I tore through Tim Powers' latest and final book in the Vickery and Castine series, Stolen Skies.

I loved it when Powers took us back into the universe he first introduced in the 'Fault Line' series in Altered Routes. The second book in the series, Forced Perspectives, was better than the first. — Read the rest

Tim Powers' Forced Perspectives is one of those rare instances where the second book in the series surpasses its excellent predecessor.

This time, instead of facing off against a minotaur and closing an interdimensional gateway powered by souls moving through Los Angeles' freeway system like electrons through a coil, the team is reunited to stop cultists in Topanga Canyon. — Read the rest

I just finished the first novel in Tim Powers' "Vickery and Castine" series, Altered Routes, a tale of unintended mystic events arising from Los Angeles freeway traffic.

Tim Powers is always at the top of the list when folks ask about my favorite authors. — Read the rest

Tim Powers has mastered mingling our present with elements of the fantastic, creating stories so immersive and believable I'm always disappointed when they end. Down and Out in Purgatory is a new, incredible example.

Shasta DiMaio fell for the wrong guy, and it killed her. — Read the rest

Tim Powers is a fantasy writer who spins out tales of wild, mystic conspiracy that are so believable and weird, we're lucky he didn't follow L Ron Hubbard's example and found a religion, or we'd all be worshipping in his cult. Along with James Blaylock and KW Jeter, Powers was one of three young, crazy genre writers who served as Philip K Dick's proteges, and Powers gives us a glimpse of where Dick may have ended up if he'd managed to beat his own worst self-destructive impulses.

In Medusa's Web, fantasy grandmaster Tim Powers presents us with another of his amazing secret histories, this one of Rudolph Valentino. In this guest editorial, Powers -- author of many of Boing Boing's favorite novels, including the World Fantasy Award winning Last Call, Hide Me Among the Graves, and Dinner at Deviant's Palace -- explains the genesis of his latest book, and takes us with him for his field-research.

In The Oversight, Charlie Fletcher introduced us to a secret history of London and the ancient order that defended it from the creatures of the dark. Now, with The Paradox, a sequel, Fletcher plunges the bedraggled heroes of the Oversight into danger that they may not be able to best.

Mitch writes, "I interviewed fantasy novelist Tim Powers about how he writes. We talked about working through story problems, using YouTube as a secret weapon, why he avoids social media, and his obsessively detailed outlines and research notes. 'In order to build a building, you put up so much scaffolding that the scaffolding outweighs the building.'"

Tim Powers' novella, Salvage and Demolition, is a film noir love story showing time travel may not be neat and orderly. I read it in one sitting.

Rare book dealer Richard Blanzac receives a several box from the estate of a failed beat poet, Sophie Greenwald. — Read the rest

Tim Powers' outstanding fantasy novel The Anubis Gates has been adapted for the stage and it will premiere at Loncon 3, this summer's World Science Fiction Convention. I've been excited as hell about having a Worldcon in town, but this is some awfully nice icing on the cake! — Read the rest

I recently re-read Tim Powers' absolutely fantastic, 1985, Dinner at Deviant's Palace, where troubled musician Gregorio Rivas struggles to extract his former love from the clutches of a mad cult in the ruins of post-apocalyptic 22nd century Los Angeles. It is purely fantastic! — Read the rest

Rick Kleffel sez,

Tim Powers is one the founding fathers of steampunk, and a writer whose every book is superb. I drove down to San Bernardino City College to talk to him about his latest work, Hide Me Among the Graves, a secret supernatural history of the Pre-Raphaelite poets and painters.

Tim Powers's latest novel is Hide Me Among the Graves, and it is a fine example of the work of a much-beloved author, and a spooky ride through Victorian London to boot. In Hide Me, Powers retells the lives of pre-Raphaelite sculptor Dante Gabriel Rossetti and his siblings, notably the poet Christina Rossetti. — Read the rest

I just got through re-reading Tim Power's World Fantasy Award-winning 1996 novel Last Call, which is truly one of the triumphs of modern fantasy literature. Powers, one of Philip K Dick's three proteges (the others are James Blaylock and KW Jeter), is a tremendous writer, and his whole catalog deserves your attention, but even against the field of standout Powers novels, Last Call stands out further. — Read the rest

Oh, this is very good news: the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie will be based on Tim Powers's kick-ass, World-Fantasy-Award-winning novel On Stranger Tides, the greatest undead pirate story of all time. Go, Tim! Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. — Read the rest

PS Publishing recently released Secret Histories, a massive, ambitious, 600-page annotated bibliography of the work of Tim Powers: science fiction writer, Philip K Dick protege, and all-round swell fella. They've put a PDF excerpt on the web for free:

We're so proud of Secret Histories that we want everyone to know what it's like.

"Welcome to punk rock literary criticism!" says Philip K. Dick scholar David Gill who is launching a new online course starting January 30 all about the strange, prophetic, and influential author of dozens of essential novels including Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Ubik, and A Scanner Darkly. — Read the rest

Back in the 1980s, the giant German sf publisher Heyne tried out an experimental partnership with a soup company Maggi (they're still around), and it was bonkers.

Here's this year's complete Boing Boing Gift Guide: more than a hundred great ideas for prezzies: technology, toys, books and more. Scroll down and buy things, mutants! Many of the items use Amazon Affiliate links that help us make ends meet at Boing Boing, the world's greatest neurozine. — Read the rest

When we got to rounding up our favorite books for our annual Gift Guide, we found that there were simply too many this time to throw in the Christmas/Kwanzaa/Hanukah/Yule/Solstice/Nonspecific Winter Celebration/New Year/Chalica hopper along with the tech and toys.

It's almost as if 2016 made the traditional way of learning more about our world — and of sharing dreams of other worlds — somehow more enticing. — Read the rest