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Medusa's Web
From the award-winning author of Hide Me Among the Graves, Last Call, Declare, and Three Days to Never, a phantasmagoric, thrilling, mind-bending tale of speculative fiction in which one man must uncover occult secrets of 1920s Hollywood to save his family.
In the wake of their Aunt Amity’s suicide, Scott and Madeline Madden are summoned to Caveat, the eerie, decaying mansion in the Hollywood hills in which they were raised. But their decadent and reclusive cousins, the malicious wheelchair-bound Claimayne and his sister, Ariel, do not welcome Scott and Madeline’s return to the childhood home they once shared. While Scott desperately wants to go back to their shabby South-of-Sunset lives, he cannot pry his sister away from this haunted “House of Usher in the Hollywood Hills” that is a conduit for the supernatural.
Decorated by bits salvaged from old hotels and movie sets, Caveat hides a dark family secret that stretches back to the golden days of Rudolph Valentino and the silent film stars. A collection of hypnotic eight-limbed abstract images inked on paper allows the Maddens to briefly fragment and flatten time—to transport themselves into the past and future in visions that are both puzzling and terrifying. Though their cousins know little about these ancient “spiders” which provoke unpredictable temporal dislocations, Ariel and Claimayne have been using for years—an addiction that has brought Claimayne to the brink of selfish destruction.
As Madeline falls more completely under Caveat’s spell, Scott discovers that to protect her, he must use the perilous spiders himself. But will he unravel the mystery of the Madden family’s past and finally free them. . . or be pulled deeper into their deadly web?
In the wake of their Aunt Amity’s suicide, Scott and Madeline Madden are summoned to Caveat, the eerie, decaying mansion in the Hollywood hills in which they were raised. But their decadent and reclusive cousins, the malicious wheelchair-bound Claimayne and his sister, Ariel, do not welcome Scott and Madeline’s return to the childhood home they once shared. While Scott desperately wants to go back to their shabby South-of-Sunset lives, he cannot pry his sister away from this haunted “House of Usher in the Hollywood Hills” that is a conduit for the supernatural.
Decorated by bits salvaged from old hotels and movie sets, Caveat hides a dark family secret that stretches back to the golden days of Rudolph Valentino and the silent film stars. A collection of hypnotic eight-limbed abstract images inked on paper allows the Maddens to briefly fragment and flatten time—to transport themselves into the past and future in visions that are both puzzling and terrifying. Though their cousins know little about these ancient “spiders” which provoke unpredictable temporal dislocations, Ariel and Claimayne have been using for years—an addiction that has brought Claimayne to the brink of selfish destruction.
As Madeline falls more completely under Caveat’s spell, Scott discovers that to protect her, he must use the perilous spiders himself. But will he unravel the mystery of the Madden family’s past and finally free them. . . or be pulled deeper into their deadly web?
368 pages, Hardcover
First published January 19, 2016
134 people are currently reading
2797 people want to read
About the author
Tim Powers
167 books1,747 followersTimothy Thomas Powers is an American science fiction and fantasy author. Powers has won the World Fantasy Award twice for his critically acclaimed novels Last Call and Declare.
Most of Powers's novels are "secret histories": he uses actual, documented historical events featuring famous people, but shows another view of them in which occult or supernatural factors heavily influence the motivations and actions of the characters.
Powers was born in Buffalo, New York, and grew up in California, where his Roman Catholic family moved in 1959.
He studied English Literature at Cal State Fullerton, where he first met James Blaylock and K.W. Jeter, both of whom remained close friends and occasional collaborators; the trio have half-seriously referred to themselves as "steampunks" in contrast to the prevailing cyberpunk genre of the 1980s. Powers and Blaylock invented the poet William Ashbless while they were at Cal State Fullerton.
Another friend Powers first met during this period was noted science fiction writer Philip K. Dick; the character named "David" in Dick's novel VALIS is based on Powers and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Blade Runner) is dedicated to him.
Powers's first major novel was The Drawing of the Dark (1979), but the novel that earned him wide praise was The Anubis Gates, which won the Philip K. Dick Award, and has since been published in many other languages.
Powers also teaches part-time in his role as Writer in Residence for the Orange County High School of the Arts where his friend, Blaylock, is Director of the Creative Writing Department. Powers and his wife, Serena, currently live in Muscoy, California. He has frequently served as a mentor author as part of the Clarion science fiction/fantasy writer's workshop.
He also taught part time at the University of Redlands.
Excerpted from Wikipedia.
Most of Powers's novels are "secret histories": he uses actual, documented historical events featuring famous people, but shows another view of them in which occult or supernatural factors heavily influence the motivations and actions of the characters.
Powers was born in Buffalo, New York, and grew up in California, where his Roman Catholic family moved in 1959.
He studied English Literature at Cal State Fullerton, where he first met James Blaylock and K.W. Jeter, both of whom remained close friends and occasional collaborators; the trio have half-seriously referred to themselves as "steampunks" in contrast to the prevailing cyberpunk genre of the 1980s. Powers and Blaylock invented the poet William Ashbless while they were at Cal State Fullerton.
Another friend Powers first met during this period was noted science fiction writer Philip K. Dick; the character named "David" in Dick's novel VALIS is based on Powers and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Blade Runner) is dedicated to him.
Powers's first major novel was The Drawing of the Dark (1979), but the novel that earned him wide praise was The Anubis Gates, which won the Philip K. Dick Award, and has since been published in many other languages.
Powers also teaches part-time in his role as Writer in Residence for the Orange County High School of the Arts where his friend, Blaylock, is Director of the Creative Writing Department. Powers and his wife, Serena, currently live in Muscoy, California. He has frequently served as a mentor author as part of the Clarion science fiction/fantasy writer's workshop.
He also taught part time at the University of Redlands.
Excerpted from Wikipedia.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 222 reviews
July 11, 2018
wheelbugs and spiders and salome, oh my!
sometimes i think tim powers doesn't love me as much as i love him. or maybe it's just that he looks at my goodreads page and sees i have only read three of his books before this one and he just doesn't understand that it's not always about quantity with me; that i love The Stress of Her Regard SO MUCH that even if i'd only read that one single book by him, it would still be tru luv 4eva.
(not to self - get a better tattoo artist and maybe finally fix that drawer…)
because sometimes i felt that this book was really just out to get me.
allow me to invite you to my inconsistency party:
* one of the things i love about tim powers is how little he cares if you are keeping up, as a reader. he's going to tell the story he wants to tell and if it takes you a hundred pages to realize you are reading the best book you have ever read about byron, well, that's your problem and you'll reread those early pages later when you know exactly what's going on and be better for it.
* i love it when authors like david mitchell or jonathan carroll or books like The String Diaries invent all-new mythologies and introduce the reader to creatures or rituals they will not encounter anywhere else.
AND YET here, i felt like tim powers was mad at me and absolutely did not want me tagging along to where he was going. i have difficulty processing stories about time travel and alt-universes and butterfly effects and all that and this book is conceptually similar to that but also completely different so i was adrift pretty early on. you know how if you read a lousy book about vampires that is poor in its descriptions you can still fall back on hundreds of years of vampire lore to fill in the blanks and at least muddle your way through? well imagine if there were no vampire books ever. and i'm not saying that this is poorly described or not well-written. i'm just saying my brain has always balked at abstractions and this being a whole new kind of abstraction my poor fingies were slipping off the ledge from the get-go.
greg was fortunate enough to get an arc of this through work, and he generously let me read it first because he knows i love tim powers and he thought this was a haunted house story because that's what the back cover wants you to think. but it's not, strictly speaking, a haunted house story. it definitely has elements of gothic horror and there's a big crumbly house and the restless dead, but that's all layered underneath a much less typical version of a haunted house story that owes way more to science fiction than horror. from the back cover ('cuz i'm never going to be able to explain it myself):
A collection of hypnotic eight-limbed abstract images inked on paper allows the Maddens to briefly fragment and flatten time - to transport themselves into the past and future in visions that are both puzzling and terrifying.
puzzling, certainly, to my poor dumb brain.
it is full of sentences like this (and i don't consider this is a spoiler, even though it comes towards the end of the book, because it makes no sense out of context, and it only half makes sense (to me) in context):
Madeline's eyes widened and she nodded. "So when you look at it right now, you'll be the Scott who looks at it later, after you've found out where she is."
