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angus_mckeogh's review
2.0
Grading this one is tough. Impressive start. Fairly middling middle. Terrible finish that had me struggling from page to page. One star? Two stars? One? None? I was thinking this was more science-fiction oriented, with aliens and conspiracies and whatnot, after reading the inner flap. But I’m thinking Powers doesn’t really write in the genre. His writing would more correctly be classified as modern fantasy, with ghosts and magic and that sort of thing, which by itself isn’t a problem as long as it’s done well, but I’d have to say, at least in this book, it was done poorly.
As an aside: are there editors working at Baen anymore. Years back it seemed as if I’d read a newly published novel and I’d find one or two errors per book of about 400 pages; this book had two or three errors about every ten pages, duplicate words, grammatical errors, words missing letters, and solo letters hanging out by themselves, what is going on with editing today?
As an aside: are there editors working at Baen anymore. Years back it seemed as if I’d read a newly published novel and I’d find one or two errors per book of about 400 pages; this book had two or three errors about every ten pages, duplicate words, grammatical errors, words missing letters, and solo letters hanging out by themselves, what is going on with editing today?
philipf's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
nigellicus's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
5.0
Yes I was reading a new Tim Powers boook while listening to an old one. Don't ask me, these things just happen.
Vickery and Castine are once again thrown together in and around the haunted freeways of Los Angeles, once more desperately trying to save the world, this time from aliens. With crop circles and monstrous figures and columns of ice and thousands of metal spheres appearing all over the place, but especially near out time-shifted duo, it becomes apparent that extra-dimensional aliens - rather like the entities in Medusa's Web - intersect with our reality and immediately die. But this is a haunted world, and their ghosts are restless and they want out, but that will mean catastrophe for the planet.
Pursued, as usual, by government agents, allied, as usual, with assorted weirdos, freaks and outlaws, they try to work out what is happening, when and where, and whether thay can do anything about it.
I think? this is a trilogy, and if so it's a grand finale, succesfully taking the premise of the series, and Power's perennial preoccupations with ghosts and odd corners of history and geography, to a new conceptual level while delivering the usual thrills and spills and chills.
Vickery and Castine are once again thrown together in and around the haunted freeways of Los Angeles, once more desperately trying to save the world, this time from aliens. With crop circles and monstrous figures and columns of ice and thousands of metal spheres appearing all over the place, but especially near out time-shifted duo, it becomes apparent that extra-dimensional aliens - rather like the entities in Medusa's Web - intersect with our reality and immediately die. But this is a haunted world, and their ghosts are restless and they want out, but that will mean catastrophe for the planet.
Pursued, as usual, by government agents, allied, as usual, with assorted weirdos, freaks and outlaws, they try to work out what is happening, when and where, and whether thay can do anything about it.
I think? this is a trilogy, and if so it's a grand finale, succesfully taking the premise of the series, and Power's perennial preoccupations with ghosts and odd corners of history and geography, to a new conceptual level while delivering the usual thrills and spills and chills.
branch_c's review
3.0
This book still doesn’t approach the best of Powers’ efforts for me, but I enjoyed it more than the two previous books in the series - I’d consider it a high three.
Castine, more than Vickery, is the primary protagonist here, and her point of view works well for this story. Galvan returns too, as well as Santiago, and while it’s admirable to give the reader a foundation by conveying what’s come before, without requiring them to read or re-read the earlier volumes, in this case there’s perhaps a bit too much recalling and retelling the events of those stories.
As far as the antagonists, the human ones are fairly ineffectual and undistinguished - which is actually fine, since the non-human ones are among the most creative constructions that Powers has imagined. It’s not giving too much away to know that it involves crop circles and otherworldly visitations, but to say any more than that would be, because the innovative angle on these phenomena is truly a unique one.
Like Powers’ other recent work, this book is strongly Los Angeles-centric, and the climactic events make excellent use of some decidedly obscure but typically quirky and fascinating real LA history. This series still contains too much in the way of gun brandishing and car chases for me, but it’s understandable given the modern setting.
There’s plenty of the clever supernatural chaos that makes Powers’ writing so fantastic, and it’s not nearly as dark as some of his other work, making this a fun read.
A final note: as mentioned in previous reviews, the level of typos in this series is off the charts. I can only assume that the responsible copy editors are being overworked. If anyone at Baen is reading this, please let me know and I’ll gladly provide my list of at least a dozen corrections to incorporate into future editions. And in the future, maybe just ask a Powers fan for input in advance.
Castine, more than Vickery, is the primary protagonist here, and her point of view works well for this story. Galvan returns too, as well as Santiago, and while it’s admirable to give the reader a foundation by conveying what’s come before, without requiring them to read or re-read the earlier volumes, in this case there’s perhaps a bit too much recalling and retelling the events of those stories.
As far as the antagonists, the human ones are fairly ineffectual and undistinguished - which is actually fine, since the non-human ones are among the most creative constructions that Powers has imagined. It’s not giving too much away to know that it involves crop circles and otherworldly visitations, but to say any more than that would be, because the innovative angle on these phenomena is truly a unique one.
Like Powers’ other recent work, this book is strongly Los Angeles-centric, and the climactic events make excellent use of some decidedly obscure but typically quirky and fascinating real LA history. This series still contains too much in the way of gun brandishing and car chases for me, but it’s understandable given the modern setting.
There’s plenty of the clever supernatural chaos that makes Powers’ writing so fantastic, and it’s not nearly as dark as some of his other work, making this a fun read.
A final note: as mentioned in previous reviews, the level of typos in this series is off the charts. I can only assume that the responsible copy editors are being overworked. If anyone at Baen is reading this, please let me know and I’ll gladly provide my list of at least a dozen corrections to incorporate into future editions. And in the future, maybe just ask a Powers fan for input in advance.
pedanther's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gun violence
Minor: Suicide, Death of parent, and Panic attacks/disorders
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