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Declare

4.04 of 5 stars 4.04 · rating details · 1,919 ratings · 177 reviews

The Barnes & Noble Review
No one writing today fuses history with fantasy as shrewdly -- or as unpredictably -- as Tim Powers. The best, most representative Powers novels ( The Anubis Gates , The Stress of Her Regard, Last Call ) focus on anomalous occurrences in the lives of actual historical figures (Byron, Shelley, Bugsy Siegel) and use those occurrences as jumping-of...more The Barnes & Noble Review
No one writing today fuses history with fantasy as shrewdly -- or as unpredictably -- as Tim Powers. The best, most representative Powers novels ( The Anubis Gates , The Stress of Her Regard, Last Call ) focus on anomalous occurrences in the lives of actual historical figures (Byron, Shelley, Bugsy Siegel) and use those occurrences as jumping-off points for an extravagantly imagined series of fictions. The latest Powers novel, Declare, once again employs this distinctive, remarkably flexible technique. The result is one of the finest, most idiosyncratic fantasies of the season.

In Declare, Powers edges into John le Carré territory, straddling genre boundaries to create something surprising and new: a supernatural espionage thriller. Two characters -- one fictional, one real -- dominate the narrative. The first is Andrew Hale, a scholar/spy whose career takes him into -- and out of -- the inner circles of the British Secret Service. The second is Kim Philby, the Soviet mole whose career inspired Le Carré's masterpiece Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

Declare opens with a brief, enigmatic prologue set in 1948, in the course of which we see an unidentified man fleeing in terror down the slopes of Mount Ararat, pursued -- quite literally -- by demons. The narrative then jumps ahead some 15 years and introduces us to that fleeing figure: Andrew Hale, a former intelligence agent who has built a successful second career as
a university lecturer, and who is about to be reinstated in his original profession. When the phone rings on a quiet London afternoon in 1963, a voice from the past reaches into Hale's new life, drawing him back into a clandestine, long-running intelligence initiative called Operation Declare.

Declare tells the full story of that eponymous operation, moving backward in time to the mysteries of Hale's childhood, and forward to the related mysteries hidden on Mount Ararat. The narrative ranges from wartime London to the Middle East, and is alternately a love story, a war story, a spy story, and a romance of the supernatural. It is also a dramatic account of the
adversarial relationship between Philby and Hale, two very different men connected by family secrets, by the political realities of the Cold War, and by the malign influence of ancient, inhuman forces.

No summary could possibly convey the richness, intelligence, and sheer virtuosity of this brilliantly executed novel. No one but Tim Powers could have written it, and his characteristic ingenuity is on full display throughout. Like the best of Powers's earlier work, Declare is a vivid, vibrant hybrid that breaks new ground and makes most of its competitors in the overcrowded fantasy field seem thin, derivative, and fatally underdeveloped.

--Bill Sheehan

Bill Sheehan reviews horror, suspense, and science fiction for Cemetery Dance, The New York Review of Science Fiction, and other publications. His book-length critical study of the fiction of Peter Straub, At the Foot of the Story Tree, has been published by Subterranean Press (www.subterraneanpress.com).

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Paperback, 608 pages

Published June 4th 2002 by HarperTorch (first published 2000)

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Jan 10, 2012 I, Curmudgeon rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: action-adventure, audio-book, espionage, fantasy, historical-fantasy, historical-fiction, historical-mystery-meets-modern-sci, kindle-book, modern-fantasy, recommended, suspense, thriller

Delcare by Tim Powers.

Perhaps this will explain better than I what I mean by wonderful descriptions and almost “lyrical prose.”

”… From over the shoulder of the mountain, on the side by the Abich I glacier, he heard booming and cracking; and then the earthbound thunder sounded to his right, and he saw that it was the noise of avalanches, galleries and valleys of snow moving down from the heights and separating into fragments then tumbling and exploding into jagged bursts of white against the r...more

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Oct 31, 2012 Jonathan Peto rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novels, parasupernatural

Where to begin? I should take a day off from work to write this one, but I can't.

Just days ago I assumed I was going to give this book 3 stars. That reflected disappointment. The first couple hundred pages are... well, I guess the word is "slow". Many of the scenes held my interest but they did not seem to be adding up to much and I was getting impatient. I'm sure readers drop this thing left and right before getting to page 300. I can't imagine not wanting to start it though. One of the charact...more Where to begin? I should take a day off from work to write this one, but I can't.

