Earthquake Weather

I'll say this now, if you're sitting here shopping for new books and you've heard a little bit about this Tim Powers guy and you want to give him a shot because everyone says he's really good (and he is) and this is the book that you want to use as an introduction to him . . . you're doomed. There's just no good way to put it. For the newcomer, unless they're really good at reading between the lines, this book is going to come across as impenetrable. Not that it isn't good, but new readers are going to feel like they've missed something. Powers doesn't do many sequels to his books, most of his stuff is standalone, but this time he decided to merge some threads from other novels. In the novel prior to this Expiration Date, he introduced some urban fantasy stuff about ghost swallowing and the general rules about haunts and so on, as well as introducing Koot Hoomie and his adopted parents, Pete Sullivan and Angelica. Meanwhile in the now classic (and written some time ago) Last Call, Powers told the story of Scott Crane and how he became the Fisher King, the ruler of the West Coast (and so on and so forth). So this novel is basically a sequel to both those novels as Powers rams the two plotlines together. What happens is that Scott Crane is murdered by a woman apparently possessed by ghosts and Kootie is tapped to be the next king. However he's too young and not really prepared for it and so one of the Crane's loyalists, Arky, comes up with a plan to restore him to life. Confused yet? What follows then is a narrative that seems both ponderous and breakneck as new characters start to mingle with old, with two new catalysts for the plot, Janis Plumtree (the murderer) and Sid Cochran, who just lost his wife and has some history with the god Dionysus. Plumtree is supposed to be possessed but is mostly just someone with Multiple Personality Disorder, constantly switching from one to the other (in a way that reminded me of Crazy Jane from Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol run, except that Plumtree's don't have superpowers). The two of them meet in a mental hospital, but escape due to a convenient earthquake and from there hook up with the rest of the cast. It's hard to review this book without describing most of the setup of the plot because if I don't I feel like I'm losing context but at the same time there just seems to be no way around it. Powers' streamlining of the two earlier books is neat and fairly seamless but all the fancy stuff just seems to come at the expense of his normally complex plotting and we're left with something turgid, with the characters lurching from one scene to another. As long as you keep a handle on the main plot, you're all right but once sideplots start getting dragged in things start getting confusing since it's hard to say how relevant they are. Plus, a lot of the plot seems to consist of "plot coupons" where the characters have to gather special objects that will help them for no other reason than the plot re

Let me preface this by saying that I generally avoid reading fantasy. I've never read Lord Of The Rings and I bet I never will. But some fantasy will entertain my skeptical, scientific, hard-to-shut-off-the-BS-filters mind. Tim Powers' Fisher King trilogy is one such set of fantasy novels. First, there's Last Call, which introduces Scott Crane and future-telling poker hands. Second, there's Expiration Date, where the ghost of Thomas Edison leads Koot Hoomie Parganas through a hellish version of Los Angeles. The final book in this [as described by the author] loose trilogy is Earthquake Weather. What a wild ride! All of the important characters are back from the first two novels [which is why you should read those first - each of the first two can stand alone, but this one reads better if you know the backstory of the first two]. This novel introduces three (if the Janis character only constitutes one character) important new characters: Janis Plumtree, a person with multiple personalities and the murderer of Scott Crane, Fisher King of the American West; Dr. Armentrout, a psychiatrist in desperate need of healing himself and a frequent companion to Long John Beach [Sherman Oaks from Expiration Date]; and Sid 'Scant' Cochran, a recent widower with the mark of Dionysius on his hand. From various locations in southern California, the characters, both old and new, converge on San Francisco and the possible resurrection of Scott Crane. Be ready to hit the reference books; this novel requires knowledge about a wide range of things - all the way from Androcles to Zinfandel. Yes, the story can get confusing, even when you've read the first two novels. If I could give fractional ratings, this novel would rate more than 4 stars, but less than 5 stars. Even though they are not easy reads, Earthquake Weather and the preceding two novels are well worth the effort.

The first book I read of his was the equally masterful Expiration Date, which was a fascinating urban fantasy thats very unique story is continued here. This book is great, and I would recommend it to anybody willing to try a strange kind of fantasy where magic can really happen, ghosts haunt the living, and Bacchus is still the god of death as well as wine. But I also suggest you read Last Call first though, since Scott Crane and his friends allude to things that happened in the previous book continuously, which was really confusing to me. Basically, if you liked Expiration Date (and have looked over Last Call first)than this one's for you.

Powers has really hit his stride. Last Call was brilliantly engrossing, and Expiration Date perhaps a bit of a letdown to many (not to me), but Earthquake Weather fulfills all the promise of the first two books and then some. (BTW, don't try to read this without reading the first two.) Powers is unmatched in creating a "real" world where fantastic things happen, and they happen a lot in this book. Sit back and enjoy the author's mastery of the off-kilter. When I finished it, I was moved to go back and reread the first two volumes all over again..... Powers, like Jonathan Lethem, is comfortably inhabiting the house Philip K. Dick built, and each is adding new wings. I eagerly await his next offerings.

Superlatives aside, "Earthquake Weather" is the third part of the Scott Crane story and brings this part of the story to a conclusion of sorts, as Crane learns a rather harsh lesson of kingship. Koot, Pete, and Angela are back, along with some new/old characters. I couldn't read this darn book fast enough, only to finish it and wish I'd taken my time... so I read it again. Powers has been exploring the Fisher King theme for some time ("Drawing of the Dark" was the first?), and his treatment of the mythos is simply brilliant. Solid place descriptions, believable, sympathetic characters, and some simply outstanding scenerios make this a choice read, for fans of Powers and Blaylock, and for anyone else, too.