Tag Archive for 'dark fantasy'

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Book Review: On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers

As someone who has read the entire output of a number of authors, I’ve often noticed the phenomena where my favorite book by any given author is often the first one I’ve read. Ever notice that? I loved The Stand, but Carrie will always be number one in my heart of hearts. Likewise, I’ll always have a soft spot for Savage Night by Jim Thompson. If You Could See Me Now by Peter Straub. Nueromancer by William Gibson (although honestly Idoru comes in a very close second). An exception: I think Anne Rice peaked at The Witching Hour (which came after the abominable Queen of the Damned.)

What was I talking about? Oh yeah, Tim Powers On Stanger Tides. One thing that becomes obvious when you read this book is that IT MUST HAVE inspired the movie series Pirates of the Caribbean. Indeed, the Wikipedia page on that topic makes the claim that Pirates of the Caribbean was inspired by the popular video game Monkey Island, which in turn was inspired by On Stranger Tides. It is further noted here that the fourth film in the series Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides, has an even closer relationship (which I guess should be obvious from the title).

In the Tim Powers universe, this book comes directly after the somewhat forgettable Dinner at Deviants Place (review here), and before the uneven but mostly brilliant Stress of Her Regard (review here). I think of all the Powers books I’ve read so far, it is the one that most closely resembles Anubis Gates, which is a book I can’t seem to stop talking about. It was nominated for, but did not win, the 1988 Locus Fantasy and World Fantasy Awards.

Here’s the story: An ex-puppeteer bent on avenging his father reluctantly joins two bands of pirates as they pursue a mission to travel to, and make use of, the legendary Fountain of Youth. Blackbeard leads one of the group of pirates, and we find him infested with ghosts and captaining a ship of zombies. The other group of pirates is working for a criminally insane Oxford Don who is bent on using the power of the Fountain to resurrect his late wife. Unfortunately for our hero, the villainous Don plans to do this at the expense of the woman he has fallen in love with. Also unfortunately for our hero, Blackbeard has plans for the same woman which are equally sinister (Blackbeard having been given a shot of Bluebeard by Powers).

Like most books by Powers, booze, magic (in this case voodoo), painful injuries, strangely pragmatic heroines, and desperate love each play a major part in the proceedings. Being one part revenge story, one part journey to hell, and two parts perilous rescue, the plot of On Stranger Tides probably sounds convoluted, but it’s all pirate treasure.

Creepy Factor: 3 out of 5
Suspense Factor: 5 out of 5
Weird Erotic Tension Factor: 2 out of 5
Funny and/or Strange Factor: 3 out of 5

Final result: Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum. I had a hard time putting this book down. It’s got comedy, terror, adventure, voodoo, comedy, and ghost ships. This brings us back to the topic that I started this review with. I could see reading On Stranger Tides first and forever after that feeling like it was the best Tim Powers book, ever.

On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers – 1987 – Ace

Buy On Stranger Tides now on Amazon

Posted July 20, 2011 at 10:23 pm in Book Reviews with Tags: , , , , , . See 0 Comments

Book Review: The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart by Jesse Bullington

the sad tale of the brothers grossbart by jesse bullingtonThe title reads “The Sad Tale of Brothers Grossbart” but the book reveals itself to be half comedy, half tragedy. You can discern as much by reading the headline on the back: “We ain’t thieves and we ain’t killers, we’s just good men been done wrong.”

And so goes the malevolent stupidity of the grave robbing pair. See: grave robbing isn’t wrong if it’s your family trade. Right? The brothers would agree. They would also add that they only throttled your ma because she was making too much noise (and she started it first). Although the tongue is placed firmly in cheek, it should be noted that this book is probably not for everyone. It even has the courtesy to provide a gatekeeper in the form of an atrocity, five pages in, where the brothers carelessly slaughter the wife and children of a turnip farmer. “Abandon all Hope Ye Who Enter Here.” Setting the tone for the rest of the book, the violence in this scene is frank and anatomically descriptive.

The more sensitive readers may be right to put the book down. The rest of us will later begin to see slapstick in the many hyper-photographically detailed bodily insults recorded here. The brothers make enemies as naturally as we breathe air, and a large subplot of the book involves the vengeful people, witches, and supernatural beings on the trail of the Grossbarts. The Grossbarts themselves are focused on getting to Egypt, because they’ve heard many a tale of the fantastical graves there. Being grave robbers and all, they take a professional interest.

Plot-wise, the book reads very much like the adventures of Sinbad the Sailor as chronicled in the Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night. That is to say that the protagonists become tangled in machinations that are vastly greater than they are. The brothers manage to stumble through by the light of their own convictions, no matter how misplaced those convictions may be. In the Brothers Grossbart, this provides endless opportunities for dire humor. And at times these awful, stinking, disgusting, ugly, and appallingly stupid and violent men approach likability. I was also reminded of Grimm’s Fairy Tales (tragedy set in mythical surroundings), Tim Powers The Anubis Gates (historical hilarity and accretion of painful injuries), and James Branch Cabell’s Jurgen (a comedy that is not really about what it purports to contain).