Just days ago I assumed I was going to give this book 3 stars. That reflected disappointment. The first couple hundred pages are... well, I guess the word is "slow". Many of the scenes held my interest but they did not seem to be adding up to much and I was getting impatient. I'm sure readers drop this thing left and right before getting to page 300. I can't imagine not wanting to start it though. One of the characters is Kim Philby. The story is a a spy novel that integrates real people and events with elements of the supernatural. The settings include Paris during World War 2, London, and the Middle East and Soviet Union during the 1960s.

But the story unfolds slowly. I didn't mind what I read, but ultimately the author probably should have been more selective about what he showed of the main character's past. That man, Andrew Hale, becomes a spy who works on a super secret operation that involves supernatural creatures and the Cold War. It takes forever for important scenes with the supernatural to occur, but ultimately, I thought it was worth the wait. These things are influential but hidden. Most of us have no idea they are influencing Cold War events, and Powers has stuck to the facts but slipped these things into his alternative history. If you are patient, there is a reward. When Andrew Hale faces them, it's scary. Powers does not portray him as a courageous hero. He's scared of these things.

Hale has a love interest. Some of those first 300 pages set that up. It's complicated because her spy career revolves around the supernatural too. It is an interesting twist on the whole spy vs spy love thing, but the characters are not as vivid as they need to be for it to amaze.

If you're patient and are interested in alternative history with elements of the supernatural weaved around real events and real people, you should check this out. Why would you want to miss a scene with elite soldiers in World War 2 army jeeps on the side of a mountain being told by some captain they don't know (Andrew Hale) that supernatural beings await them at the top of the hill? Hale feels guilty about what happens next, but who could prepare anyone for that?(less)

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Jan 03, 2011 Genevieve rated it 5 of 5 stars

Tim Powers is an incredible writer. Some of his early books stutter a bit - while I love them, several of them lack strong endings and aren't as cohesive as they might be. By the time we get to this novel, however, Powers is in full control. Declare is an intricately constructed novel of spies and the nations who run them, with the central character, Andrew Hale, involved in secret radio transmissions from Occupied Paris, agent-running in the Middle East, and occasional interaction with - and ag...more

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May 16, 2008 Sandi rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, 2008

I’m really torn about whether to give “Declare” 4 stars or 5. I enjoyed the story and I think Powers had some really great, innovative ideas and crafted them into a unique narrative that defies classification into traditional genres. It’s fantasy, but not fantasy as you normally think of it with dungeons and dragons and elves. It’s sort of a WWII/Cold War spy thriller, but the supernatural aspects prevent it being placed in that genre. It deals with faith and religion, politics and history.

I re...more I’m really torn about whether to give “Declare” 4 stars or 5. I enjoyed the story and I think Powers had some really great, innovative ideas and crafted them into a unique narrative that defies classification into traditional genres. It’s fantasy, but not fantasy as you normally think of it with dungeons and dragons and elves. It’s sort of a WWII/Cold War spy thriller, but the supernatural aspects prevent it being placed in that genre. It deals with faith and religion, politics and history.

I read a lot. I read a lot of difficult books. I was an English Lit major and I read a lot of even more difficult books than I’m reading now. I can’t think of any book I’ve read that’s been harder to read than “Declare” by Tim Powers. Not that it’s not worth the effort, it just takes extreme concentration to get through it without getting totally lost and confused. I tried to read it several years ago when I wasn’t reading as much as I am now and I didn’t have as much time to spend reading. I couldn’t make it through it.

The things that make “Declare” so difficult to read are the same things that make it so rich and complex. It’s a fantasy novel, so there is magic. But you don’t recognize it when you first see it. Instead, it starts off as a spy thriller; jumping from location to location and from year to year with mind-boggling transitions. I sometimes lost track of whether the setting was in the 1940’s or the 1960’s. The decade and locale would change in mid-chapter. To add to the confusion, Powers uses a lot of historical fact. One of the characters is Kim Philby, a real-life double agent working for the Soviets. In his author’s notes, Powers says that he worked this novel around what was really known about Philby’s life and career. He’s trying to come up with an explanation for some unaccounted time in Philby’s life. This blurring of fact and fiction makes this novel very complicated, but interesting. The protagonist, Andrew Hale, is a very believable character. He is a bona fide human being, not some cookie cutter spy. His actions reflect his humanity.

