Medusa's Web - Tim Powers

I managed to read a book! It felt great just to get from cover to cover, and luckily, Medusa's Web is also a really fun read.

As far as Tim Powers' work goes, I wouldn't say this is the book to start with if you want to get familiar with his wonderfully twisted imagination. I started with Three Days to Never, which obviously got me hooked, and the subsequent Hide Me Among the Graves was just as good. Start with one of those, then hit Medusa's Web and Last Call. (Dad also loves Declare, but I have yet to get my hands on a copy of that one!)

The only reason I don't recommend this one to start is because the beginning is incredibly confusing. The characters travel through time and space by looking at images called "spiders," which are abstract doodles with eight legs, as it were, radiating out. Once a person sees a spider, they fall into nothingness for a moment, then they "wake up" into two dimensions and have to find their way into the third. I don't know if it was the fact that my mind is often in ten places at once, or if it was the extreme lack of sleep, or what, but it took me a couple of chapters to fully grasp what the hell was going on. Given how it feels for the characters, I can't decide if that disorienting introduction for the reader is off-putting or a stroke of genius. As soon as you get the hang of it, though, the plot is gripping, full of peril, and comes to a satisfying conclusion.

A small, stupid aside: this story is set in Hollywood, and there's a fair bit of "turn left on this street, turn right and head toward Y street," etc. It reminded me a little too much of SNL's Californians sketch and made me giggle like crazy. Yep, I'm that mature.

Next up: Justin Cronin's trilogy-concluding The City of Mirrors. I definitely recommend The Passage and The Twelve, and given it's debut spot at #1 on the NY Times bestseller list, I think I'll love this one just as much.

Upcoming Treasures

How are we all doing? Recovered from the holiday madness? I, for one, had forgotten what a real Monday felt like, but my memory has been cruelly jogged...

Many, many things are happening here in the near future, and I'm looking forward to almost all of it! I'm not sure I'm sold on the impending lack of sleep, but I'm told that comes hand-in-hand with the baby snuggles I will definitely appreciate. Besides the looming due date, my excitement continues to build for the new Last Shadow Puppets album (they've released two goofy, uninformative trailers here and here), and there are also two books I'm really looking forward to reading as soon as they drop:

Medusa's Web - Tim Powers

This one is coming soon, expected out January 19! Tim Powers is a very weird, very inventive author. If you're not familiar with his work, I'd highly recommend either Three Days to Never or Hide Me Among the Graves. (I've heard Declare is also amazing, but I haven't had a chance to read that one yet.) With any of his books, you accept from page 1 that this isn't real life, and then you settle in and enjoy the ride. There are ghosts, monsters, and magic in abundance. His 1992 novel, Last Call, reminded me of a hyper-violent, Vegas-centric version of Neil Gaiman's American Gods, if that provides any useful frame of reference for you. I've loved reading about the supernatural since I was a very young oddball, and Tim Powers' work feels like the grown-up version of all the ghost stories I used to gobble up like candy each time my parents took me to the library. Needless to say, I'm going to put my name on the library's wait list for this one as soon as I finish this blog post.

The City of Mirrors - Justin Cronin

Also a master of the fantasy novel, Justin Cronin's third book of The Passage trilogy is due out this May. If you don't mind a little (okay, a full ton) of gore, this trilogy is epic. The books are huge, and the characters are widely varied and compelling. The villains are....sort of vampires, definitely genetic experiments gone horribly wrong. Take it as a cautionary tale of why the government should probably not try and manipulate human DNA to create perfect, nearly indestructible weapons. The risks outweigh the rewards.