of the key to absolute non-existence" – from the publisher's web site.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Fantasy. Novella. Hardback.

Nobody’s Home, by Tim Powers.

“An Anubis Gates Story”. Basically, a prequel (or a side-quel?) to the novel. “For the first time in his esteemed career, Tim Powers returns to the setting (and a central character) from his landmark time travel novel, "The Anubis Gates." Tracking the murderer of her fiancée through 19th century London's darkest warrens, Jacky Snapp has disguised herself as a boy but the disguise fails when, trying to save a girl from the ghost of her jealous husband, Jacky finds that she has made herself visible to the ghosts that cluster around the Thames. And one of them is the ghost of her fiancée, who was poisoned and physically transformed by his murderer but unwittingly shot dead by Jacky herself. Jacky and the girl she rescued, united in the need to banish their pursuing ghosts, learn that their only hope is to flee upriver to the barge known as Nobody's Home where the exorcist whose name is Nobody charges an intolerable price.” – Google Books. An application of sorts, and therefore a kind of crossover, of Powers’ ghost lore from ‘Expiration Date’ and ‘Hide Me Among the Graves’. Printed by Subterranean Press, with illustrations by J. K. Potter.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Novella. Fantasy. Hardback.