I think another thing that made this novel very difficult for me to read was its use of spy-thriller conventions. I have read very, very few spy novels in my life. Most of those were Reader’s Digest Condensed Books versions over 30 years ago. So, I’m not familiar with the conventions and pacing of the genre. The second half of the book does get easier as the timeline becomes less complex.

All in all, I’d say this is an excellent book. However, it’s not for the casual or the distracted reader. By the end, all the plots and sub-plots are tied up. But, nothing is handed to you on a silver platter. Reading this book is like trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle. It’s worth reading if you have the time and concentration and are used to reading very challenging books. If you’re looking for a light, entertaining read, you won’t find it here.

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Lori (Hellian) I am glad to see I'm not the only one who had a hard time getting into it. I blamed it on being in a foreign country and traveling when I started it,...more
May 18, 2008 06:47pm

Jamie You said, "I can’t think of any book I’ve read that’s been harder to read than “Declare” by Tim Powers. Not that it’s not worth the effort, it just ta...more
May 16, 2011 09:43am

Sandi Swingcorey wrote: "You said, "I can’t think of any book I’ve read that’s been harder to read than “Declare” by Tim Powers. Not that it’s not worth the...more
May 16, 2011 05:28pm

Mar 30, 2009 John rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009, sf-fantasy, historical-fiction

I just love what Powers is attempting here - a spy story cum secret history of the cold war where magic, ancient djinns, guardian angels and biblical myth are really the secret drivers of the arms race (very Indiana Jones) - but for me this was a case of the plot of a novel being far more interesting than the writing. I think the problem is that there is just so much information Powers must convey to give the story even a glimmer of credibility (in the suspended disbelief kind of way) that he ha...more

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Feb 15, 2009 Commodore Tiberius Q. Handsome rated it 5 of 5 stars

this novel blew my socks off. i had to pick them up and put them back on for real. SHOOM - right off. anyway, i love tim powers. he does this thing a lot of the time, where he takes an historical event, studies all of the scholarship on it, and then fills in the missing gaps with concocted fantastical happenings and providing a compelling, supernatural explanation on which he bases the novel. for Declare, the backdrop is the Cold War, specifically between the UK and Russia. this novel spans so m...more

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Feb 15, 2013 Benjamin added it

Shelves: audiobook

I've heard for a while now about how great Powers is, how he seamlessly ties together rich history with mythic fantasy: here's a Fisher King story in California, here's Merlin-brewed beer, here's angels in the Cold War. Finally, I broke down and read (heard) my first Powers, and I can say that it fairly lives up to the hype while also being something of a head-scratcher in places.

Here's the basic non-spoiler story: Andrew Hale is a British agent in a hush-hush operation that stretches from befor...more I've heard for a while now about how great Powers is, how he seamlessly ties together rich history with mythic fantasy: here's a Fisher King story in California, here's Merlin-brewed beer, here's angels in the Cold War. Finally, I broke down and read (heard) my first Powers, and I can say that it fairly lives up to the hype while also being something of a head-scratcher in places.

Here's the basic non-spoiler story: Andrew Hale is a British agent in a hush-hush operation that stretches from before World War II to the 1960s, an operation that has to do with a secret history focusing on magical beings that are variously described as angels or djinn. The story largely focuses on Hale's experiences (Paris and Berlin, 1945; Mount Ararat and the Middle East 1948, 1963); with a strong subplot about his love for the Spanish-born Russian/French agent, Elena Teresa Ceniza-Bendiga; and the related experience of real-life spy Kim Philby and his family's associations with the supernatural.

Powers has a really eye-opening afterword here, where he talks about his research and his self-imposed guideline of not changing any historical facts. It's fascinating to me to hear how close this fantasy cleaves to historical fact--though in cases like this, I always want a companion piece or footnotes to tell me the actual history, as we know it. From a purely puzzle-regarding, cleverness-grading standpoint, that's an impressive feat.

