Strange Itineraries

I don't know why I was surprised to find Tim Power's stories so full of ghosts. Time travel loops, yeah, the odd immortal, lots of Catholicism, sure, but so many ghosts, after a Christmas full of listening to MR James stories it caught me on the hop. They're great, though, weird, ingenious, chilling and unpredictable, and I'm really coming to apreciate his use of California as a setting, a place I've always found drab and opressively over-lit in appearance whenever it turns up on TV and films, which it does a lot, like an open plan office without a roof - well suited to noir, oddly enough when used well, and now for ghost stories like these. Very enjoyable. Barged through them at high speed, but still thinking about them.

Tales that are always oblique to the reality we experience but which have much to say to the ghosts we carry and to our inability to live in the now. Powers characters may interact with literal ghosts or experience non-sequential time more directly than we do, but there is something dead accurate that they tell us.

Strange Itineraries is a collection of Powers' published short stories, and as such it is extremely representative of his longer work. It is brilliant, enchanting, yet sometimes inconsistent and full of itself. The first several stories, Itinerary, The Way Down the Hill, and Pat Moore, are remarkably creative stories that would get 5-star ratings if viewed alone. The rest, including those co-authored with Blaylock, seem to be attempts at something that don't quite work. Powers excells at putting people in the modern world in fantastic situations where ghosts or other apparitions appear, and watching how they deal with this new reality. Sometimes it works, and the story becomes a successful morality tale or a meditation on the ties among show more people. Sometimes it doesn't, and everything gets tangled up in the what-if part of the story.

Also notable are the ongoing themes Powers uses in his work. The desert Southwest and its dry emptiness, the importance of family (sisters and brothers here, parents in some of his novels), and interactions with strangers all play prominent roles in this collection. His ability to evoke a setting and create a familial relationship in just a few sentences is extremely compelling, and this best of his work does this gracefully and enchantingly. show less

I don't like short stories much... every good short story I've read makes me want to know more than there's space for in the format, every bad one makes me wonder if it could be good with more space.

Tim Powers never produces bad fiction, so I'm left with 9 excellent short stories, all of which I'd love to read as full novels.

If you're new to Tim Powers, you might be surprised, if you're an old hand, you'll be delighted at what goes on, they're all vintage Powers.

I started reading stories from this when I lost my book for a couple days. Decided to finish it but unfortunately it was a waste of time. Many of the stories just don't make any sense or have any kind of conclusion.

We Traverse Afar (with James P. Blaylock) - This was rather dark and not much really happened. About a widower, hanging out hating life. I guess there's supposed to be some hope in the last line but it didn't do much for me. (4.5)

The Better Boy (with James P. Blaylock) - Kind of absurd, southern, sci-fi ala -The Astronaut Farmer-. Not sure I completely understood the concept of th ether bunnies but it was kinda fun and there was a very touching moment near the end. (6.5)

Through and through - A priest has to decide whether he show more can peform rights to absolve a ghost of her sins. Never said what her actual sin was. No "punchline". (3.5)

The Way Down the Hill - Cool setup but very confusing because characters had their gender and then the gender of their body was often different. (6.5)

Night Moves - Very cool setup, interesting characters, but not real explanation. Quirky/distracting metaphors. (5.5)

Itinerary - Strange, not sure exactly what it was about, but seemed to be someone who was nuts telling a story, so it didn't really make sense (5.0)

Pat Moore - Gave up after about 10 pages. (1.0)

Where They Are Hid - Another I should have given up on. I hate time travel (1.0)

Fifty Cents - Might have been good if there was any kind of explanation, instead it was just a bunch of nonsense (1.0) show less

Had already read these stories in Down and Out in Purgatory. If you, like me, did not know that book contains this book within it — now you do.