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From: davidd02@tpg.com.au (David Duffy)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Tim Powers.
Date: Fri, 5 Jul 2024 03:57:18 -0000 (UTC)
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
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William Hyde <wthyde1953@gmail.com> wrote:
> Titus G wrote:
>> On 4/07/24 11:33, William Hyde wrote:
>>> Titus G wrote:
>>>> I think I have had enough of Tim Powers after reading The Anubis Gates.
>>>> It began brilliantly and until we ended up in the 17th century, I still
>>>> thought it would continue in a similar way but there was far too much
>>>> nonsensical physical and magical violence that was gratuitous and
>>>> fortuitous being unnecessary for plot nor character attributes.
>>>>
>>>
>>> I can never get enough of Powers ("Earthquake Weather", excepted) though
>>> his more recent work seems a bit toned down, or perhaps that's just me.
>>>
>>> For me the best of his novels over the past decade or so are "Hide me
>>> among the graves" and "Medusa's Web".
>>>
>>> Powers definitely did have an early tendency to mangle his protagonists.
>>>
>>>
>>> William Hyde
>> 
>> I had been puzzled and fascinated by Last Call enough to get Expiration
>> Date, (older than a decade), but have never opened it.
>> 
> For what it is worth I found Expiration date to be an easier read than 
> Last Call, and just as good. Or almost.  Why I didn't like the third 
> book I just don't know.
> 
> William Hyde

I like all of Powers, but maybe it's hard avoiding "nonsensical physical and 
magical violence". I like _Dinner at Deviant's Palace_, which ISTR others
find weaker - a post-apocalpytic LA where our hero is riding into town
on his horse-drawn Chevy (but it's just the body on a wooden wagon with
bead curtains instead of doors ;)).

Cheers, David Duffy.