Tim Powers - Time Travel and Lovecraftian Espionage
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The Anubis Gates (1983)
Declare (2000)
Three Days to Never (2006)
The secret to Powers is (as he
has articulated in an interview on his working methods) extremely dense
plotting in advance of actual writing in which events that happen in
one part of a book are flagged up indirectly in others. Everything is
supposed to hang together logically and in detail by the end but this can be very demanding on the reader and possibly a little self-indulgent on the part of the author.
One does not always have time to work out for oneself whether everything really does hang together but a second reading (with the basic story already loaded into the brain) permits the reader to recall a puzzling incident earlier in the book and re-interpret it. This is the strength and weakness of Powers' style. It depends on extremely detailed research into multiple themes being woven into an exceptionally complex whole. It works well in this particular time travel narrative.
The weakness, of course, is that the leisurely genre reader is likely to be boondoggled by the complexity and by his or her inability to find past references easily amongst the detail. The best advice is probably to get some yellow stickers and mark passages that seem to contain a mystery for later retrieval.
One does not always have time to work out for oneself whether everything really does hang together but a second reading (with the basic story already loaded into the brain) permits the reader to recall a puzzling incident earlier in the book and re-interpret it. This is the strength and weakness of Powers' style. It depends on extremely detailed research into multiple themes being woven into an exceptionally complex whole. It works well in this particular time travel narrative.
The weakness, of course, is that the leisurely genre reader is likely to be boondoggled by the complexity and by his or her inability to find past references easily amongst the detail. The best advice is probably to get some yellow stickers and mark passages that seem to contain a mystery for later retrieval.
My second reading did not (unusually) find me rethinking the book in more critical and negative terms even though its flaws
are now more clear. I noticed the steam punk jollity much more (a sort of
stylistic irony) but the lively adventure was still there and the rich
imagination.
As for the complex plotting, I genuinely admired it. This is one of the few genre novels that really does play well with the standard tropes of the philosophy of time travel. It could easily be used in the classroom for that purpose. The complexity works where it seems not to work with the equally quasi-jocular and dense later time travel novel Three Days To Never . This too perhaps needs a second reading too but my enthusiasm for that is limited.
As for the complex plotting, I genuinely admired it. This is one of the few genre novels that really does play well with the standard tropes of the philosophy of time travel. It could easily be used in the classroom for that purpose. The complexity works where it seems not to work with the equally quasi-jocular and dense later time travel novel Three Days To Never . This too perhaps needs a second reading too but my enthusiasm for that is limited.
As for The Anubis Gates, Powers' fantasy is
embedded in an effectively layered story which still works
intuitively. Now well over 30
years old, it is deservedly a classic - if only because of its influence on
the steampunk genre and its almost definitive treatment of time travel -
but its writer may perhaps not be accorded the title great, just very very interesting.
Dean Koontz is quoted on the cover of my paperback edition of Declare as naming this book a ‘tour de force’. That is just about right. The
book is a mix of Le Carre (The Perfect Spy springs to mind as well as
his earlier Cold War spy thrillers) with quasi-Lovecraftian cosmic
horror (or is it really August Derleth's 'Nameless City' he channels). It even offers homage to Alistair Maclean towards the end.
But it is also very distinctively Tim Powers. Themes of conspiracy, secrecy, ruthlessness and betrayal are all there as we might expect. It gives nothing away to say that Kim Philby plays a major role in the story. One has to wonder whether Powers has a paranoid streak or has suffered some form of betrayal of trust that drives his work – or is he simply a very imaginative miner of a rich literary vein?
Nearly every chapter is preceded by a quotation from Rudyard Kipling’s ‘Kim’ so we are in ‘Great Game’ territory, the central conceit being a struggle between empires through agencies that are beyond secret and exceptionally ruthless in their greater cause. This is classic Powers’ territory although he is far from alone in working this theme. He just does it better than most.
But it is also very distinctively Tim Powers. Themes of conspiracy, secrecy, ruthlessness and betrayal are all there as we might expect. It gives nothing away to say that Kim Philby plays a major role in the story. One has to wonder whether Powers has a paranoid streak or has suffered some form of betrayal of trust that drives his work – or is he simply a very imaginative miner of a rich literary vein?