I would be wrong to talk about this book without mentioning the masterful grasp that Bullington has on the English language. The language is used like a fine tool to disgust, appall, frighten, or even describe beauty. Upon entering Venice: “True to its visage, the sky let them advance only a short distance before a deluge crashed down on them.” The brothers and unfortunate henchmen are approached by three long dead, rotting men who are animated by demons: “The stench overpowered them, even the Grossbarts gagging on the suddenly wet air.”

Creepy Factor: 4 out of 5
Suspense Factor: 2 out of 5
Weird Erotic Tension Factor: 2 out of 5
Funny and/or Strange Factor: 5 out of 5

Final result: It is not wrong to want to murder the Brothers Grossbart. What a great book.

The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart by Jesse Bullington – 2009 – Orbit

Buy The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart now at Amazon

Posted July 7, 2011 at 2:21 pm in Book Reviews with Tags: , , , , , , , , . See 2 Comments

Alternate History/Steampunk Week

Welcome to Steampunk/Alternate History week at Dark in the Dark. I’m joining a group of book bloggers who have united to declare their support for Steampunk/Alt History authors such as D.M. Cornish, Jenny Davidson, and Ysabeau Wilce. Check out this link here for more details and a list of participating blog posts.

I love D.M Cornish. I’m not going to spend too much time talking about him, because instead you can read my review of the first two books in D.M. Cornish’s Monster Blood Tattoo series (now re-titled “The Foundling’s Tale” series). It is worth noting that the third book in the series is out now.

Personally, I think that it’s impossible to talk about Steampunk without mentioning Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. This trilogy is comprised of The Golden Compass (which you probably know was made into an awful movie), The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass. This series gets a little weird in the last book. And when I say weird, you know that it means weird, and usually when I say “weird”, I mean AWESOME. They stand out as some of the most memorable books I’ve read over the past few years. They have it all: Intricate clockwork technology, dirigibles, talking polar bears, deranged adults, you name it!

More books that I’ve reviewed here which I think belong under the Steampunk/Alternate History moniker:

But enough about me and my opinions. As I mentioned above, there are other blogs with Steampunk/Alt History stuff going on. Bookshelves of Doom is having a cover illustration contest (which ends today – oops). Also don’t forget to stop by Chasing Ray to see what other bloggers are writing about this week.

Posted December 15, 2010 at 2:15 pm in Memes with Tags: , , , , , , , . See 0 Comments

Book Review: Blood Prophecy by Stefan Petrucha

Before I say anything else, I have to get one thing off my chest about this book. The guy on the cover looks like the main brother, Nate, from the TV show Six Feet Under. The actor Peter Krause. Doesn’t he!?! He totally does. Observe.

Separated at Birth?

Maybe Nate Fisher was really a 17th Century vampire. That would certainly explain some things. Nate Fisher or no Nate Fisher, I loved this book! It’s a great Middle-Eastern supernatural adventure novel. It does have its warts here and there, and it’s definitely a vampire genre novel, but HEY – who reads a vampire novel when they want to be reading something else? Only a jerk. That’s who.

In the United States in the 1600s, Jeremiah Fall is cursed to be a vampire when his father unwittingly sets one loose, having ignored the warnings of local Indians about a strange mound in his fields. Fall’s mother and father are killed. Now a vampire, Fall hears about a possible cure for his unnatural condition and spends the next century searching for a “healing stone”, which he eventually tracks to the Middle East. Unfortunately, his plans go awry when he finds that, instead of being a source of his salvation, the stone contains an ancient evil which threatens to destroy the Earth if released. Once the stone is located, two opposing secret societies appear. One dedicated to releasing the monster. The other dedicated to preventing the end of the world. Because of his connection to the stone, Jeremiah is the only one who can stop it.

Here is where I use my handy vampire classification system on Jeremiah Fall.

  • Superhuman strength: Yes
  • Changeling: No
  • Sparkles: No
  • Erotic neck biting: Maybe if Fall wasn’t so perverse (see below).
  • Drink blood: Yes
  • Can turn victims into more vampires: Yes
  • Must be killed by decapitation or stake through the heart: Decapitation
  • Reflection in mirrors: Not mentioned
  • Scared of crosses and/or garlic: No
  • Burn in sunlight: Yes
  • Goth nightclub visit: No
  • Mind control: Yes

Ah! I love classifying vampires. The one that really counts – the erotic neck biting? There isn’t really any of that. Fall clings to the gloomy idea that he is accursed, and generally refuses to vampirize humans and limits his dining to small animals. This is probably for the best, considering that human victims turn into more vampires unless the corpses are decapitated. But it makes for far fewer torn bodices.

