What does Tim Powers write about?

[Stalker]

Simply don't understand why he's so misterious. Web and critics seem to know him perfectly well.
Here is the link to one of the sites dedicated to him: http://www.passarola.com/interests/tim.html

 

[rune]

Early days yet with Earthquake Weather, first chapter is a little strange but hoping i can get into it.

 

[GOLLUM]

Tim Powers - one of fantasy's best-kept secrets.

You're telling me JP. I've heard of the author but not read a single thing by him. As a fantasy and horror fan more than
Sci Fi can you recommend a particular series/book I might like?...

BTW I don't mind the urban fantasy style.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

The Anubis Gates is probably the best place to start. Ancient Egyptian magic, time travel, mad clowns, body-hopping shapeshifters...lots of fun to be had! And you get to meet Samuel Taylor Coleridge too.

 

[GOLLUM]

Thanks for the prompt reply JP, I'm going to track down Anubis Gate ASAP because this sounds like the kind of book I might enjoy, especially if Coleridge get's a look in...

 

[Brys]

Gollum, I'm reading the Drawing of the Dark at the moment, and it's so far a very good fantasy novel, so you should check that out. It has a significant historical element (based around the siege of Vienna) but some of his fantasy ideas are very intriguing. Add to that excellent humour and an all-round entertaining plot. I'm also planning on reading Anubis Gates asap though.

 

[Shoegaze99]

Gollum, I'm reading the Drawing of the Dark at the moment, and it's so far a very good fantasy novel, so you should check that out. It has a significant historical element (based around the siege of Vienna) but some of his fantasy ideas are very intriguing. Add to that excellent humour and an all-round entertaining plot.

I bought The Drawing of The Dark blindly, based solely on a cover blurb that prominently mentioned beer. Read it, loved it and immediately bought two other Powers books.

 

[Marya]

Sorry for bumping an old thread but On Stranger Tides has recently, as of March 2006, been rereleased in paperback. Another interesting thing I read in this thread was the mention of the Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Interestingly, this book was the major inspiration for the adventure games in the 1990's - The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge. Both of these games were designed by Ron Gilbert when he worked at LucasArts (when they made adventure games and not just Star Wars games).

I had only heard about this recently and wanted to get the book and thought I'd search here to see if anyone else had read it.

This is from Ron Gilbert's blog, The Grumpy Gamer:

I was sorting through some boxes today and I came across my copy of Tim Power's On Stranger Tides, which I read in the late 80's and was the inspiration for Monkey Island. Some people believe the inspiration for Monkey Island came from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride - probably because I said it several times during interviews - but that was really just for the ambiance. If you read this book you can really see where Guybrush and LeChuck were plagiarized derived from, plus the heavy influence of voodoo in the game.

When I am in the early stages of designing, I'll read a lot of books, listen to a lot of music and watch a lot of movies. I'll pick up little ideas here and there. We in the business call it stealing.

This book really got me interested in pirates as a theme. Fantasy was all the rage back then and I wasn't keen on doing another D&Dish game, but pirates had a lot of what made fantasy interesting without being fantasy.

After some early failed starts I shelved the idea and began work on the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade game. When it was finished I went back to work on Monkey Island and re-thought much of the design and story. Although re-thought is a strong word since I didn't have much to start with.

The bulk of the motivation for Guybrush's character being so naive stemmed from wanting him to know as little about the world as the player. One huge problem adventure games had/have - Police Quest being the most frustrating example for me back then - was the character was supposed to know all this information that the player didn't. I hated playing games like Police Quest where I get fired for not signing out my gun (or such such craziness), when I was supposed to be a cop. I should know that stuff? Shouldn't I?

I figured if Guybrush didn't know anything, then the player wouldn't be frustrated when they didn't know how to do basic pirate tasks. Which was the whole genesis for the opening line:

"Hi, my name is Guybrush Threepwood and I want to be a pirate"

It told the player that Guybrush didn't know any more then they did, and they were going to learn together.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Yes, I read On Stranger Tides, quite a while back, and enjoyed it very much. It's considerably more accessible than his more recent books, and lacks the depth, but it's a well-written and entertaining adventure. I liked the way he associated Blackbeard with Voodoo -- not sure whether or not this is historically correct, but I liked it.