And while most of that historical accuracy fades into the background when read as a novel. I wonder if that's why the book sometimes (often) feels a little overdetailed and overwritten. Some of these details probably give the book an air of verisimilitude (even more important in fantasy, Wells would argue), but some of them seem merely to slow down the reading process and make it clear that this is not just a spy thriller. (I suppose a similar case could be made for the nonlinear jumps in the book, from time period to time period: of course we don't worry about Andrew Hale in 1948 after we've met him in 1963.) In any case, there are times when exhaustive research tips over into exhausting reading.

My other complaint here has to do with the characters and their structural role. Andrew Hale--spoiler--turns out to be half of Kim Philby; and it's explained that Kim got all the love of family/women while Andrew got all the love of country. Which turns all of Andrew's decisions into either pre-ordained (will he shoot his family to save his country? of course he will) or unbelievable (will he sacrifice everything to find his true love? of course he will--but I won't buy it). Similarly, it's not always clear to me what's really motivating this secret war: at some points, Hale's boss seems to have it in for Communism, but at other points, he seems to have it in for the angels themselves. Likewise, one of the most interesting characters is a Russian agent from Armenia who is described as owing allegiance primarily to the fallen angels. What does that mean to him? What sort of world are these people fighting for?

Lastly, while it's clear that Hale is just a pawn here, there are a few too many briefing scenes, where someone higher up in the intelligence system explains to Hale something crucial about the angels or about himself. If you're keeping track, file this under "demonstrating research/cleverness while sacrificing plot urgency and momentum."(less)

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Nov 06, 2012 Suzannah rated it 3 of 5 stars

This WWII/Cold War-era spy novel plays with Christian and Islamic cosmology, GK Chesterton, occult baddies, and famous spies like Kim Philby and TE Lawrence.

Result: Something a little bit like The Raiders of the Lost Ark, except the Ark in question is a bit different.

Powers is a Catholic and that worldview comes through. His shtick (I mean it in no derogatory way) appears to be to build a tale of supernatural mystery around historical characters, using real historical events and pitting slightly...more

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Feb 21, 2012 Ian Tregillis rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Five stars: I want to have this book's babies.

If Tim Powers had taken a sabbatical into my subconscious, living like Jane Goodall among the phantoms of my nightly dream life, he couldn't have written a book more perfectly suited for me. Part of me wants to eat his brain and thereby absorb his power. That's how much I enjoyed this book: it makes me wonder what it would be like to eat somebody's brain, and how long I'd have to keep it down before the power transfer became permanent.

It's no secre...more

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Dec 04, 2011 Will rated it 1 of 5 stars

I was expecting far more from this. I was surprised by the Anubis Gates and shocked by Last Call, so surely Declare, a story that mixes magic with spycraft, would be a perfect match of horror and intrigue.

But it isn't what you think. It's about the Cold War, but It's about Andrew Hale, a spy for the SOE who loves a woman called Elena... who is a spy for the Russians.

Only... it's not about that. It's really about Kim Philby and the British SOE, mixed in with the existence of powerful yet abstrac...more I was expecting far more from this. I was surprised by the Anubis Gates and shocked by Last Call, so surely Declare, a story that mixes magic with spycraft, would be a perfect match of horror and intrigue.

But it isn't what you think. It's about the Cold War, but It's about Andrew Hale, a spy for the SOE who loves a woman called Elena... who is a spy for the Russians.

Only... it's not about that. It's really about Kim Philby and the British SOE, mixed in with the existence of powerful yet abstract creatures called Djinn.

Only... it's not about that. It's about 500 pages of description of boxes, countryside, prep school antagonism and sentences that cover half the page. I don't know how I didn't notice it before, but Powers can't write staccato to save his life. Here's a sentence cracked open from a random page:

"To these wizened babushkas the NKVD was still the Cheka or even the pre-revolution Okhrana, and they took a particularly intense interest in Hale's researches, often pausing to cross themselves as they translated some musty old report of a Russian expedition to Turkey in 1883 or a description of burned grass around little coin-sized eruption holes in the grave plots of Russian cemeteries."

Which would be fine, in isolation. But essentially half the book is needless detail that is irrelevant to the plot. You would never in a million years catch Iain Banks or Charlie Stross going off track in this way, and by the end of the book I would scan each page for relevant words to see if it was actually worth reading.

