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Medusa Web A Novel Tim Powers 9780062262455 Books

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Medusa Web A Novel Tim Powers 9780062262455 Books

Powers' work is usually intense and interesting, hard to stop reading except to stop and ponder a new idea or revelation. A significant number of his books are among my all-time favorites.

So I was surprised to find myself putting this book down frequently, and eventually unwilling to even pick it up again. He seems to have stepped away from his well-developed skills to make a book with none of the qualities that make him a great author.

The primary characters are opaque and not very sympathetic. The secondary characters are opaque and repulsive. Occasionally we get a third-person interjection that all but yells out "I know you're bored, I promise something interesting is coming later!"

My personal recommendation would be to pick up pretty much anything else he's written - especially Last Call, The Anubis Gates, or Declare - to get a real feel for how great a writer he is. This one is, sadly, not one I'd recommend.


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Medusa Web A Novel Tim Powers 9780062262455 Books Reviews

Once again, Powers builds a narrative around alien occult principles that his flawed characters desperately try to comprehend to save themselves from destruction. Nobody creates entities so removed from human perspective and yet so internally consistent as to be believable, despite how fantastic they are. The story, though, is ultimately about the characters and their faults, desires, limitations, and nobility.
I really enjoyed The Stress of Her Regard, one of Tim Powers' earlier books, but have not otherwise read many of his books. He has a terrific imagination and his books are wild rides into weird worlds. Medusa's Web is no exception; it pulls you in almost immediately, but I found myself less interested in what was going on as it wore on. The book might have benefited from tighter editing, as it was repetitive in parts. There were questions that remained unanswered. Who murdered Scott and Madeline's parents (was it Claimayne?). Did Claimayne murder Aunt Amity (his mother), and why? Why if he could walk, did he sit in a wheelchair and use the elevator to travel between floors? Also, how did Madeline physically leave the present to return to the past where she could be with Valentino during her spider vision? That wasn't explained, or if it was, I missed it. Was it that she 'chose' not to fall out of the vision? Also, why were there repetitive explosions on the roof (Aunt Amity killing herself or being killed)? What was causing them? It is things like this that should have been better 'wrapped up' at the end. I did enjoy the book, but liked The Stress of Her Regard much better (it was also a scarier book).
I've been reading Powers for a long time now. This is a great book, I think one of this better ones. The characters in this book - they're weird, they've believable, and they're not SO interesting or developed that the book drags or feels over-written or false. They just normal, idiotic, weird, people that are crystal-clear in their personalities. The "trick" of what's going on in this book, the thing that's out of place, it's very well introduced in layers, and then peeled off layer by layer until you're filled with a sense of satisfaction and the sense of "oh sh&t" at the same time. Mr. Powers writes in a way that is very close to how my own brain narrative sounds. He writes in the same exact way that I read and produce my own monologue about what's going on. For me, there is no hesitations, no stumbling, just pure reading input. Well done!
I first read Powers in 1979 and it was obvious even then that he was different from everyone else with a unique style and approach to writing, just as his mentor P. K. Dick had been. As I was reading Medusa’s Web, I realized that it was strikingly similar to most of Power’s other books obscure historical context, thwarted desires for immortality, body switching or possession. Is he in a rut? Not in my opinion. With the exception of the general themes, his stories aren’t really all that similar in terms of setting or characters. It is his unique style that might make Medusa’s Web seem strikingly similar to, for example, Three Days to Never. However, he is not simply writing formulaic Westerns, who-dun-its or standard fantasy about elves and dwarves. It is truly unique – no other author does anything quite like Powers, certainly not with such well written characters and absorbing story lines. In Medusa’s Web, as with his other books, you can look up the historical characters referenced in the story and sure enough, there they are. Silent movie stars and directors who really existed, and connections between the real life events of those figures in context with the plot and the fictional characters. I don’t care if the same devices are used, it is almost always done brilliantly. Certainly, it is done brilliantly in Medusa’s Web. If you have read Powers before, pick this one up – it’s a good one. If you have never read him before, you are missing one of the modern masters. Do yourself a favor and give him a try.
Tim Powers has a gift for convincing us, his readers, that vast complexities lie just outside the borders of the reality we perceive, and that regular humans occasionally stumble across those borders. But unlike many authors, who in similar trade leave us with darkness and despair, Powers so often comes back to nobility, courage, and love. His characters are often very much hurt or even damaged by their experiences, but they push ahead.

Medusa's Web, like many of Powers' novels, starts introducing confusing and outre events, characters, and clues almost immediately; but Powers' gift is to make them just intelligible enough to keep you reading, digging, and putting the pieces together, all while upping the stakes. He especially excels at hiding (in plain sight) the resolution of key plot points until late in the novel, where they suddenly look obvious in retrospect. It's one (but just one) of the reasons why Powers' novels are so re-readable; it's only on the 2nd or 3rd time through that you see how neatly everything was laid out before you from the very start.

Highly recommended.
Powers' work is usually intense and interesting, hard to stop reading except to stop and ponder a new idea or revelation. A significant number of his books are among my all-time favorites.

So I was surprised to find myself putting this book down frequently, and eventually unwilling to even pick it up again. He seems to have stepped away from his well-developed skills to make a book with none of the qualities that make him a great author.

The primary characters are opaque and not very sympathetic. The secondary characters are opaque and repulsive. Occasionally we get a third-person interjection that all but yells out "I know you're bored, I promise something interesting is coming later!"

My personal recommendation would be to pick up pretty much anything else he's written - especially Last Call, The Anubis Gates, or Declare - to get a real feel for how great a writer he is. This one is, sadly, not one I'd recommend.