He nodded. "Hurry. But don't look at it yourself."
"It doesn't make sense. You'll find out where she is now because you'll eventually know where she was now?"
"Spiders see it all at once, not divvied up into then and now and later. Hurry!"
i'm with madeline in the "it doesn't make sense" camp.
but it does make sense, to people whose brains work that way. there were plenty of times i understood what was going on and got caught up in the momentum and i gleefully thought "i get it! i get it! this is fun!" but then something else would happen to confound me and i would stumble and growl like an angry dog.
on the one hand, this might be the kind of book that is better on the second read. but what if it's not? that would be like not liking kids but having a baby anyway because everyone claims it's different when it's your own and then discovering that's completely untrue and then you've wasted lots of time rereading a book. or birthing a kid. same thing.
so even though i know i didn't enjoy this book as much as i'd been hoping to, there are still plenty of things that even dummies can appreciate. i love how scott, in particular, feels ripped right out of some eighties movie with his long-haired motorcycle heroics and his aol account. okay, so aol is post-eighties, but it's still wonderfully throwbacky since this takes place in 2015, and since i thought i was the only one still using aol, i feel like this is tim powers saying hello to me, and that is very cool. hello from the shortbus, tim powers!
i also loved the synchronicity of my having read this book, featuring rudolph valentino and natacha rambova, the same week that american horror story ALSO featured the pair, and that since this book doesn't come out until january, i am likely the only person that will ever have this image in their head:
while reading about their old-hollywood glamor. (there's a sort-of similar treatment between the two storylines which is kind of neat to have experienced back to back, although i'm not in love with this season apart from the costumes and soundtrack)
also, cool page design, even in the arc:
bonus points for names like genod and claimayne.
and best line award goes to: "She loves you the way a drowning person loves somebody they can push down and climb on top of."
so, while i still love tim powers and i am not covering up my tattoo, this is not my favorite of his books, even though there's enough great scenes that i liked it even when i was drowning.
look away…
come to my blog!
sometimes i think tim powers doesn't love me as much as i love him. or maybe it's just that he looks at my goodreads page and sees i have only read three of his books before this one and he just doesn't understand that it's not always about quantity with me; that i love The Stress of Her Regard SO MUCH that even if i'd only read that one single book by him, it would still be tru luv 4eva.
(not to self - get a better tattoo artist and maybe finally fix that drawer…)
because sometimes i felt that this book was really just out to get me.
allow me to invite you to my inconsistency party:
* one of the things i love about tim powers is how little he cares if you are keeping up, as a reader. he's going to tell the story he wants to tell and if it takes you a hundred pages to realize you are reading the best book you have ever read about byron, well, that's your problem and you'll reread those early pages later when you know exactly what's going on and be better for it.
* i love it when authors like david mitchell or jonathan carroll or books like The String Diaries invent all-new mythologies and introduce the reader to creatures or rituals they will not encounter anywhere else.
AND YET here, i felt like tim powers was mad at me and absolutely did not want me tagging along to where he was going. i have difficulty processing stories about time travel and alt-universes and butterfly effects and all that and this book is conceptually similar to that but also completely different so i was adrift pretty early on. you know how if you read a lousy book about vampires that is poor in its descriptions you can still fall back on hundreds of years of vampire lore to fill in the blanks and at least muddle your way through? well imagine if there were no vampire books ever. and i'm not saying that this is poorly described or not well-written. i'm just saying my brain has always balked at abstractions and this being a whole new kind of abstraction my poor fingies were slipping off the ledge from the get-go.
greg was fortunate enough to get an arc of this through work, and he generously let me read it first because he knows i love tim powers and he thought this was a haunted house story because that's what the back cover wants you to think. but it's not, strictly speaking, a haunted house story. it definitely has elements of gothic horror and there's a big crumbly house and the restless dead, but that's all layered underneath a much less typical version of a haunted house story that owes way more to science fiction than horror. from the back cover ('cuz i'm never going to be able to explain it myself):
A collection of hypnotic eight-limbed abstract images inked on paper allows the Maddens to briefly fragment and flatten time - to transport themselves into the past and future in visions that are both puzzling and terrifying.
puzzling, certainly, to my poor dumb brain.
it is full of sentences like this (and i don't consider this is a spoiler, even though it comes towards the end of the book, because it makes no sense out of context, and it only half makes sense (to me) in context):
Madeline's eyes widened and she nodded. "So when you look at it right now, you'll be the Scott who looks at it later, after you've found out where she is."
He nodded. "Hurry. But don't look at it yourself."
"It doesn't make sense. You'll find out where she is now because you'll eventually know where she was now?"
"Spiders see it all at once, not divvied up into then and now and later. Hurry!"
i'm with madeline in the "it doesn't make sense" camp.
but it does make sense, to people whose brains work that way. there were plenty of times i understood what was going on and got caught up in the momentum and i gleefully thought "i get it! i get it! this is fun!" but then something else would happen to confound me and i would stumble and growl like an angry dog.
on the one hand, this might be the kind of book that is better on the second read. but what if it's not? that would be like not liking kids but having a baby anyway because everyone claims it's different when it's your own and then discovering that's completely untrue and then you've wasted lots of time rereading a book. or birthing a kid. same thing.
so even though i know i didn't enjoy this book as much as i'd been hoping to, there are still plenty of things that even dummies can appreciate. i love how scott, in particular, feels ripped right out of some eighties movie with his long-haired motorcycle heroics and his aol account. okay, so aol is post-eighties, but it's still wonderfully throwbacky since this takes place in 2015, and since i thought i was the only one still using aol, i feel like this is tim powers saying hello to me, and that is very cool. hello from the shortbus, tim powers!
i also loved the synchronicity of my having read this book, featuring rudolph valentino and natacha rambova, the same week that american horror story ALSO featured the pair, and that since this book doesn't come out until january, i am likely the only person that will ever have this image in their head:
while reading about their old-hollywood glamor. (there's a sort-of similar treatment between the two storylines which is kind of neat to have experienced back to back, although i'm not in love with this season apart from the costumes and soundtrack)
also, cool page design, even in the arc:
bonus points for names like genod and claimayne.
and best line award goes to: "She loves you the way a drowning person loves somebody they can push down and climb on top of."
so, while i still love tim powers and i am not covering up my tattoo, this is not my favorite of his books, even though there's enough great scenes that i liked it even when i was drowning.
look away…
come to my blog!
July 5, 2019
Medusa's Web is a mind-bending story about two siblings that have to uncover occult secrets about their family. Secrets that goes back to the 1920's Hollywood.
Scott and Madeline Madden are summoned to Caveat, a spooky crumbling mansion, after their Aunt Amity's suicide. It's been years since they have been back there and the old mansion brings back memories. Their cousins Claimayne and Ariel are living at the mansion and they are not too happy that Amity apparently wrote a new testament one hour before she died that requested that they stay a week at the place and if they do will they inherit the place.
Medusa's Web is not like anything else I have read. Mind-bending is the perfect way to describe the book. Claimayne and Ariel Maddens use eight-limbered abstracted images inked on paper to be able to transport themselves into the past and the future. Scott and Madeline by mistake looked at "a spider" when they were young when they found envelopes with spiders after their parents had disappeared. That has affected them throughout their lives. It's a spider they should never have looked at.
It's hard to explain this book without giving the plot away. I found the book deeply fascinating although sometimes it was also quite mind blowing confusing to read. I especially liked the link to the past to the 1920s and I loved Rudolph Valentino's part in the story. I wish I could write more about it, but I will settle with that it gave the book a bittersweet tone, especially towards the end of the book.
The "spiders" was a bit confusing at first, I didn't read the blurb before I read the book. I just gave it a glance. I don't want the read something that gives the story away. So, it took some time for me to really grasp what was going one. It didn't help that the "body-jumping" sometimes was a bit abstract explained, especially since Scott and Madeline didn't know what they were doing at first, and what the spiders really did. I was intrigued, confounded and absolutely charmed by the book and I will definitely read more from Tim Powers!
Thanks to the publisher that provided me a copy of the book through Edelweiss!
