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Tim Powers -- Earthquake Weather
I remember being subtly disappointed by Earthquake Weather the first time I read it (when it was new.)
Not this time! I pounded through it in record time. (I finished it before the Labor Day weekend, but haven't gotten around to posting about it until now.)
Tim is a genius. He wraps real history in a tight coil around his fantastic creations. Like the Magic Realists writing in Latin America a few decades ago (Borges, Garcia Marquez, Carpentier) Powers weaves the mundane and the fantastic into a seamless whole that dazzles the senses. He's absolutely intoxicating.
Earthquake Weather reunites virtually all the surviving characters from Last Call and Expiration Date (and the ghosts of some who didn't survive the earlier entries in the trilogy) and recounts the story of the frantic attempts to resurrect the dead Fisher King, Scott Crane, after he's killed on New Year's Day, 1995. The attempt takes the courtiers of the dead king to San Francisco, where they explore the magical landscapes of Chinatown, Golden Gate Park, and even take a side trip to the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose.
Aided by a bottle of magical wine protected by Bacchus (from the first vintage of Zinfandel grapes harvested in California in the mid-1800's) and with the help of the king's potential successor, Koot Hoomie Parganas, one team member makes the ultimate sacrifice to provide the dead king with a new body. The ending is tragic and joyful at the same time.
Really, I run out of superlatives when talking about Tim's work. The man is a big-g Genius, and a literary treasure.
Not this time! I pounded through it in record time. (I finished it before the Labor Day weekend, but haven't gotten around to posting about it until now.)
Tim is a genius. He wraps real history in a tight coil around his fantastic creations. Like the Magic Realists writing in Latin America a few decades ago (Borges, Garcia Marquez, Carpentier) Powers weaves the mundane and the fantastic into a seamless whole that dazzles the senses. He's absolutely intoxicating.
Earthquake Weather reunites virtually all the surviving characters from Last Call and Expiration Date (and the ghosts of some who didn't survive the earlier entries in the trilogy) and recounts the story of the frantic attempts to resurrect the dead Fisher King, Scott Crane, after he's killed on New Year's Day, 1995. The attempt takes the courtiers of the dead king to San Francisco, where they explore the magical landscapes of Chinatown, Golden Gate Park, and even take a side trip to the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose.
Aided by a bottle of magical wine protected by Bacchus (from the first vintage of Zinfandel grapes harvested in California in the mid-1800's) and with the help of the king's potential successor, Koot Hoomie Parganas, one team member makes the ultimate sacrifice to provide the dead king with a new body. The ending is tragic and joyful at the same time.
Really, I run out of superlatives when talking about Tim's work. The man is a big-g Genius, and a literary treasure.
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I want to read them again but I want to read them in order. Haven't seen anything by Powers at either of the local Half-Price books, so I may make the trek to Dallas to check the big one over there.
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