Declare

ISBN: 0-380-97652-8 Order from: Amazon.com

This intricate novel has a wonderful premise, solid characters and a taut plot, but lacks any delight in the magic and attempts to explain too many events.

Reviewed by David on December 06, 2001

Genre: Fantasy (Cloak & Dagger, Conspiracy Theory)

Synopsis: An intricate combination of a cold-war spy novel, The Arabian Nights, with echoes of Kipling's Kim, this novel cautiously lifts the curtain of a perilous world to show an even more perilous mystery beyond.

Andrew Hale, an Englishman recruited into the Great Game as a child, becomes a player in the murky game of espionage during World War II. Faced with danger and betrayal, he slowly learns of another layer to the struggle, and the true and terrible conflict dominating the Cold War. At stake is a secret weapon—so secret that suspicion of its existence is a cause for assasination. And sometimes madness.

Full Review: Tim Powers is excellent at portraying a reality with a twist. Frequently, an adventure takes a left turn, and shows dangerous and sometimes seductive mystery hiding in the shadows. A mystery that is known to a few, and affecting many.

This book, much like powers' earlier The Stress of Her Regard, uses hints and glimpses to portray the fantastic and dangerous incarnartions of some of our common legends. And their influence on the course of history.

The writing is skilled, subtle and involving, and the character of Andrew Hale, his fear, courage, love and maturation pulls the reader's attention from the start and holds it firmly throughout the book.

Unfortunately, despite its excellence, the book has several frustrating flaws. One of them is trying to tackle too much. Explaining some of the mysteries and legends through a preternatural element is good, but trying to explain so many of them creates a feeling of a conspiracy theory and reduces plausibility. Another is the almost complete lack of delight in the magic. In that the fantastic is solely to be feared and combatted, this fantasy exhibits characteristics of Horror, a genre I enjoy less.

Finally, despite the obvious sense of erudition, some of the elements were consistently wrong, and thus jarred the suspension of disbelief.

While admiring the craft of this work, and enjoying the main character, I have to say that this book is only mildly satisfying due to its grim treatment of the fantastic and its excessive sense of conspiracy.

Overall: 6; Plot: 6.5; Characters: 7; Style: 6.5; World-building: 6; Originality: 7.5;

ISBN: 0-380-97652-8 Order from: Amazon.com