Read this review and others on A Bookaholic Swede
Scott and Madeline Madden are summoned to Caveat, a spooky crumbling mansion, after their Aunt Amity's suicide. It's been years since they have been back there and the old mansion brings back memories. Their cousins Claimayne and Ariel are living at the mansion and they are not too happy that Amity apparently wrote a new testament one hour before she died that requested that they stay a week at the place and if they do will they inherit the place.
Medusa's Web is not like anything else I have read. Mind-bending is the perfect way to describe the book. Claimayne and Ariel Maddens use eight-limbered abstracted images inked on paper to be able to transport themselves into the past and the future. Scott and Madeline by mistake looked at "a spider" when they were young when they found envelopes with spiders after their parents had disappeared. That has affected them throughout their lives. It's a spider they should never have looked at.
It's hard to explain this book without giving the plot away. I found the book deeply fascinating although sometimes it was also quite mind blowing confusing to read. I especially liked the link to the past to the 1920s and I loved Rudolph Valentino's part in the story. I wish I could write more about it, but I will settle with that it gave the book a bittersweet tone, especially towards the end of the book.
The "spiders" was a bit confusing at first, I didn't read the blurb before I read the book. I just gave it a glance. I don't want the read something that gives the story away. So, it took some time for me to really grasp what was going one. It didn't help that the "body-jumping" sometimes was a bit abstract explained, especially since Scott and Madeline didn't know what they were doing at first, and what the spiders really did. I was intrigued, confounded and absolutely charmed by the book and I will definitely read more from Tim Powers!
Thanks to the publisher that provided me a copy of the book through Edelweiss!
Read this review and others on A Bookaholic Swede
January 22, 2016
A new Tim Powers novel is always cause for rejoicing around here, and this one was excellent. When the aunt who raised them commits suicide in a spectacular fashion, Scott and Madeline Madden are summoned back to her mansion to stay for a week until the will (drawn up just before her death) is tested. But the cousins who still live at the mansion, Claimayne and Ariel, don’t want them there, and a secret magic threatens to draw them back into its power. Still, how much can happen in a week?
The magic is complex and creative, mingling aspects of addiction with a form of time travel and alien presences in a way probably only Tim Powers could manage. Each of the four main characters is affected by it differently: Claimayne embraces it, Ariel is trying to get free of it, and Scott and Maddy are trying to benefit from it without being overpowered by it. I loved the complexity of keeping track of when everyone was, particularly Scott’s use of it in the first climax (there are two, which is one of the weaknesses of the book). Powers never fully explains how the “spiders” come to be, though one way of creating them is revealed; the spiders used by Scott and the others are modern interpretations of something older than they can imagine. It enhances the mystical creepiness of them in a way I enjoyed.
Powers is famous for his secret histories, and I’d have to say this is one of the weaker ones in the sense that very few of the historical figures are well-known enough to give the story the oomph something like The Stress of Her Regard has. However, Rudolph Valentino as a character works perfectly as someone I could imagine a modern girl falling in love with across time. The historical segments play out sequentially, doling out just enough information each time to keep me interested without being confused (given that they are all results of time traveling, sometimes with multiple characters). I did love the sense of place the story has, with its setting in and around Hollywood. It feels very immediate, and the description of the mansion (called the Caveat—it has the word carved to one side of the door, and the other side has been destroyed so you don’t know until the very end who’s being warned) left me with a very Miss-Havisham feeling about the whole thing.
Speaking of Miss Havisham, Ariel totally has the same vibe—that unlucky in love, dried-up spinster who maybe doesn’t want to be vibe. All the main characters are well drawn, though some of the secondary characters never rise past surface detail.
It’s the characterization that’s the first of my two reasons for not giving this five stars. For the first half of the book, I didn’t like any of the characters. Claimayne is fundamentally off, but we’re not meant to like him. Ariel is bitchy. Maddy engages in really stupid, unjustifiably stupid behavior. And Scott is a classic Powers hero—plenty of weaknesses, and it takes him time to rise above them. It took a really long time for the good guys to start showing likeable characteristics, and I stuck with it because I was certain they ultimately would. I’m just not sure they should have taken that long.
The second reason is that there are two climaxes, and the second one suffers because of the first. Any time you build up the tension like that, you risk losing that tension when you have to play it out a second time. I thought it was too bad there wasn’t a way for Powers to combine the two.
I’m going to class this one with Three Days to Never as a Tim Powers novel I liked but didn't love. That still makes it excellent as far as I'm concerned.
The magic is complex and creative, mingling aspects of addiction with a form of time travel and alien presences in a way probably only Tim Powers could manage. Each of the four main characters is affected by it differently: Claimayne embraces it, Ariel is trying to get free of it, and Scott and Maddy are trying to benefit from it without being overpowered by it. I loved the complexity of keeping track of when everyone was, particularly Scott’s use of it in the first climax (there are two, which is one of the weaknesses of the book). Powers never fully explains how the “spiders” come to be, though one way of creating them is revealed; the spiders used by Scott and the others are modern interpretations of something older than they can imagine. It enhances the mystical creepiness of them in a way I enjoyed.
Powers is famous for his secret histories, and I’d have to say this is one of the weaker ones in the sense that very few of the historical figures are well-known enough to give the story the oomph something like The Stress of Her Regard has. However, Rudolph Valentino as a character works perfectly as someone I could imagine a modern girl falling in love with across time. The historical segments play out sequentially, doling out just enough information each time to keep me interested without being confused (given that they are all results of time traveling, sometimes with multiple characters). I did love the sense of place the story has, with its setting in and around Hollywood. It feels very immediate, and the description of the mansion (called the Caveat—it has the word carved to one side of the door, and the other side has been destroyed so you don’t know until the very end who’s being warned) left me with a very Miss-Havisham feeling about the whole thing.
Speaking of Miss Havisham, Ariel totally has the same vibe—that unlucky in love, dried-up spinster who maybe doesn’t want to be vibe. All the main characters are well drawn, though some of the secondary characters never rise past surface detail.
It’s the characterization that’s the first of my two reasons for not giving this five stars. For the first half of the book, I didn’t like any of the characters. Claimayne is fundamentally off, but we’re not meant to like him. Ariel is bitchy. Maddy engages in really stupid, unjustifiably stupid behavior. And Scott is a classic Powers hero—plenty of weaknesses, and it takes him time to rise above them. It took a really long time for the good guys to start showing likeable characteristics, and I stuck with it because I was certain they ultimately would. I’m just not sure they should have taken that long.
The second reason is that there are two climaxes, and the second one suffers because of the first. Any time you build up the tension like that, you risk losing that tension when you have to play it out a second time. I thought it was too bad there wasn’t a way for Powers to combine the two.
I’m going to class this one with Three Days to Never as a Tim Powers novel I liked but didn't love. That still makes it excellent as far as I'm concerned.
April 22, 2021
Notes:
Yay for libraries!
I wasn't a fan of the narration. It made the story more cheesy or dramatic at the wrong moments. Regardless, it was a twisty tale with classic Powers' bent of weird. Good fun but a bit dated due to the time of the story taking place.
I enjoy the way Powers' writes about LA within the story.
Yay for libraries!
I wasn't a fan of the narration. It made the story more cheesy or dramatic at the wrong moments. Regardless, it was a twisty tale with classic Powers' bent of weird. Good fun but a bit dated due to the time of the story taking place.
I enjoy the way Powers' writes about LA within the story.
April 29, 2016
A deteriorating, creepy old Hollywood mansion full of secrets. An old Hollywood family reunited due to the matriarch's dramatic suicide. A magical drug-like addiction that allows users to trade or share bodies, for a price. A loser brother and his even more losery sister are dropped into this and must solve the mysteries of their aunt's identity, their parents' disappearance, and a long lost film sought by multiple nefarious parties.
While it did become hard to put down toward the end, Medusa's Web is not Powers' best work.
I liked his odd characters: he pits a doofy brother and doofier sister against their cousins, a smiling near-quadriplegic and a spiteful harridan. No likely heroes here. And his mystical stuff is fascinating in its potential. At least initially.