Charlie Stross mentioned this as an analogue to his Laundry books. I think that's incorrect; the Laundry deals directly with inimical threats to humanity, whereas the Djinn are not opposed to humanity and most of the book is taken up with inter-agency wrangling. And Philby.

There needs to be a special section for Philby, because the man is clearly the center of the book -- and he's a slimeball in every sense of the word. Clearly Powers read up on the real Philby and mentions details from Philby's life, but that hardly makes him more sympathetic. He loathes and is loathed by every character in the novel, and his preening sense of entitlement, fated destiny and "special nature" only make him more intolerable. He's like Harry Potter crossed with Christopher Monckton.

So... yes. Hated it, hated it, hated it.(less)

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Aug 06, 2011 Tim Pendry rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: alternative-histories, british, dark-fantasy, esoteric, espionage, five-star, horror, popular-culture, religion-spiritual, thriller, twentieth-century

Dean Koontz is quoted on the cover of this paperback edition 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 and 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 s...more

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Jun 05, 2011 Evelyn rated it 4 of 5 stars

The author of this book calls himself a writer or 'speculative fiction,' an interesting term that encompasses fiction, science fiction, fantasy and a smattering of history. He's one of my husband's favorite authors, and this book is my husband's current favorite by this author. I'm not much of a fantasy or sci-fi fan, but this book really seems to have something for everyone, and it's well written to boot. I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did.

From a very young age, Andrew Hale knows that...more

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Apr 22, 2011 David Hebblethwaite rated it 2 of 5 stars

For many years, Tim Powers’ work has largely been out of print in the UK, but that began to change in 2010, when Corvus gave Powers’s novel Declare its first UK edition, which quirk of publishing explains how a ten-year-old book ended up as a contender for the Clarke Award. It felt a little odd to see Declare so nominated, but I was optimistic because I’d read and liked a couple of Powers’ novels previously; Declare won the World Fantasy Award, which I’ve generally found a reliable indicator of...more For many years, Tim Powers’ work has largely been out of print in the UK, but that began to change in 2010, when Corvus gave Powers’s novel Declare its first UK edition, which quirk of publishing explains how a ten-year-old book ended up as a contender for the Clarke Award. It felt a little odd to see Declare so nominated, but I was optimistic because I’d read and liked a couple of Powers’ novels previously; Declare won the World Fantasy Award, which I’ve generally found a reliable indicator of good fiction; and the Clarke judges had made fine selections elsewhere in the shortlist. I pretty much took it for granted that we had six strong nominees this year.

Well, now I’ll have to eat those words, because I simply cannot see that this book stands up to any of the other shortlisted titles.

One of the hallmarks of Tim Powers’ fiction is the taking the fantastic and slotting it into the gaps in reality to create an alternative and hidden history of the world; in Declare, the author does this against the background of the Cold War. In 1963, a British former (or so he thought) spy named Andrew Hale is reactivated to complete Operation Declare, the previously failed mission to attack the djinns of Mount Ararat.

Declare is a very long book – 560 B-format pages of close-set type in the edition I have – and the key problem it has is being overly stiff with research for much of that length. Overall, I find it a very slow read (not ideal for a book which is part spy thriller), because so much detail is crammed in at the expense of pacing. Actually, come to that, the general stodginess of Declare makes it difficult to appreciate most other aspects of the novel. For example, there’s a proper sense of otherworldliness in some of the scenes featuring djinns (made particularly interesting by the matter-of-fact tone of delivery), but the impact is diluted by all the less effective surrounding material – the more conventionally ‘spy-thrillerish’ sequences don’t work nearly as well for me.

Perhaps if I knew more about, or were more interested in, the details of Kim Philby’s life (around which Powers has constructed the supernatural framework of his novel) – or if I’d read John Le Carré – I might appreciate more of what Powers is doing in the book. But it does seem to me that Declare is too content to assume that sort of interest on the part of its readers, rather than trying to generate it – hence the profusion on detail.

It’s been a while since I read Last Call and The Drawing of the Dark, but I don’t remember their being a chore to read; Declare, on the other hand, was just that.(less)

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Apr 15, 2011 Lightreads rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, fiction, historical

Eighty percent WWII/Cold War spy thriller, twenty percent creepy fantasy about the supernatural powers moving behind our little conflict.

