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EUROPE'S MOST VISITED SF/F WEB SITE |
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Drawing Of The Dark by Tim Powers. Fantasy Masterworks # 33 check out website: www.orionbooks.co.uk
He accepts thinking that it is an easy and convenient way out of Venice. He sets off on a trek to Vienna but is immediately beset by problems and strange occurrences.
At its simplest 'The Drawing Of The Dark' is a gripping adventure story - it is fast-paced and packed full of twists and incidents. Usually battle descriptions and details of sword fights leave me cold but Powers' writing sweeps you along and you can't help but enjoy the fight scenes. This power of description also extended to the whole novel so that you feel as comfortable in Medieval Venice as you would reading about a city in the 21st century. It is also a novel that is full of humour but it never descends into mocking either the characters or the genre of fantasy. The humour is used in the same way as adding salt to food for flavour - it is a subtle effect but adds a lot to the plotline. The main hero is a likeable, battle-scarred rogue who has lived long and hard enough to accept that what is happening to him is founded in reality. For the
fantastical elements in 'Drawing Of The Dark' are shadowy and hidden and only
revealed on a need to know basis. It is as if Powers' is holding up a mirror to
our history - but it is a mirror from a fun-fair that distorts reality. And that is the true skill of Tim Powers. By concentrating on subtle changes to our world, Powers creates a world that is more believable and therefore more enjoyable to the reader. He is able to merge historical fact, historical fiction
and fantasy that I, as a non-historical fiction fan, found immensely enjoyable. Katie
McGivern
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OTHER REVIEWS - February 2003
NEW NOVELS The
Dead Sea Scrolls Deception by Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh Buffy
The Vampire: The Cordelia Collection Volume 1 by Nancy Krulik Tourniquet
Heart edited by Christopher C. Teague The
Devil In Green (Book One of The Dark Age) by Mark Chadbourn Angel: The Longest Night by Pierce Askegren Dark
Angel: Before The Dawn by Max Allen Collins Guilty
Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton The
Divine Comedies: Here Comes The Sun & Odds And Ends by Tom Holt The
Drawing Of The Dark by Tim Powers. Fantasy Masterworks # 33 The
Far Enough Window: The Reclaiming Of Fairyland by John Grant and illustrated
by Ron Tiner The
Ruins of Ambrai (Exiles Volume 1) by Melanie Rawn The
Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson (SF Masterworks # 51) HARDBACKS INTO PAPERBACKS Wizard's
Funeral (The Red Pavilions Book Two) by Kim Hunter Wanderers
And Islanders (Legends Of The Land Book One) by Steve Cockayne Effendi (The Second Arabesk) by Jon Courtenay Grimwood
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Brian
Duffy is a mercenary soldier at the time of the Crusades against
Suleiman and the Turks. He is hired by Aurelianus to be the bouncer
at the Zimmerman Inn where the renewed Herwestern beer is brewed.
This
is the start of Duffy's strange adventure where he discovers who
is the true king of the West and the importance of the beer brewed
at Zimmerman Inn.
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