But the author loses all control of his supernatural elements. It commences well enough...people who look at certain eight-limbed patterns on paper leap into one another's bodies for brief periods, allowing for existence-overlap and a sort-of pseudo-time travel. But Powers starts tacking on other, badly contrived, effects. Most users suffer mounting health problems from looking at "spiders". But some arbitrarily get a vampiric result instead, allowing them to stay young indefinitely. Suddenly possession gets tossed into the mix. And random but narratively convenient spiderless time travel, out of nowhere.
Also, I could have done without the cinematic action-packed climax. Powers should have stuck with the cerebral stuff.
While it did become hard to put down toward the end, Medusa's Web is not Powers' best work.
I liked his odd characters: he pits a doofy brother and doofier sister against their cousins, a smiling near-quadriplegic and a spiteful harridan. No likely heroes here. And his mystical stuff is fascinating in its potential. At least initially.
But the author loses all control of his supernatural elements. It commences well enough...people who look at certain eight-limbed patterns on paper leap into one another's bodies for brief periods, allowing for existence-overlap and a sort-of pseudo-time travel. But Powers starts tacking on other, badly contrived, effects. Most users suffer mounting health problems from looking at "spiders". But some arbitrarily get a vampiric result instead, allowing them to stay young indefinitely. Suddenly possession gets tossed into the mix. And random but narratively convenient spiderless time travel, out of nowhere.
Also, I could have done without the cinematic action-packed climax. Powers should have stuck with the cerebral stuff.
June 25, 2017
Ok so I love Tim Powers. "Last Call" is one of my favorite books ever. Full-stop.
But I was not...as impressed with this outing.
First off there was a lot here I liked. Powers is amazing at weaving (heh heh pun intended) these "secret histories," he's so good at making them feel real. It never seems reductive or ridiculous to run into famous figures in Powers' books. Of course Rudy Valentino was involved in mystical occult practices!! And that gift alone makes Powers' books worth reading.
But the problem with this book is the modern-day characters are just really...lacking. The dialogue is flat and seems more of a way to get the readers up to speed with the plot than actual people talking to one another. It ends up reading like:
"Hey remember when we were kids and we saw this weird thing happen?"
"Yes I do, I wonder how it relates to current weirdness."
"Huh I don't know. Also there's this REALLY BIG PLOT POINT that I'm going to tell you about right now"
"Wow that's an interesting fact, I wonder what is going to happen next?"
It just feels really forced in some ways, and I feel like Powers didn't spend enough time on character motivations; in this book, characters make huge decisions based on certain things but those certain things are just barely mentioned, or mentioned in passing without any real depth given to them. It made the reading really...hard to get through at times because the overarching idea of the novel is really interesting but the way it's played out is just...lacking.
So overall not one of my favorites of Powers' books but definitely worth a read if you enjoy the author.
But I was not...as impressed with this outing.
First off there was a lot here I liked. Powers is amazing at weaving (heh heh pun intended) these "secret histories," he's so good at making them feel real. It never seems reductive or ridiculous to run into famous figures in Powers' books. Of course Rudy Valentino was involved in mystical occult practices!! And that gift alone makes Powers' books worth reading.
But the problem with this book is the modern-day characters are just really...lacking. The dialogue is flat and seems more of a way to get the readers up to speed with the plot than actual people talking to one another. It ends up reading like:
"Hey remember when we were kids and we saw this weird thing happen?"
"Yes I do, I wonder how it relates to current weirdness."
"Huh I don't know. Also there's this REALLY BIG PLOT POINT that I'm going to tell you about right now"
"Wow that's an interesting fact, I wonder what is going to happen next?"
It just feels really forced in some ways, and I feel like Powers didn't spend enough time on character motivations; in this book, characters make huge decisions based on certain things but those certain things are just barely mentioned, or mentioned in passing without any real depth given to them. It made the reading really...hard to get through at times because the overarching idea of the novel is really interesting but the way it's played out is just...lacking.
So overall not one of my favorites of Powers' books but definitely worth a read if you enjoy the author.
March 31, 2016
Another one-sitting read from the great Tim Powers.
I've been a fan since reading THE DRAWING OF THE DARK in 1980, and over the years since he's never failed to astonish and entertain me with his skill and imagination. This is no exception.
Medusa's Web initially sets itself up as a Gothic horror, with its rambling old house and disfunctional- and weird - family members, but Powers quickly spins things off into fractured time streams, plots within plots and a mystery dating back to 1920's Hollywood. A word of warning though - if you're an arachnophobe, it's probably best to avoid this one, as there are spiders here that'll haunt your dreams.
As ever, it's all heady stuff from Powers. There were a couple of places where I felt the complications of the mythos he built, and the amount of exposition needed to keep the plot going, was in danger of bringing the whole thing crashing down - but Powers is a master juggler, and keeps all the balls in the air just long enough to speed us along to the finale.
A very enjoyable way to spend the day.
I've been a fan since reading THE DRAWING OF THE DARK in 1980, and over the years since he's never failed to astonish and entertain me with his skill and imagination. This is no exception.
Medusa's Web initially sets itself up as a Gothic horror, with its rambling old house and disfunctional- and weird - family members, but Powers quickly spins things off into fractured time streams, plots within plots and a mystery dating back to 1920's Hollywood. A word of warning though - if you're an arachnophobe, it's probably best to avoid this one, as there are spiders here that'll haunt your dreams.
As ever, it's all heady stuff from Powers. There were a couple of places where I felt the complications of the mythos he built, and the amount of exposition needed to keep the plot going, was in danger of bringing the whole thing crashing down - but Powers is a master juggler, and keeps all the balls in the air just long enough to speed us along to the finale.
A very enjoyable way to spend the day.
March 30, 2016
REVIEW: MEDUSA' S WEB by Tim Powers
Reading any book by Tim Powers is to enter a universe of possibilities, where dimensions cross and probabilities intertwine. A universe of magic in the broadest scene, where anything within and beyond the range of thought is the universe which Mr. Powers' imagination populates. I first stumbled upon this author years ago when I discovered LAST CALL, and immediately was enrapt. Mr. Powers interweaves classical mythological strands and personages into consensus reality, so that the themes and figures coexist with our contemporary culture, able to impact us.
In MEDUSA' S WEB, the beauty and horror of 1920's Hollywood align and affect 2015 Hollywood, as occult practices known to the Sumerians and Babylonians of antiquity find practitioners in the 1920's, extending into day. MEDUSA' S WEB is fable and fantasy, magical realism at its height.
Reading any book by Tim Powers is to enter a universe of possibilities, where dimensions cross and probabilities intertwine. A universe of magic in the broadest scene, where anything within and beyond the range of thought is the universe which Mr. Powers' imagination populates. I first stumbled upon this author years ago when I discovered LAST CALL, and immediately was enrapt. Mr. Powers interweaves classical mythological strands and personages into consensus reality, so that the themes and figures coexist with our contemporary culture, able to impact us.
In MEDUSA' S WEB, the beauty and horror of 1920's Hollywood align and affect 2015 Hollywood, as occult practices known to the Sumerians and Babylonians of antiquity find practitioners in the 1920's, extending into day. MEDUSA' S WEB is fable and fantasy, magical realism at its height.
February 22, 2018
I'm tempted to say something terribly cliche about Tim Powers being a national treasure, but a writer as audaciously _original_ as Powers does not deserve cliches. His ability to pick up seemingly-random threads of history and make them _make sense_ together, and relevant to the present, is unparalleled. His best books, like _Declare_ and the "Last Call"/Fisher-King trilogy, move the mind, the heart, and the aesthetic sense (whatever that is), equally.
_Medusa's Web_ can stand with these books unashamed.
Principally and at the surface, it is the story of the last four members of the Madden family: Scott and Madeleine; their cousin Claymaine; and their other cousin Ariel. Claymaine is the sole child of Amity Madden, who recently died in a particularly gruesome suicide; he and Ariel have lived all their lives in Amity's house, "Caveat." Her will, made only an hour before her suicide, leaves the house to Scott and Madeleine, which Claymaine and Ariel naturally resent.
But first Scott and Madeleine must spend a week at Caveat, which they both left years ago. Aunt Amity raised them after their parents disappeared, and she often seemed to love them more than Claymaine. But the atmosphere at Caveat was poisonous, and so they each left as soon as they were able.
