Tim Powers won the World Fantasy Award twice for his critically acclaimed novels Last Call and Declare. Declare also received the International Horror Guild Award. His novel On Stranger Tides inspired the Monkey Island video game series and was sold to Disney for the movie franchise installment Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. His book The Anubis Gates won the Philip K. Dick award and is considered a modern science fiction classic and a progenitor of the Steampunk genre. Powers won the Dick award again for straight science fiction post-apocalypse novel Dinner at Deviant's Palace. Many of his novels, such as Last Call, and Alternate Routes, upcoming from Baen Books, are so-called "secret histories," which use real historical events in which supernatural and metaphysical elements influence the story in weird and compelling manners. Powers grew up in Southern California and studied English at Cal State Fullerton, where he met frequent collaborators James Blaylock and K. W. Jeter, as well as renowned science fiction author Philip K. Dick, who became a close friend and mentor. Powers is a practicing Catholic who claims "stories are more effective, and more truly represent the writer's actual convictions, when they manifest themselves without the writer's conscious assistance. I concern myself with my plots, but I let my subconscious worry about my themes." Powers still resides in Southern California with his wife, Serena.

smorris.

4.0 out of 5 stars Marvellous, magical, mythical.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 September 2000

My brother lent me this book, and, having just finished it, I'm going to buy my own copy and read it again. Earthquake Weather is about the magic in the Land, expressed through our relationship with archetypal forces, and our relationship with wine as a sacramental substance. I must admit I came to this book as something of a Tim Powers fan; his 'Drawing of the Dark' also relates to the power of the Fisher King. Earthquake Weather is set in California. The basic plot concerns an attempt to capture a magical Kingship, and the struggle to keep that flame alive. The King is personally responsible for the health of the Land, and as we all know, wherever light is strongest, there the forces of darkness gather most thickly to oppose it. Earthquake Weather is a more mature book; Powers' understanding and handling of the archetypes has broadened and deepened since 'Drawing of the Dark', and to my mind his decision to leave out some of the other characters involved in the grail cycle, notably an explicit 'Arthur' adds to the mix. The great beauty of this is that it works on a variety of levels. At the most basic, it's just simply well written, compelling you to turn the pages and find out what happens next, insistent without being too predictable. At the most complex, it uses magical symbolism to comment on Life, Death, Redemption and Atonement. I think it a matter of some regret that this book will be condemned to suffer as 'fantasy'. It's more than that. If you're looking for some regurgitated Tolkein, look somewhere else. This does not take place in a kingdom with elves and goblins, or involve some bloke with a magic sword. Don't get me wrong, Tolkein dealt with myth directly, and also effectively re-interpreted the archetypes for the modern age, but too many post-Tolkein imitators have felt the need to populate their mythical kingdoms with elves, dwarves and assorted nasties with the same characteristics, and re-write the hero quest. Earthquake Weather takes place in a thoroughly modern, even gritty, setting, where some individuals have a more sophisticated awareness, either a psychic or spiritual capacity, to interact with forces that magicians have believed in, and psychotherapists have termed archetypes, for real. You don't have to belive in ghosts, magic or legend to appreciate this book, but you will understand better if you do. The characters are more three dimensional, and because of that, more easy to relate to on a personal, as well as an archetypal, level. Which brings me to the only (mild) flaw in the fabric. Powers relentlessly mixes his systems, hopping easily from western mythology through transplanted Greek and classical hermeticism, adding some voodoo here and pschosynthesis here. It becomes a bit breathless, particularly if you have not got a magical background. There's no sense of conflict in setting Dyonysius in California, even though the native Gods would probably have resented the intrusion, and if you read the book carefully, you could be forgiven for wondering why there is nothing on the scale of the San Andreas fault running through Mediterranean Europe. These (minor) issues aside, though, it deserves to be compared to mainstream novels, not relegated to a genre. By those standards, this is a great book.