Very Short Book Reviews: In the world of Tim Powers, things go seriously pear-shaped

After Many A Summer, by Tim Powers(Subterranean)

Tim Powers is a master of turning an already weird tale fiveways on its head, upside down, and inside out until it begs for mercy inancient Akkadian. His new short novel, After Many A Summer, is noexception. It begins, as do many of his books, with a semblance of normality: adown-on-his-luck screenwriter, Conrad, accepts a too-good-to-be-true deal froma movie studio: they’ll produce his script for a fabulous sum if he drives a valisearound LA, transferring it from one vehicle to another. What does he have tolose? He figures this is an elaborate scheme for delivering a ransom for akidnapped heiress. He’s sort-of right and very, very wrong. The heiress isindeed being held captive, but the valise contains a centuries-old mummifiedskull that can talk, prophesize, and even alter the course of time itself, andis given to quoting the poet Tennyson. And that’s just the beginning of thingsgoing seriously pear-shaped.

I’ve loved the work of Tim Powers ever since I discovered TheAnubis Gates in 1983, so I was prepared for superb storytelling and majorrevamping of reality. I was not disappointed on either count. The story, takingthe reader further and further from expectations, requires a bit of patience,but the central character is sympathetic enough to act as a naïve if likeableguide. Highly enjoyable (and an object lesson).