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Loading... Declareby Tim Powers
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.  lewispike | Oct 26, 2009 |  Odd, like all Powers' books. A spy story, with genies (djinn). As a concept, that didn't work very well for me, not nearly as well as his Romantic poets with vampires, or the gangsters, poker and fisher king cross.While I was reading I had that song The Freshmen, by Verve something, running in my head. I think because I heard it just before I began the book, and that line about "his face was stiff with tears" somehow seemed to fit into the song, right meter and everything.The British intelligence service was rather nasty. Killing Cassagnac! Good thing the Russians were so much worse. . . (  ) krisiti | Jul 1, 2009 | Winner of World Fantasy Award; a perfect blend of espionage novel, historical fiction, and dark fantasy, this book tells the tale of three spies involvement over 60 years in trying to tame and/or destroy creatures known variously as djinn and fallen angels. Heavy detail on British and Soviet military operations and espionage activities from 1920-1964. Explicit violence, language, sexual situations (non-explicit), and heavy drinking. chosler | Jan 13, 2009 | I am an enormous fan of Tim Powers, so understand that when I say this is not my favorite work of his, I still recommend it whole-heartedly. Declare has a heavier feeling that most of Powers' other books, and at times can get a little bogged down. However, as other reviewers have noted, it is a curiously haunting book, staying with you long after you put it down, and popping up in your mind when you least expect it. The story is not straightforward, jumping around a bit chronologically, and thus it improves on the second and third readings when you are better able to integrate the full storyline. One of the beautiful things that Powers does is infuse the everyday world with systems of magic that are so consistently and richly developed that they seem like they are truth viewed from a different angle. This book is no exception as he explores a secret or alternate history of the Cold War in which Mount Ararat, the ark, and djinn are bigger factors in the struggle of nations than nuclear arms. (  )1  tanenbaum | Jan 12, 2009 | Slow, slow going. But eventually I was so drawn in that I was invested in what happened next. I read the first half in 2 months and the last half in a week. (  ) ansate | Jul 14, 2008 |  no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0380798360, Mass Market Paperback)This supernatural suspense thriller crosses several genres--espionage, geopolitics, religion, fantasy. But like the chicken crossing the road, it takes quite a while to get to the other side. En route, Tim Powers covers a lot of territory: Turkey, Armenia, the Saudi Arabian desert, Beirut, London, Paris, Berlin, and Moscow. Andrew Hale, an Oxford lecturer who first entered Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service as an 18-year-old schoolboy, is called back to finish a job that culminated in a deadly mission on Mount Ararat after the end of World War II. Now it's 1963, and cold war politics are behind the decision to activate Hale for another attempt to complete Operation Declare and bring down the Communist government before Moscow can harness the powerful, other-worldly forces concentrated on the summit of the mountain, supposed site of the landing of Noah's ark. James Theodora is the über-spymaster whose internecine rivalry with other branches of the Secret Intelligence Service traps Hale between a rock and a hard place, literally and figuratively. There's plenty of mountain and desert survival stuff here, a plethora of geopolitical and theological history, and a big serving of A Thousand and One Nights, which is Hale's guide to the meteorites, drogue stones, and amonon plant, which figure in this complicated tale. There's a love story, too, and a bizarre twist on the Kim Philby legend that posits both Philby and Hale as the only humans who can tame the powers of the djinns who populate Mount Ararat.This is an easy book to get lost in, and Powers's many fans will have a field day with it. The rest of us may have a harder time. --Jane Adams (retrieved from Amazon Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:11:53 -0500) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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Wikipedia in English (1)
Apparently Powers started research Kim Philby, who had an interesting enough life (he was a double agent for the NKVD/KGB working inside the British Security Services (SIS and MI6)). There are, apparently, strange inconsistencies and odd behaviour (I'm sure there would be in anyone's life, particularly if he's a double agent). Powers, however, creates a world of djinn, magic and old ones that quite neatly fit into the gaps in a worryingly coherent fashion.
The result? Secret agencies working to recruit, control, or kill djinn, angels and the like, within their own national spy agencies. And if you like the Lovecraftian side of things, you'll love the way it all fits together.
The historical details are all correct - he challenged himself not to change them and STILL produce the book - but it doesn't feel forced at any point although it does jump around in time more than a little, which takes a bit of getting used to.
All in all an excellent read. (