Path: ...!weretis.net!feeder8.news.weretis.net!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail 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 Lines: 38 Message-ID: References: Injection-Date: Fri, 05 Jul 2024 05:57:19 +0200 (CEST) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="35f79aff0d2fb774ebc302362cd076f2"; logging-data="3296640"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1+xRhGmf5jIKZrwOkMsaY4gihEIzT9+I3I=" User-Agent: tin/2.6.2-20220130 ("Convalmore") (Linux/5.15.0-113-generic (x86_64)) Cancel-Lock: sha1:FBEaUNopsdt4X5fkM1RqCdyYdKA= Bytes: 2578 William Hyde 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.