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I don't know if there has been a Tim Powers post before, but I have yet to see one. I've recently read The Anubis Gates and Last Call. Both were fantastic--especially Last Call, but I find very little about him online or otherwise. Are his other novels good? I'm going to check them out regardless, but I'm wondering what others think.
Tim Powers
#22
Katran 
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Posted 08 March 2007 - 07:31 AM
I love Tim Powers and was very sad to miss his signing at last year's Worldcon.
Last Call is my favorite--probably my favorite fantasy book, too. I pimp it out to all my friends. The others in that sort-of-not-really trilogy--Expiration Date (which was his first book that I read) and Earthquake Weather, are similar in feel, but I don't think EW is as good. It's still worth reading, but Scott (who I thought was a great character in Last Call) is absent for most of the book and one of the other characters sort of irritates me. I guess I enjoyed those three books overall, though, because of the extreme dedication the author put into his research and geographical details.
I've also read and enjoyed The Anubis Gates, which is probably my second-favorite of his books, Declare, and his latest, Three Days to Never. I thought the last was a little disappointing. It was still good, but maybe I had just been eagerly anticipating it a little too much.
Last Call is my favorite--probably my favorite fantasy book, too. I pimp it out to all my friends. The others in that sort-of-not-really trilogy--Expiration Date (which was his first book that I read) and Earthquake Weather, are similar in feel, but I don't think EW is as good. It's still worth reading, but Scott (who I thought was a great character in Last Call) is absent for most of the book and one of the other characters sort of irritates me. I guess I enjoyed those three books overall, though, because of the extreme dedication the author put into his research and geographical details.
I've also read and enjoyed The Anubis Gates, which is probably my second-favorite of his books, Declare, and his latest, Three Days to Never. I thought the last was a little disappointing. It was still good, but maybe I had just been eagerly anticipating it a little too much.
#23
caladanbrood
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Posted 08 March 2007 - 01:24 PM
I really enjoyed Last Call - it even managed to have that rarest of things, a satisfying ending - but have never had a chance to read any of his others. Anubis Gates seems like the one to go for next though:)
O xein', angellein Lakedaimoniois hoti têde; keimetha tois keinon rhémasi peithomenoi.
#24
williamjm
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Posted 08 March 2007 - 09:53 PM
MUC1;166000 said:
I don't know if there has been a Tim Powers post before, but I have yet to see one. I've recently read The Anubis Gates and Last Call. Both were fantastic--especially Last Call, but I find very little about him online or otherwise. Are his other novels good? I'm going to check them out regardless, but I'm wondering what others think.
I've yet to read a Powers book I've not enjoyed, although personally I think he's never bettered The Anubis Gates (although Cold War-thriller-with-supernatural-elements Declare comes close). He does seem to be a bit under-represented in terms of websites or forums, the only forum I know of is the Yahoogroups e-mail list/forum and even that tends not to be very busy, although Tim Powers himself posts to it, so it is quite interesting.
If you like Powers you might also like his sometimes-collaborator James Blaylock who also writes some pretty good fantasy novels, although Blaylock is a bit more whimsical than Powers is.
BTW I've got a page about Powers' books on my website at http://www.voidhawk.com/powers.html if you want more detailed reviews/summaries of the books.
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The others in that sort-of-not-really trilogy--Expiration Date (which was his first book that I read) and Earthquake Weather, are similar in feel, but I don't think EW is as good.
I'd agree with Katran here, EW is his weakest Fantasy novel.