 

[Marya]

Thanks Teresa. I haven't read a lot of fantasy but saw a blurb about this one and it looks like a fun read.

 

[littlemissattitude]

I liked the way he associated Blackbeard with Voodoo -- not sure whether or not this is historically correct, but I liked it.

I don't know either, and I haven't read the book - I keep trying to find it, but I haven't come across it yet in either a library or bookstore. But I wouldn't be at all surprised if Powers found some sort of supporting evidence for that. He does incredibly detailed research. I think I've mentioned before that in Earthquake Weather, part of the action takes place on a partcular street, Rosecrans Avenue. Well Rosecrans is a real street in Los Angeles County, and it is a long street, but the action happened to take place along a stretch of that street very near where I lived for a time, and he got the place so...right...that I recognized places that I used to pass by nearly every day as I read the book.

 

[dwndrgn]

Look what you've done! Y'all already made me search high and low and then purchase The Anubis Gates, read (and enjoy it!), and now I'm going to have a search for this new old one On Stranger Tides. Sigh. At least this one was re-released (no doubt thanks to the popularity of pirates nowadays) so it shouldn't be as hard to locate.

 

[williamjm]

"On Stranger Tides" is great fun. Admittedly, "The Anubis Gates" and "Declare" are probably better books overall, but they don't have pirates in them.

By the way, there is a new Powers book out soon (it might even be out in America by now) called "Three Days To Never" about Albert Einstein, spies, time machines and no doubt all sorts of weird stuff.

 

[littlemissattitude]

By the way, there is a new Powers book out soon (it might even be out in America by now) called "Three Days To Never" about Albert Einstein, spies, time machines and no doubt all sorts of weird stuff.

Actually, according to Amazon, Three Days to Never has a released date of Tuesday, August 1. I'm especially interested to see if one particular thing made it into the book that was suggested to Powers during a question and answer session I attended at LosCon year before last.

I'm glad you mentioned this. I had been wondering when this book was scheduled to be in bookstores.

 

[littlemissattitude]

Well, apparently Amazon lied. Or got their information wrong. Or something. I tried to get the new book this evening, but my local bookstore had the information that the release date is actually August 8.

Oh, well, I bought two books anyway.

 

[Allegra]

Tim Powers - one of fantasy's best-kept secrets.

A secret to me until now. Had a quick check and come up with 2 questions:

1. Is his Declare a spy novel or a spy fantasy?
2. Is Anubis Gates his best?

 

[williamjm]

A secret to me until now. Had a quick check and come up with 2 questions:

1. Is his Declare a spy novel or a spy fantasy?
2. Is Anubis Gates his best?

1 - Well I suppose it is both, since it is a novel and a fantasy. And has spies in it. There's a lot of espionage stuff in it and a lot of fantasy as well although the fantasy elements are relatively subtle to begin with.
2 - I think so, and a lot of people seem to agree. Of course, it is all a matter of opinion.

 

[Allegra]

Thanks, Will. This author didn't seem to be very popular outside of US. I found only two titles listed on play.com. May be it's play's problem. A few years back when Dresden files got popular there were hardly any Jim Butcher's books on play. Now they stocked up all his books.

 

[williamjm]

Thanks, Will. This author didn't seem to be very popular outside of US. I found only two titles listed on play.com. May be it's play's problem. A few years back when Dresden files got popular there were hardly any Jim Butcher's books on play. Now they stocked up all his books.

Amazon.co.uk does have a bit more choice. Play.com is a pretty good website but it doesn't have quite as wide a range of books in my experience.

 

[Connavar]

Many of his work sounds so interesting.

I ordered Declare,Drawing of The Dark from the library.

I didnt want to read Last Call,Anubis Gate and On Stranger Tides as library cause they are his best works from what i have read from the fans.