Now they return, to find the atmosphere more deadly than before. Claymaine and Ariel have become users of "spiders," a way of travelling through time into someone else's body for a few moments. When Scott and Madeleine arrive, Ariel is on a spider trip into her own future, and seems surprisingly friendly towards them; shortly thereafter she becomes quite hostile and is shocked to learn of her future self's behavior.
The story, set in the present, manages to involve characters like William Randolph Hearst, Rudolph Valentino, Alla Nazimova, and many other silent-era film stars and crew. It resolves the mystery of the death of film director Thomas H. Ince on Hearst's boat in 1924, and why the 1933 silent film _Salome_ was Aunt Amity's favorite movie.
There are also mysterious people who want these secrets. Some will kill to get them. Some will do worse things than that.
It's that kind of book.
Calling Powers's books "urban fantasy" does them a severe disservice, because they don't deal with traditional fantasy tropes dumped into a modern setting. They are, perhaps, more in line with the work of Charles Williams, whose novels tended to be centered on an eruption of the supernatural into quotidian English life.
But Powers is less overtly theological in his interests than Williams; and his books wander near the realm of "alternate history" into the much rarer and harder to pull off "secret history."
At this point I must confess to a slight personal relationship with Tim Powers; going on thirty years ago, he was a teacher and I was a student at a week-long workshop. I imagine that he would not, today, know me from Adam, but I have some lasting positive attitudes which may slightly color this review; so take it cum grano salis.
_Medusa's Web_ can stand with these books unashamed.
Principally and at the surface, it is the story of the last four members of the Madden family: Scott and Madeleine; their cousin Claymaine; and their other cousin Ariel. Claymaine is the sole child of Amity Madden, who recently died in a particularly gruesome suicide; he and Ariel have lived all their lives in Amity's house, "Caveat." Her will, made only an hour before her suicide, leaves the house to Scott and Madeleine, which Claymaine and Ariel naturally resent.
But first Scott and Madeleine must spend a week at Caveat, which they both left years ago. Aunt Amity raised them after their parents disappeared, and she often seemed to love them more than Claymaine. But the atmosphere at Caveat was poisonous, and so they each left as soon as they were able.
Now they return, to find the atmosphere more deadly than before. Claymaine and Ariel have become users of "spiders," a way of travelling through time into someone else's body for a few moments. When Scott and Madeleine arrive, Ariel is on a spider trip into her own future, and seems surprisingly friendly towards them; shortly thereafter she becomes quite hostile and is shocked to learn of her future self's behavior.
The story, set in the present, manages to involve characters like William Randolph Hearst, Rudolph Valentino, Alla Nazimova, and many other silent-era film stars and crew. It resolves the mystery of the death of film director Thomas H. Ince on Hearst's boat in 1924, and why the 1933 silent film _Salome_ was Aunt Amity's favorite movie.
There are also mysterious people who want these secrets. Some will kill to get them. Some will do worse things than that.
It's that kind of book.
Calling Powers's books "urban fantasy" does them a severe disservice, because they don't deal with traditional fantasy tropes dumped into a modern setting. They are, perhaps, more in line with the work of Charles Williams, whose novels tended to be centered on an eruption of the supernatural into quotidian English life.
But Powers is less overtly theological in his interests than Williams; and his books wander near the realm of "alternate history" into the much rarer and harder to pull off "secret history."
At this point I must confess to a slight personal relationship with Tim Powers; going on thirty years ago, he was a teacher and I was a student at a week-long workshop. I imagine that he would not, today, know me from Adam, but I have some lasting positive attitudes which may slightly color this review; so take it cum grano salis.
March 22, 2016
Given the option I'd probably rate this at 3.5 stars. I'm a long time Tim Powers fan and I had this on pre-order for months. It delivers some of what we've come to expect in any Tim Powers novel: meticulously researched history re-imaged through a lens of magic. In this case, we have 1920s Hollywood and "spiders": strange geometric shapes which, when looked at, connect the viewer to other times and places, including other people who have looked at the same spider in the past. There are spider addicts, and recovering spider addicts, and a shadowy group trying to get hold of the "big spider" which is a sort of Platonic ideal of spiders which which possibly grant a certain kind of disembodied immortality through the ability to connect with all those who have looked at spiders before.
However, I felt that the writing in this novel was not up to the standard of Powers' best (Declare, Last Call, Expiration Date). What particularly bothered me was an odd sort of proceduralism, where he would take some relatively straightforward activity (Scott starting up his motorcycle, driving around certain neighborhoods in LA, sweeping up a broken dish) and describe it in very procedural detail for no apparent reason. This didn't add to the sense of verisimilitude or tell us anything about the characters through how the actions were done, it mostly just told us that Powers had thought through all the details.
I enjoyed it fairly well, and there were some individual scenes which were brilliantly executed and right up there with Powers at his best, but significant stretches of the book read as if they were a revision short of finished.
However, I felt that the writing in this novel was not up to the standard of Powers' best (Declare, Last Call, Expiration Date). What particularly bothered me was an odd sort of proceduralism, where he would take some relatively straightforward activity (Scott starting up his motorcycle, driving around certain neighborhoods in LA, sweeping up a broken dish) and describe it in very procedural detail for no apparent reason. This didn't add to the sense of verisimilitude or tell us anything about the characters through how the actions were done, it mostly just told us that Powers had thought through all the details.
I enjoyed it fairly well, and there were some individual scenes which were brilliantly executed and right up there with Powers at his best, but significant stretches of the book read as if they were a revision short of finished.
February 12, 2017
If any big city in the United States seems less likely to harbor ghosts than Los Angeles... well, no, that's not true, now that I think about it. So many hopes and dreams, both fulfilled and otherwise...L.A. must be full of ghosts, if such lingering imprints from life exist anywhere.
Tim Powers knows this. He knows Los Angeles intimately, its street corners and alleyways, its histories and moods, the way so much darkness hides beneath its sunny stuccoed exteriors. And in Medusa's Web, Powers recreates a little bit of that old Hollywood magic.
Caveat is a house—a mansion, really, though fallen into disrepair—up in the Hollywood hills, north of Sunset, west of Gower. It was owned, until a week before the novel begins, by the formerly bestselling novelist Amity Madden. Until she climbed up onto the roof of Caveat and blew herself up with a grenade. Amity's will—recently revised—stipulates that her adopted children Scott and Madeline must come to Caveat and stay for at least a week to inherit anything, but (perhaps not all that surprisingly) Ariel and Claimayne, who lived in Caveat alongside Amity for decades, are not eager to see Maddy and Scott arrive.
And then there are the spiders.
This being a Tim Powers novel, there's going to be a lot more to its ghosts than mere ectoplasm. The spiders aren't real arachnids, of course; they are intricate eight-legged representations which, if gazed upon, have the power to unmoor the viewer from time, taking them to past or future. The process is not without costs, but the benefits can be substantial.
Scott and Maddy have little experience with the spiders, apart from one traumatic childhood incident. Ariel and Claimayne, on the other hand...
Medusa's Web is many things. It's a ghost story, a Gothic haunted house tale with many classic trappings. It's a time-travel fantasy with science-fictional underpinnings. It's a love letter to a bygone Los Angeles, and a road map for present-day L.A. It's a piercing look at the way people hold onto their misconceptions, and how much that can cost them and the people around them. It's a complex tale, told straightforwardly.
And, being a Tim Powers novel, it's well worth the read...
Tim Powers knows this. He knows Los Angeles intimately, its street corners and alleyways, its histories and moods, the way so much darkness hides beneath its sunny stuccoed exteriors. And in Medusa's Web, Powers recreates a little bit of that old Hollywood magic.
Caveat is a house—a mansion, really, though fallen into disrepair—up in the Hollywood hills, north of Sunset, west of Gower. It was owned, until a week before the novel begins, by the formerly bestselling novelist Amity Madden. Until she climbed up onto the roof of Caveat and blew herself up with a grenade. Amity's will—recently revised—stipulates that her adopted children Scott and Madeline must come to Caveat and stay for at least a week to inherit anything, but (perhaps not all that surprisingly) Ariel and Claimayne, who lived in Caveat alongside Amity for decades, are not eager to see Maddy and Scott arrive.