Tim Powers has some sort of impervious force field. His Three Days to Never made me spittingly furious, but I still dug it. This book was unevenly paced with an irritatingly ham-handed romance* and a cast of largely loathsome people, and I still dug it. How does he do that?

He just writes cool shit, there’s no other way to put it. This book is dense, well-resear...more

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Feb 26, 2011 Alex rated it 5 of 5 stars

A strange fantasy novel about shifting alliances among spies in a world where supernatural entities exist. It's interesting to think about because it's generally hard to figure out what the hero wants. There's a love story. And he's a dedicated spy trying to infiltrate ... something ... but the story unfolds in back-and-forth time -- 1948, then 1963, then 1941, then 1945, then 1963 again. And it changes main characters halfway through. I don't know what the stakes are.The hero is a bit of cipher...more

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Feb 18, 2010 Nina rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

The biggest surprises of this book, for me, came after the end of the novel. The first was that many of the characters in the book are based on real people. Not being a spy novel kind of gal, I didn’t know who Kim Philby was nor why I should care. Not knowing didn’t hurt my enjoyment of the novel at all but I was amazed to find out that Powers used every scrap of truth about the real characters that he could dig up. He then built the supernatural pieces to fit into the “real” events. [The second...more

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Oct 29, 2010 Jonathan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"Oh Fish, do you hold to the old covenant?"

A literally heavyweight book, a cold war novel chock full of spy craft. Tim Powers restrains his usual excesses until almost the end. A decades long intelligence operation to "verify the status" of the inhabitants of Mt. Ararat staggers to fruition, with Kim Philby betraying each side in turn.

The SOE's wish to "verify the status" of the entire Mt. Ararat community seems somewhat excessive, given that the only one causing direct offence is dwelling ghoul...more

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Aug 24, 2012 Alex Hammel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, historical-fiction

This is another one of Tim Powers' secret history-themed fantasy novels, and like the rest it's great fun. The main plot is set during the Cold War, with a lot of back story bits set during the Second World War. Because it's a spy novel, we change settings quite a bit: there are parts set in occupied Paris and in post-war Berlin, as well as Kuwait and Beirut and Mount Ararat. Powers is really good with the little details that bring a setting to life. I liked one passage in particular when the pr...more

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Mar 14, 2013 Onefinemess rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, thriller, supernatural

OK, lots going on here. An almost 500 page semi-spy-ish-thriller. I don't think I read many thrillers. At least I think that's what this was? Kind of? Like a smarter version of the Da Vinci Code with spys and shitloads of factual historical data that I didn't even realize was factual...

I would highly suggest reading the afterword or whatever it is where Powers talks about how he put the book together. Reality can be stranger than fiction... at least 80 years ago.

I definitely didn't read this as...more

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May 27, 2010 Charles Spitzig rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-and-gone

Not quite as good as Anubis Gate. But, I might give Anubis Gate a 5. I like lots of hard-core magic stuff, and this seemed a little light on it. It got heavier later. The fantasy elements didn't really seem to AFFECT the world very much. With the exception of the "Guardian Angel" in Russia. But, even with her, it was unclear exactly WHAT she did. The affect in that case was more what the Russians did FOR her.

The insertion of magic into Cold War espionage was an interesting idea. I haven't read a...more

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Sep 22, 2011 Zorena rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, espionage

This is my second Powers novel and I have to admit I'm hooked. This guy can write!

I've never been a true fan of political thrillers or espionage but this one grabbed me from the start. I love that his heroes aren't he men in constant armed or unarmed combat. The lack of gory and graphic violence was pleasing as well. It's not that this lacked action, it didn't. The story just wasn't centered on the actions so much as the interactions of the characters.

I'm also in awe as to how Powers manages to...more

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Jan 30, 2011 Dxmaniac69 rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'm going to write this review assuming you have read Tim Powers before. If you haven't, well this is probably not going to be your first Tim Powers. The reason for this is it seems to be out of print and is extremely hard to get a copy. I had to borrow one as I couldn't find one to own for myself. If you aren't a Tim Powers fan, go read Anubis Gates and Last Call first and if you like them then make the effort to find this one.