Nearly every chapter is preceded by a quotation from Rudyard Kipling’s ‘Kim’ so we are in ‘Great Game’ territory, the central conceit being a struggle between empires through agencies that are beyond secret and exceptionally ruthless in their greater cause. This is classic Powers’ territory although he is far from alone in working this theme. He just does it better than most.
From this perspective, it is rather
old-fashioned and is all the better for that. British imperial gentry and
public schoolboys as well as tormented Catholics (shades of Graham
Greene who also wrote early thrillers are here) are the heroes, with the
Americans and the French tagging along for the ride.
On the other side, Stalin’s Soviet Union (and that of his decaying successors) are a mere overlay to an earlier Mother Russia whose guardian ‘angel’ is at the centre of the plot (no spoilers). It is a politically and culturally conservative book, filled with the nostalgia of all British Atlanticists (of which I am not one) who continue with the pretence that Britain matters and has not degenerated into a rather wealthier Yugoslavia of small nations on the edge of a greater empire.
The book is thus massively entertaining nonsense, by a master of genre fiction, both on grounds of content and ideology but it should equally be lapped up by anyone who lives vicariously through the adventure novel or who seeks the fantastic. It is certainly rare to see two genres as radically opposed as cosmic horror and the spy thriller merged with such effect although the detective story and Lovecraftian horror have long been partners. Powers succeeds in his task beyond all expectations.
On the other side, Stalin’s Soviet Union (and that of his decaying successors) are a mere overlay to an earlier Mother Russia whose guardian ‘angel’ is at the centre of the plot (no spoilers). It is a politically and culturally conservative book, filled with the nostalgia of all British Atlanticists (of which I am not one) who continue with the pretence that Britain matters and has not degenerated into a rather wealthier Yugoslavia of small nations on the edge of a greater empire.
The book is thus massively entertaining nonsense, by a master of genre fiction, both on grounds of content and ideology but it should equally be lapped up by anyone who lives vicariously through the adventure novel or who seeks the fantastic. It is certainly rare to see two genres as radically opposed as cosmic horror and the spy thriller merged with such effect although the detective story and Lovecraftian horror have long been partners. Powers succeeds in his task beyond all expectations.
Three Days to Never frustrated us by being a compulsive read
that then degenerated into incomprehensibility. This book reverses that 'failing'. It starts
with an incomprehensibility that expands into a finely crafted tale of
geo-politics and horror (no spoilers here) in which everything is
ultimately explained. From that perspective, it perhaps has the edge on The Anubis Gates. Do not fail to read his
appendix about how he came to his conceit but only after reading the
book to the end.
Perhaps the only significant criticism is that Powers appears to be so entranced with his own in-depth research that some incidents, especially those set in Paris in wartime, might be regarded as over-lengthy at a point when so much of the story cannot yet be understood.The research that he has put into getting each scene ‘right’ is quite remarkable.
Perhaps he wants you to keep the book for reading a second time (which is becoming a theme now). I suspect you might keep it in your library (like ‘The Anubis Gates’) for just that reason like rewatching an early MCU movie ten years later for the bits you missed first time around . Do not be put off by his determination to be precise and accurate about ambience – whether of Paris, wartime London, post-war Berlin or Cold War Kuwait – because you will lose out on a rollicking adventure story that might even send a chill down the spine.
Perhaps the only significant criticism is that Powers appears to be so entranced with his own in-depth research that some incidents, especially those set in Paris in wartime, might be regarded as over-lengthy at a point when so much of the story cannot yet be understood.The research that he has put into getting each scene ‘right’ is quite remarkable.
Perhaps he wants you to keep the book for reading a second time (which is becoming a theme now). I suspect you might keep it in your library (like ‘The Anubis Gates’) for just that reason like rewatching an early MCU movie ten years later for the bits you missed first time around . Do not be put off by his determination to be precise and accurate about ambience – whether of Paris, wartime London, post-war Berlin or Cold War Kuwait – because you will lose out on a rollicking adventure story that might even send a chill down the spine.
As I have already suggested, Three Days to Never is ultimately disappointing. It starts
well enough and is well written, with some powerful conceits about time and personal
responsibility while the Israeli element is well drawn without the usual
cliches. But it is as if the author lost his nerve
and thought of the film rights near the end and far too late. Until
that point, I am happy to class it as "quite fun"
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