Since the majority of the action takes place in the 18th Century, we have bonus items: Egyptian intrigue, Napoleonic wars, despotic rulers, and suicidal and not-so-suicidal cultists. One of the things I really liked about this novel is that the story is a bit of a mashup between a vampire novel and a basic mummy’s curse novel. So, following the mummy formula, you’ve got an ancient evil that is working towards rebirth, and what do all good ancient evils need for rebirth? Zita Johann! Zita Johann or some other suitable person of the female gender. So there is a little bit of romantic interest in this book.

The not-so-good? As hinted at strongly by the title, main character name, and cover, this is definitely the kind of book where you need to leave your brain at the door and enjoy the adventure. My main grudge would be the sudden appearance and disappearance of a band of suicidal desert ninjas. After they serve their purpose (to move the plot forward), they disappear into thin air, sadly.

Creepy Factor: 3 out of 5
Suspense Factor: 5 out of 5
Weird Erotic Tension Factor: 2 out of 5 (needs more biting)
Funny and/or Strange Factor: 3 out of 5

Final result: I can’t remember the last time I gave a book a 5 on the Suspense factor. This book grabbed me and I read it in two sittings. It has vampires, ancient evil, evil death cultists, desert ninjas, and a hero who leaves piles of dessicated small animals in his wake. I liked it!

Blood Prophecy by Stefan Petrucha – Hachette Group – 2010

Buy Blood Prophecy now at Amazon!

Thanks to the author for sending me a copy of this book to review. See you all next time!

Posted December 14, 2010 at 5:27 pm in Book Reviews with Tags: , , , , , , , , , . See 1 Comment

Book Review: The Drawing of the Dark by Tim Powers

The Drawing of the Dark by Tim Powers - 1979If you’re a regular reader here, you probably know that I’m something of a Tim Powers fan. See reviews here, here, and here. I’m getting near to having read his entire output. Imagine my delight when some members of my rat army showed up with a mint first edition copy of Powers’ 1979 The Drawing of the Dark. What I do when I get a collectible book is I make a paper book cover out of a paper bag and do my best to gentle on the spine. My goal is to leave the book looking like I never read it. Making brown paper bag covers for books always makes me think that anyone seeing me read the book might suspect that I was reading pornography or a romance novel. Luckily I’m a proud book geek and I have to assure you that I’ve read plenty from both those genres and probably will again before it’s all done with. For that matter, the copy of Jim Thompson’s Savage Night that I own has a ridiculous, lurid cover that would really need to be hidden in public. Not that I ever go out in public, considering that I’m a MONSTER and people would try to KILL ME. What was I talking about?

Powers researches real events and produces stories that are as historically accurate as possible, and then puts a major twist on them, and sort of tells a “secret history” of the event. The event being re-framed in The Drawing is the 1529 siege of Vienna by the Ottomans. If you have read and liked The Anubis Gates, the good news is that this book has something of the same flavor. It’s about adventure and strange underworld goings-on in 16th Century Europe. Powers also explores his interest in the Fisher King, which also figured into the plot of his later book Last Call (1993). To give you a summary, The Drawing of the Dark is about an aging mercenary who is hired by a wizard to be a bouncer at a brewery in Vienna. On his way to his assignment from Venice, things start getting weird. Different groups of people try to kill him. Supernatural beings, including a troop of dwarfs, come to his aid at strange times. Once he gets to Vienna he gets pulled deeper and deeper into a struggle between near-mythological forces. He feels like an ordinary mercenary, but it becomes obvious that larger forces are at work.

There is fighting, romance, adventure, and plenty of weird magical realism. The fighting is painful, the romance is complicated and maybe a little sad, the adventure is imaginative and interesting, and the magic is strangely plausible. This book also has a humorous edge to it. Sadly, for me the book really got bogged down about halfway through. Although some of the characters still don’t get what’s going on, the reader will have it figured out, and that tends to water down the tension of the narrative. Also, the ending ended up being a little anti-climactic.

Let’s see those numbers.

Creepy Factor: 2 out of 5
Suspense Factor: 3 out of 5
Weird Erotic Tension Factor: 0 out of 5
Funny and/or Strange Factor: 3 out of 5

Final result: If you’re already a Powers fan and are working your way through his books, you’ll probably like this book. If you’re curious about Powers, I would instead recommend Three Days to Never (2006), or the oft-mentioned-here, Anubis Gates (1983). If you are interested in the One Thousand and One Nights (a.k.a. 1001 Arabian Nights), you will probably find Declare (2001) to be an amazing read. I thought it was really mind-blowing, but a friend of mine couldn’t get through it.

The Drawing of the Dark by Tim Powers – Del Rey – 1979
Buy The Drawing of the Dark on Amazon

Thanks for reading another one of my book reviews. See you next time!

Posted August 12, 2010 at 9:35 pm in Book Reviews with Tags: , , , , . See 0 Comments
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