And then there are the spiders.
This being a Tim Powers novel, there's going to be a lot more to its ghosts than mere ectoplasm. The spiders aren't real arachnids, of course; they are intricate eight-legged representations which, if gazed upon, have the power to unmoor the viewer from time, taking them to past or future. The process is not without costs, but the benefits can be substantial.
Scott and Maddy have little experience with the spiders, apart from one traumatic childhood incident. Ariel and Claimayne, on the other hand...
Medusa's Web is many things. It's a ghost story, a Gothic haunted house tale with many classic trappings. It's a time-travel fantasy with science-fictional underpinnings. It's a love letter to a bygone Los Angeles, and a road map for present-day L.A. It's a piercing look at the way people hold onto their misconceptions, and how much that can cost them and the people around them. It's a complex tale, told straightforwardly.
And, being a Tim Powers novel, it's well worth the read...
March 2, 2016
A new a Tim Powers book is always a three-part pleasure. The first is initially reading the book. His contemporary novels are like walking through a darkened room filled with half recognized shapes. The room slowly lightens as you move through it faster and faster and then suddenly, you're there in the light.
The second is rereading the book. Now that all is clear, you can see where all the pieces inevitably fit together to make the whole. The third part is rereading the book in a few years when you half remember the book and can recognize the pieces as you reach them. You enjoy the ending as a partial surprise. I'm sad because I've just finished the reread and as usual, it was a wonderful experience.
Brother and sister Scott and Madeline Madden arrive at the house and grounds of their aunt as requested in the aunt's will. Aunt Amity committed suicide a week ago and their presence is required for some reason for them to inherit the house. Living in the house are their cousins Ariel and Claimayne. Ariel has a long held grudge against Scott and Claimayne is just weird in a slightly nasty way. Scott and Madeline are not welcomed and the weirdness starts pretty quickly.
To explain more is to give away information that is revealed as we go and it would take away the enjoyment of having your questions answered by events in the plot. Tim Powers' books always start out with a small group of people and eventually the situation is bigger than the people involved. You don't know where he's going, but once things start coming together and snowballing, it gets hard to put the book down. The characters are interesting and often unusual, but not cartoonish. The dialogue is natural and specific to each character and the descriptions bring you into the story.
Tim Powers is on my two person list of authors I buy in hardback - he is just that good.
The second is rereading the book. Now that all is clear, you can see where all the pieces inevitably fit together to make the whole. The third part is rereading the book in a few years when you half remember the book and can recognize the pieces as you reach them. You enjoy the ending as a partial surprise. I'm sad because I've just finished the reread and as usual, it was a wonderful experience.
Brother and sister Scott and Madeline Madden arrive at the house and grounds of their aunt as requested in the aunt's will. Aunt Amity committed suicide a week ago and their presence is required for some reason for them to inherit the house. Living in the house are their cousins Ariel and Claimayne. Ariel has a long held grudge against Scott and Claimayne is just weird in a slightly nasty way. Scott and Madeline are not welcomed and the weirdness starts pretty quickly.
To explain more is to give away information that is revealed as we go and it would take away the enjoyment of having your questions answered by events in the plot. Tim Powers' books always start out with a small group of people and eventually the situation is bigger than the people involved. You don't know where he's going, but once things start coming together and snowballing, it gets hard to put the book down. The characters are interesting and often unusual, but not cartoonish. The dialogue is natural and specific to each character and the descriptions bring you into the story.
Tim Powers is on my two person list of authors I buy in hardback - he is just that good.
August 10, 2016
You know me, I'm a huge fan of Tim Powers and his books. This one is 4 stars not 5 just because I did struggle with the concept behind the spiders and how they interacted with the here and now and the past lives of the protagonists. I love the characters and wanted to slap Clamayne on several occasions! Tim has a seemingly effortless ability to create unusual situations that are set in the present and the past and in this case also the future - I'm sure he has to work hard at making it seem effortless of course. I was sad it wasn't longer and would happily have read on but I suppose Tim is already working on new ideas (hope) and I look forward to his next outing. Anyone who hasn't read any Tim Powers books should start at the beginning of his career and work up to this one. You don't know what you're missing!
January 28, 2016
It wouldn't be a Tim Powers book without strange entities, time and space anomalies, occult gangs, and both protagonists and villains facing addictions to experiences that are beyond human ken. Medusa's Web has all of these things. But the pacing is more sedate than usual for Powers, and he doesn't take advantage of multiple viewpoints as he did before. For one thing, in this story I didn't feel like the 'bad guy' characters were fleshed out at all, compared to say, Last Call or Expiration Date. Also, the ending felt rushed. Still enjoyable, but Powers has done much, much better.
February 6, 2016
Power's time travel device/rules in Medusa's Web are pretty trippy, and the fact that he merges in a number of real life silent film actors/directors/films into the story arc is a bonus.
It took me a bit to get comfortable with Power's dialogue flow, and like any good time travel story there are confounding elements introduced early on that eventually fit perfectly as all of the strangeness comes together. Sort of.
It took me a bit to get comfortable with Power's dialogue flow, and like any good time travel story there are confounding elements introduced early on that eventually fit perfectly as all of the strangeness comes together. Sort of.
December 1, 2017
This book is on Kindle for $6.49. Powers's books are usually pretty pricy, so if you wanna grab this one, now's the time. I've read worse things. ;)
November 20, 2015
Be prepared to suspense reality for a little while. I had to stop taking myself so serious, step back, and just enjoy a little paranormal drama for a little while.
May 10, 2017
This book is a little confusing. Lots of visions within visions within visions. And at the end of the day, just not interesting enough to make you want to keep going. :(
February 20, 2020
This tale of a brother and sister seeking to retain their inheritance by spending two weeks in their childhood home--a creepy, gothic estate in the Hollywood Hills--has its moments, but quickly falls into a hodgepodge of time travel to the Hollywood of the 1920s, endless chases through the labyrinthian streets of L.A., and a convoluted story of familial betrayal. At its core are 'spiders'--strange, intricate drawings that, when viewed, transport people into drug-like trips and hallucinations, some rooted in the past or future. It's an interesting concept, and there are brief flashes of brilliance here, but it ultimately became too much for me.
January 21, 2016
http://lynns-books.com/2016/01/21/med...
Medusa’s Web is my first Tim Power’s book but given that he seems to have the ability to combine great writing with fantastic imagination I don’t think it will be my last. I really enjoyed Medusa’s Web. It has a wonderfully gothic horror feel to it and the writing style helps to lend it the feeling of an older book which is an aspect that I really enjoyed.
The story gets off to a great start with an almost movie feel to it. Picture this. Two people arrive at a decaying mansion in the Hollywood Hills while the storm clouds gather overhead. Up in the mansion, two cousins watch their approach. Only days ago the head of the family, Aunt Amity, committed suicide in the most unlikely fashion by climbing to the top of the building and detonating a hand grenade. The four are about to spend a week together as part of Amily’s wishes before her last will is revealed. It’s all a little sinister feeling. The house, dressed up in old Hollywood movie props is a strange place, dilapidated, falling apart, doors that lead to nowhere and it seems to be slowly sinking into it’s foundations. It put me in mind of the House of Usher and indeed a number of references were made to that story which I loved.
This is a difficult book to review in terms of giving away spoilers I think. It has such strange and fantastical elements to it that are so unique that I really don’t want to let the cat out of the bag. What I can tell you is that the inhabitants of Caveat have all had different levels of exposure to something referred to here as ‘spiders’. Spiders are abstract images, eight limbed that when viewed cause a sort of temporal dislocation for the viewer who experiences either forward or backward jumps in time where they then experience things through the eyes of somebody else. These are only brief moments of course but some of the experiences can be dangerous and abusing the images can lead to a warped sense of reality as well as a deterioration in health. Indeed the Caveat estate it self appears to have become a place where time has become fractured and images from the past seep into the everyday. The whole concept of the spiders is fascinating and compelling to read about. Based on a strange combination of ancient mythology and the occult the use of spiders is something that has drawn the attention of ‘others’ and not necessarily in a good way!