Declare basically is a 1940s spy novel mixed with weird supernatural...more

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Jun 25, 2011 Allie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Declare is both a spy novel about WWII and the Cold War and a fantasy, and the two elements intertwine surprisingly well. The plot is intricate and filled with careful manipulation, violence, shifting loyalties, and even romance. The magic was not flashy or frivolous, but dangerous, poorly understood, and incredibly eerie. The deadly, enigmatic djinn, also referred to as fallen angels, are at the heart of a secret Cold War, fought through the schemes and many-layered betrayals of the British, Fr...more

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Aug 06, 2011 Nicholas Whyte rated it 3 of 5 stars

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1707156...

I rather liked Declare. As a fan of both Tim Powers' earlier work and of John Le Carré (though I haven't read either for years), I was impressed both by the audacity of the one trying to write like the other, with added djinn (rather than gin) and by the fact that he pretty much succeeded in pulling it off. He captures the tone of the disheartened and disreputable spy thriller awfully well, with the added awful secret that is not merely national security b...more

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Apr 02, 2012 The rated it 5 of 5 stars

John Le Carre meets Dennis Wheatley

This was a fantastic achievement. Powers really is a great writer. This worked superbly as both an espionage novel and as occult/fantasy book.

It was slightly slow at the start and but I soon got into it. There were some slightly jarring elements to it, such as the English main character using American words and some very few slight historical inaccuracies.
However those are about the only criticisms that I can make.

The occult and the supernatural elements are ve...more

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Jul 28, 2011 Zbegniew rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror, espionage

I just finished Declare and it's my first Tim Powers read. On the good side is almost everything there is to like about a book. I like both espionage and occult fiction so the subject matter couldn't be better. The main characters were interesting and fully fleshed-out, and the plot was interesting. But I just found it tedious to get through. It is a long book and it took me forever to finish it. I didn't find it to be a compulsive page-turner, to say the least. But obviously lots of other peopl...more

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Jun 05, 2011 Joe Stamber rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2011

I've been a fan of Tim Powers since I read "The Drawing of the Dark" many years ago. Declare was one of the first books I got for my Kindle and I was looking forward to getting started on it. However, my expectations had been dimmed somewhat after reading "Last Call" and "On Stranger Tides" more recently which for me didn't match up to the brilliant "Anubis Gates" and TP's older novels, despite being enjoyable reads. Declare is a supernatural spy thriller in which TP blends real life people and...more

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Oct 31, 2009 Tom rated it 4 of 5 stars

At face value:
A damn good Romance that takes Lovecraftian terror and madness and mashes it up with mid-20th century SIS/MI5 Espionage Noir in events leading up to WWII in Europe and the Middle East up to the period of the Cuban Missile Crisis and an epilogue that accounts for the events leading to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Instead of the Lovecraft Mythos, it's an eschatological, Old Testament and the Apocrypha-style horde of Nephilim, Fallen Angels, and Djinn at an End Of Days-size show...more

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Sep 12, 2010 Erin / Zifna / Shorestar rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

I strongly considered rating this book higher, and I might yet go back and change it.

Good points:

- Strong and believable blending of the mundane and the fantastic
- Fairly compelling

Negatives:

- Hard to keep track of the narrative at times. There's a lot of switching between past and present, and I usually had to go back and re-read the paragraphs around the switch to see if past or present was being discussed, as it was generally not a sharp delineation.
- A lot of stuff got "teased" early on and...more

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May 12, 2013 Nate rated it 4 of 5 stars

I liked Declare even more than Last Call, the first Powers novel that I read. As in L.C., the occult/the supernatural figures prominently, and playing cards also make their way into Declare (they are a dominant theme in Last Call).

It wasn't until I finished the book that I found out it's a historical fiction. Learning this makes it even more amazing. According to Powers's Afterword, he refused to let himself change anything documented about the history of the case--he only allowed himself to fil...more

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About Tim Powers

Timothy Thomas Powers is an American science fiction and fantasy author. Powers has won the World Fantasy Award twice for his critically acclaimed novels Last Call and Declare.

Most of Powers's novels are "secret histories": he uses actual, documented historical events featuring famous people, but shows another view of them in which occult or supernatural factors heavily influence the motivations a...more

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