Dinner/Deviants

I have to disagree with the previous reviewer regarding Gregorio Rivas as a weak spot in the book. While on this "quest" for his long lost love, Rivas actually changes and grows as a character. Here we have someone who is affected by his enounters instead of just a fellow meeting external obstacles. Rivas doesn't have mood swings. He confronts himself as he revisits people and places from his past. He gradually goes from being a rather arrogant egotistical jerk to an empathatic decent human being trying to do the right thing instead of a one dimensional idiot bent on just earning his "brandy." Here Powers has created a man capable of learning some things as the story progresses. How many contemporary authors of any genre can pull that off without making readers snicker and say, "Yeah, right."

This is the first Tim Powers book I've read, and though I can't compare it to the rest of his work, it seems that he is more inclined to writing fantasy than science fiction. Yes, the setting is L.A. after some (unmentioned) armaggedon, and, without revealing too much, there are alien beings here, but the treatment is closer to a sword-and-sorcery tale... with swords exchanged for slingshots and guns, and religious mysticism for sorcery. And then, there are Powers' grotesques, like the hemogoblins and those weird trash men within the Holy City, that don't seem scifi at all.So: the tale IS about a man, Greg Rivas, bent on rescuing an old flame from the clutches of a religious cult, and the subsequent confrontation with the entity behind it. It IS NOT about this post-apocalyptic world the action is set in.In my opinion, the one weak point of the novel is character development: Greg goes through several mood swings that don't mesh together well. But the plotting is strong, giving an envolving tale.To those willing to taste this fanciful dinner, enjoy.

Post nuclear holocaust LA? - Heard it before! Lost love refound? - Been done. So why read this one? Because it's so different. Aspects of this book have become quite common place in the SF movie world, that I can't help wondering just how many people read Powers. I can't give any examples here, 'cos I don't want to spoil the astounding revelations exposed throughout the book but if you read it, you'll know what I mean. And you should read it.Amusing word plays - like the blood lusting Hemogoblin - show Powers humour to be unsubtle, unlike the plot, which is so full of sub-plots and different levels, that you can't help sharing the calm desperation of the main character as he sinks lower and lower into a reality he could not have suspected existed.

Very few books deserve a ten. This is one. It amazes me that this book is not a classic of modern science fiction/fantasy. Dark, mysterious, almost pre-cyberpunk. Powers does an amazing job of setting up a post-nuclear war devastated L.A., populating it with well thought out characters. Drop in drugs, violence, religious fanatics, and psychic beings and you have an amazing read. Anyone who has played the classic computer role playing game "Wasteland" will feel right at home.

I'm really sad to find that this book is out of print. In my opinion it is one of the best books ever written. Dark, apocalyptic science fiction set in a Post-War Los Angeles. It's quite unlike the other books Tim Powers has written, but in my opinion it even surpasses The Anubis Gates by far