To the characters. Claimayne and Ariel are cousins, Claimayne was Amity’s son, and the two, having lived their lives under her roof clearly have expectations about her legacy. However, a last minute change seems to have drawn Scott and Madeline back into the picture. Claimayne comes across as the more affable of the two cousins initially, certainly he seems to welcome Scott and Madeline a little more happily into his home than Ariel does who seems to hold a degree of bitterness towards the two. The reasons for that will eventually unfold, in fact the family dynamics make for great reading. Madeline and Scott – well, they don’t seem to have had the happiest existence. They had a nasty experience when they were both younger and this seems to have mentally scarred them, Madeline more than Scott. Madeline comes across as quite fragile and almost breakable and returning to Caveat doesn’t seem to suit her as she seems to be losing control. On top of that their parents disappeared when they were both fairly young which is how they came to be in the care of their aunt. This book also has the inclusion of real historical figures with Rudolph Valentino and Natacha Rambova making surprise appearances.
In terms of the writing I think Powers has a very persuasive style. I had absolutely no idea where the story was going to go to be honest but I was enjoying the writing so much that frankly I was in it for the whole ride anyway. And I’m not too precious to admit that I had a few moments where I wasn’t totally sure that I knew what was going on. In one respect there is a mystery to solve and the writing style, setting and even the characters – not to mention the fairly brief mentions or inclusion of new technology all add up to a story that feels slightly older than it actually is. We also have this surreal jumping back into 1920s Hollywood with all it’s glamour and on top of that there’s a creepy type horror feel that seeps into the story, although let me be clear, I’m not talking blood and guts horror here but something more subtle.
I really liked this. I didn’t know what to expect when I picked it up; I didn’t always understand what was happening, I certainly couldn’t have second guessed the ending and throughout it did have a little bit of a feeling like being led by the nose. Powers has the ability to suck you into this world, no matter how strange, and to make it feel almost plausible! He starts off fairly slowly but then really turns up the tension dial as the stakes change.
I would certainly recommend this, it’s a strange combination of mind bending fantasy, family dynamics and skeletons in closets, men in suits working undercover, time travel, possession, ghostly occurrences and dark and mysterious happenings.
I received a copy courtesy of the publisher through Edelweiss for which my thanks.
Medusa’s Web is my first Tim Power’s book but given that he seems to have the ability to combine great writing with fantastic imagination I don’t think it will be my last. I really enjoyed Medusa’s Web. It has a wonderfully gothic horror feel to it and the writing style helps to lend it the feeling of an older book which is an aspect that I really enjoyed.
The story gets off to a great start with an almost movie feel to it. Picture this. Two people arrive at a decaying mansion in the Hollywood Hills while the storm clouds gather overhead. Up in the mansion, two cousins watch their approach. Only days ago the head of the family, Aunt Amity, committed suicide in the most unlikely fashion by climbing to the top of the building and detonating a hand grenade. The four are about to spend a week together as part of Amily’s wishes before her last will is revealed. It’s all a little sinister feeling. The house, dressed up in old Hollywood movie props is a strange place, dilapidated, falling apart, doors that lead to nowhere and it seems to be slowly sinking into it’s foundations. It put me in mind of the House of Usher and indeed a number of references were made to that story which I loved.
This is a difficult book to review in terms of giving away spoilers I think. It has such strange and fantastical elements to it that are so unique that I really don’t want to let the cat out of the bag. What I can tell you is that the inhabitants of Caveat have all had different levels of exposure to something referred to here as ‘spiders’. Spiders are abstract images, eight limbed that when viewed cause a sort of temporal dislocation for the viewer who experiences either forward or backward jumps in time where they then experience things through the eyes of somebody else. These are only brief moments of course but some of the experiences can be dangerous and abusing the images can lead to a warped sense of reality as well as a deterioration in health. Indeed the Caveat estate it self appears to have become a place where time has become fractured and images from the past seep into the everyday. The whole concept of the spiders is fascinating and compelling to read about. Based on a strange combination of ancient mythology and the occult the use of spiders is something that has drawn the attention of ‘others’ and not necessarily in a good way!
To the characters. Claimayne and Ariel are cousins, Claimayne was Amity’s son, and the two, having lived their lives under her roof clearly have expectations about her legacy. However, a last minute change seems to have drawn Scott and Madeline back into the picture. Claimayne comes across as the more affable of the two cousins initially, certainly he seems to welcome Scott and Madeline a little more happily into his home than Ariel does who seems to hold a degree of bitterness towards the two. The reasons for that will eventually unfold, in fact the family dynamics make for great reading. Madeline and Scott – well, they don’t seem to have had the happiest existence. They had a nasty experience when they were both younger and this seems to have mentally scarred them, Madeline more than Scott. Madeline comes across as quite fragile and almost breakable and returning to Caveat doesn’t seem to suit her as she seems to be losing control. On top of that their parents disappeared when they were both fairly young which is how they came to be in the care of their aunt. This book also has the inclusion of real historical figures with Rudolph Valentino and Natacha Rambova making surprise appearances.
In terms of the writing I think Powers has a very persuasive style. I had absolutely no idea where the story was going to go to be honest but I was enjoying the writing so much that frankly I was in it for the whole ride anyway. And I’m not too precious to admit that I had a few moments where I wasn’t totally sure that I knew what was going on. In one respect there is a mystery to solve and the writing style, setting and even the characters – not to mention the fairly brief mentions or inclusion of new technology all add up to a story that feels slightly older than it actually is. We also have this surreal jumping back into 1920s Hollywood with all it’s glamour and on top of that there’s a creepy type horror feel that seeps into the story, although let me be clear, I’m not talking blood and guts horror here but something more subtle.
I really liked this. I didn’t know what to expect when I picked it up; I didn’t always understand what was happening, I certainly couldn’t have second guessed the ending and throughout it did have a little bit of a feeling like being led by the nose. Powers has the ability to suck you into this world, no matter how strange, and to make it feel almost plausible! He starts off fairly slowly but then really turns up the tension dial as the stakes change.
I would certainly recommend this, it’s a strange combination of mind bending fantasy, family dynamics and skeletons in closets, men in suits working undercover, time travel, possession, ghostly occurrences and dark and mysterious happenings.
I received a copy courtesy of the publisher through Edelweiss for which my thanks.
March 9, 2019
I don't recommend Tim Powers' books anymore (*cough* sorry Kat) but that doesn't mean I don't love and covet them. This book was f**ked up, and I wasn't sure what was going on for large parts of it, but I still loved it. Maybe a three star overall, but I had to throw in an extra star for creativity.
July 12, 2019
Some very interesting ideas and plotting. A little challenging to keep things straight as you follow characters moving forward/backward in time in small glimpses and then returning to themselves in present day.
March 15, 2018
I generally like Tim Powers works a LOT. His worlds are imaginative and inventive in a field that too often falls back into tired tropes. But I found this to be a weak work. The underlying premise was interesting but confusing. The characters were not sympathetic. The ending seemed forced. It might be worth a reread. If I do, I'll probably upgrade my rating.
April 29, 2016
This is one of Powers' best books in quite some time, though even his lesser efforts are at least interesting. He seems to be at his best with books set in the present day, though I can think of at least two exceptions to that rule. In any case, I liked this novel better than his previous one, Hide Me Among the Graves.
Half the fun of a Tim Powers novel is figuring out how the system of magic works. He's very clever at figuring out new ways of accomplishing supernatural occurrences. In this book, we have spiders, not actual spiders, but patterns of lines on paper that seem to have eight "legs" radiating out from the center. Looking directly at a spider swaps one's consciousness with that of anyone who's previously looked at the same one; time is meaningless with regards to spiders, and all gazes happen simultaneously as far as they're concerned. The swaps only last for a short time usually. All spiders derive from a master pattern known as the Medusa, a pattern so strong that it's impossible to break one's gaze without aid, such as viewing it only in a mirror or something.
When Scott and Madeline are summoned back to the family estate in the Hollywood hills following their Aunt Amity's suicide, they agree reluctantly. Estranged from the family for years, they are less than thrilled to reunite with their creepy cousins, Ariel, and the wheelchair-bound Claimayne. It soon becomes clear that more is at stake than their inheritance. Aunt Amity may have a plan for resurrection, and it involves the Medusa, which has been missing for years. Secrets abound, and there are desperate people involved, all seemingly seeking the same thing, though for very different reasons.
