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A review by thekingcrusoe
Alternate Routes by Tim Powers
3.0
Tim Powers is an author that comes recommended to me by my favorite author Christopher Ruocchio, who claims he is among the most underrated AND underknown authors of his caliber and career-length in publishing right now. Judging by his average star ratings here on Goodreads, that might very well be the case, but I'm not 100% sure I agree with just this book for sample size.
To be fair, Ruocchio always recommends The Anubis Gates and The Stress of Her Regard as good starting places, and also recommended this one and On Stranger Tides to me personally when I asked him about the work.
Alternate Routes is a rather interesting novel with some fun ideas bordering on and relating to the supernatural, and the way that supernatural element evolves alongside the deepening references to ancient authors and poets and familiar aspects of Greek Mythology is certainly cool, especially in how the "mechanics" of them work in the "real world" setting of the novel as well. There's some portal fantasy elements to this that were good in thought, though perhaps a little overused in this the first book of the Vickery and Castine trilogy. More on that a little later.
My favorite part of the book was the first act. Though a little confusing and hard to get into for the first chapter while you learn just what in the world the supernatural elements mean - and while you wonder if they're figurative or literal, because it takes a little while for it to become clear what they are - once I got into the narrative surrounding this little bit of the world, I found the adventure to be very intriguing.
My least favorite part was the second act, which I think has a bit too much repetition. The journeys back and forth on and to and from certain areas happens altogether far too often and a bit too many times for my liking, even if they subtly build up to the insanity that is the third act.
The third act is the weirdest part. Lots of crazy stuff that I couldn't even begin to explain without just spoiling what I remember. Things got weird, and it admittedly put me off a little bit. I totally respect the play, but I'm not 100% sure I was sold on how balls-deep Powers went on this when this is only a book one...
...to be fair (again), I'm not entirely sure I would have been able to tell that this was meant to be a trilogy just based on this first book. It could totally be a quasi-episodic trilogy, and not one focused primarily on the overarching plotting, in which case, going ham at the end of this is fine, because that's the entire point that it was building to. Again, I respect the decisions, but it has definitely taken some growing on me to properly accept. Though part of this problem could have been plowing through the whole final act basically yesterday alone, but that's kind of hard not to do on audio (firstly) and when the book is so short (secondly).
Either way, I found much of the plot and characters and especially the worldbuilding on display in Alternate Routes engaging and interesting, if not the best I've experienced. I plan to continue the trilogy, but not entirely sure when I'll have time to start the second one. Maybe as early as January but also probably not.
I think my most major complain however beyond what I've already expressed has to do with the way the "mechanics" of the supernatural are handled. It feels strangely a little TOO concrete to be believable, sure, but I can forgive this; really, it's the fact that basic math has a big part to play in this and so becomes a forefront element in conscious thought and dialogue of the characters particularly in the third act and it just feels cheesy and weird.
Also, one final point: the thematic aspects of the story weren't handled the most eloquently in my opinion either. Much of it was okay in the first act, but again by the third act, plenty of it became a little bit too preachy, as if we had heard that lesson already in the story, and in most cases where I noticed this, we had, and it hadn't been so obvious about it. Themes and morals could have used a little more subtlety in my opinion.
Not my favorite read in the world, not my least favorite either, but I do look forward to trying more Tim Powers in the future. Once I'm done with Vickery and Castine's trilogy, I'll move on to a few of the stand-alones after that.
Ruocchio praises Tim more for his historical fiction work, and so I want to try some of that out before I make any solid opinions on the author for myself. By then, I'll have a few of his titles under my belt, so I'll feel a little better about it haha
To be fair, Ruocchio always recommends The Anubis Gates and The Stress of Her Regard as good starting places, and also recommended this one and On Stranger Tides to me personally when I asked him about the work.
Alternate Routes is a rather interesting novel with some fun ideas bordering on and relating to the supernatural, and the way that supernatural element evolves alongside the deepening references to ancient authors and poets and familiar aspects of Greek Mythology is certainly cool, especially in how the "mechanics" of them work in the "real world" setting of the novel as well. There's some portal fantasy elements to this that were good in thought, though perhaps a little overused in this the first book of the Vickery and Castine trilogy. More on that a little later.
My favorite part of the book was the first act. Though a little confusing and hard to get into for the first chapter while you learn just what in the world the supernatural elements mean - and while you wonder if they're figurative or literal, because it takes a little while for it to become clear what they are - once I got into the narrative surrounding this little bit of the world, I found the adventure to be very intriguing.
My least favorite part was the second act, which I think has a bit too much repetition. The journeys back and forth on and to and from certain areas happens altogether far too often and a bit too many times for my liking, even if they subtly build up to the insanity that is the third act.
The third act is the weirdest part. Lots of crazy stuff that I couldn't even begin to explain without just spoiling what I remember. Things got weird, and it admittedly put me off a little bit. I totally respect the play, but I'm not 100% sure I was sold on how balls-deep Powers went on this when this is only a book one...
...to be fair (again), I'm not entirely sure I would have been able to tell that this was meant to be a trilogy just based on this first book. It could totally be a quasi-episodic trilogy, and not one focused primarily on the overarching plotting, in which case, going ham at the end of this is fine, because that's the entire point that it was building to. Again, I respect the decisions, but it has definitely taken some growing on me to properly accept. Though part of this problem could have been plowing through the whole final act basically yesterday alone, but that's kind of hard not to do on audio (firstly) and when the book is so short (secondly).
Either way, I found much of the plot and characters and especially the worldbuilding on display in Alternate Routes engaging and interesting, if not the best I've experienced. I plan to continue the trilogy, but not entirely sure when I'll have time to start the second one. Maybe as early as January but also probably not.
I think my most major complain however beyond what I've already expressed has to do with the way the "mechanics" of the supernatural are handled. It feels strangely a little TOO concrete to be believable, sure, but I can forgive this; really, it's the fact that basic math has a big part to play in this and so becomes a forefront element in conscious thought and dialogue of the characters particularly in the third act and it just feels cheesy and weird.
Also, one final point: the thematic aspects of the story weren't handled the most eloquently in my opinion either. Much of it was okay in the first act, but again by the third act, plenty of it became a little bit too preachy, as if we had heard that lesson already in the story, and in most cases where I noticed this, we had, and it hadn't been so obvious about it. Themes and morals could have used a little more subtlety in my opinion.
Not my favorite read in the world, not my least favorite either, but I do look forward to trying more Tim Powers in the future. Once I'm done with Vickery and Castine's trilogy, I'll move on to a few of the stand-alones after that.
Ruocchio praises Tim more for his historical fiction work, and so I want to try some of that out before I make any solid opinions on the author for myself. By then, I'll have a few of his titles under my belt, so I'll feel a little better about it haha