The action moves along well. The characters are memorable and believable. The time jumping aspects are well handled. All in all, this is an excellent book, well worth reading.
Half the fun of a Tim Powers novel is figuring out how the system of magic works. He's very clever at figuring out new ways of accomplishing supernatural occurrences. In this book, we have spiders, not actual spiders, but patterns of lines on paper that seem to have eight "legs" radiating out from the center. Looking directly at a spider swaps one's consciousness with that of anyone who's previously looked at the same one; time is meaningless with regards to spiders, and all gazes happen simultaneously as far as they're concerned. The swaps only last for a short time usually. All spiders derive from a master pattern known as the Medusa, a pattern so strong that it's impossible to break one's gaze without aid, such as viewing it only in a mirror or something.
When Scott and Madeline are summoned back to the family estate in the Hollywood hills following their Aunt Amity's suicide, they agree reluctantly. Estranged from the family for years, they are less than thrilled to reunite with their creepy cousins, Ariel, and the wheelchair-bound Claimayne. It soon becomes clear that more is at stake than their inheritance. Aunt Amity may have a plan for resurrection, and it involves the Medusa, which has been missing for years. Secrets abound, and there are desperate people involved, all seemingly seeking the same thing, though for very different reasons.
The action moves along well. The characters are memorable and believable. The time jumping aspects are well handled. All in all, this is an excellent book, well worth reading.
August 6, 2018
For a Tim Powers book, this has a very simple “magic” system. It’s not really magic as described; it’s really dimensional or temporal. But all of the manifestations of magic—ghosts, remote viewing, seeing the past or future—stem from one thing, a mandala-like drawing of a spider.
It’s also one of the best time travel stories I’ve read; for the most part, if not completely, Powers manages to avoid contradicting the narrative despite the characters having a different progression through the narrative than each other or the reader. There were even places in the book where the characterization was enough for the reader to know that someone’s self had shifted, without having to be told by the characters in the book (who may or may not have suspected).
Except that I did not find it quite as enjoyable as Declare or either Last Call or Expiration Date, this would make a great introduction to Tim Powers.
It’s also one of the best time travel stories I’ve read; for the most part, if not completely, Powers manages to avoid contradicting the narrative despite the characters having a different progression through the narrative than each other or the reader. There were even places in the book where the characterization was enough for the reader to know that someone’s self had shifted, without having to be told by the characters in the book (who may or may not have suspected).
Except that I did not find it quite as enjoyable as Declare or either Last Call or Expiration Date, this would make a great introduction to Tim Powers.
January 9, 2016
Tim Powers is the author of numerous novels, including ‘Hide Me Among the Graves,’ ‘Last Call,’ ‘Declare,’ ‘Three Days to Never,’ and ‘On Stranger Tides,’ which inspired the feature film, ‘Pirates of the Caribnbean: On Stranger Tides.’ He has won the Philip K. Dick Memorial Award twice, and the World Fantasy Award three times. He lives in San Bernardino, California. In ‘Medusa’s Web,’ Powers has written a phantasmagoric, thrilling, mind-bending tale of speculative fiction in which one man must uncover occult secrets of 1920s Hollywood to save his family.
In the wake of their Aunt Amity’s suicide, Scott and Madeiline Madden are summoned to Caveat, the eerie, decaying mansion in the Hollywood hills in which they were raised. But their decadent and reclusive cousins, the malicious, wheelchair-bound Claimayne and his sister, Ariel, do not welcome Scott and Madeline’s return to the childhood home they once shared. While Scott desperately wants to go back to their shabby, South-of-Sunset lives, he cannot pry his sister away from this haunted “House of Usher in the Hollywood Hills” that is a conduit for the supernatural. Continued here: http://www.examiner.com/review/medusa...
In the wake of their Aunt Amity’s suicide, Scott and Madeiline Madden are summoned to Caveat, the eerie, decaying mansion in the Hollywood hills in which they were raised. But their decadent and reclusive cousins, the malicious, wheelchair-bound Claimayne and his sister, Ariel, do not welcome Scott and Madeline’s return to the childhood home they once shared. While Scott desperately wants to go back to their shabby, South-of-Sunset lives, he cannot pry his sister away from this haunted “House of Usher in the Hollywood Hills” that is a conduit for the supernatural. Continued here: http://www.examiner.com/review/medusa...
December 3, 2023
Most of Powers' works call for a reread. I think this is one of them. I enjoyed it but I think going back through knowing how the spiders work would be interesting.
And that's something I've noticed with Powers' books. He generally goes full bore and he expects the reader to keep up, like just roll with it, you'll understand as you go. He isn't going to explain how the latest magic critter works.
That's another thing about Powers' that I've enjoyed, his work generally pulls from some magic or folkloric creature but really puts its own spin on it in every book. Like The Stress of Her Regard's vampires are vampires but they ain't Dracula style vampires, Declare's djinn ain't Aladdin's genie, Powers does a good job of showing fantasy and convincing you that this could be hidden in reality. Like it's subtle enough that you can buy it existing but you can also buy this as a solution to the secret history that Powers' posits. He does a good job of using magic creatures you recognize but making them truly alien. Same thing here, the magical creature's ain't the Medusa we all think of, but you can definitely see how the Medusa we think of is different from this Medusa but you can still see the connection.
And that's something I've noticed with Powers' books. He generally goes full bore and he expects the reader to keep up, like just roll with it, you'll understand as you go. He isn't going to explain how the latest magic critter works.
That's another thing about Powers' that I've enjoyed, his work generally pulls from some magic or folkloric creature but really puts its own spin on it in every book. Like The Stress of Her Regard's vampires are vampires but they ain't Dracula style vampires, Declare's djinn ain't Aladdin's genie, Powers does a good job of showing fantasy and convincing you that this could be hidden in reality. Like it's subtle enough that you can buy it existing but you can also buy this as a solution to the secret history that Powers' posits. He does a good job of using magic creatures you recognize but making them truly alien. Same thing here, the magical creature's ain't the Medusa we all think of, but you can definitely see how the Medusa we think of is different from this Medusa but you can still see the connection.
February 15, 2016
I love me some Tim Powers. I'm learning that for my favorite authors I rate their books on a sliding scale with their best as a 5 and everything else in relation to that. Medusa's Web is no Declare, Last Call or Anubis Gates, but not being better than some of the best damn alternate historical fantasy ever is as far from a damning review. This is a really impressive book, clearly a follow up to Three Days to Never and Salvage and Demolition in its time travel in LA aspects but I liked it better than Three Days. The characters are solid, the plot is wonderfully convoluted but plenty of chances for you to learn from the first half of the book to figure things out in the back half, and the Tim Powers signature moment of realizing the characters are about to do something totally insane but that makes perfect sense inside the books well defined reality.
April 8, 2016
Powers newest work is focused on the lives dominated by Aunt Amity, the looming, Usher-esque house of Caveat, and the mysterious "spiders" that give the viewer the ability to jump into other lives, both past and future. Again, Powers rests his story on historical people and events (I wish he'd annotate!), weaving his twisted supernatural thread around everyday events. Medusa's Web wasn't my favorite (that position is filled by Last Call, On Stranger Tides, Declare, and The Anubis Gates), but his writing still pulls me through just the same. His ability to come up with fascinating occult systems and make them seem normal always amazes me. If you're new to Powers, start like I did with The Drawing of the Dark and work your way through his stuff. You won't regret it.
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June 15, 2016"The novels of dark fantasist Tim Powers often flow out of weird, grim moments in real history: the strange encounter of a fox and an English spy; the long lit matches burning in a bloodthirsty pirate’s beard. Powers’s latest book, Medusa’s Web, got its start when Powers encountered one of these disturbing little bits of trivia: Rudolph Valentino received Last Rites twice. Why? To answer that question, Powers spins a tale of family secrets and Hollywood ghosts–and an otherworldly, addictive substance, a kind of weaponized nostalgia."
Read the full review, "Famous Monsters of Filmland," on our website:
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Read the full review, "Famous Monsters of Filmland," on our website:
http://www.theamericanconservative.co...
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