Stranger Tides

Frequently Asked Questions

Got a question which is not addressed here? I'll add more answers if I know them! Just send me an email.

Who is this Tim Powers guy anyway?

Tim Powers sig

Here he is, in the photo by Milestone Portraits from Last Call -->






Anyway, to answer this question, a few clips of critical praise from various sources as quoted in his books: 		Tim Powers pic
"The best fantasy writer to appear in decades."
-Manchester Guardian

"Powers writes action and adventure that Indiana Jones could only dream of. And, just when it threatens to get out of hand, there's a dash of humor and irony that keeps you reading for the joy of it."
-The Washington Post

"Powers has already proved that he is a master of what he terms 'doing card tricks in the dark', referring to the incredible amount of historical, biographical, and practical research that goes into his works."
-Harvard Review

"The fantasy novels of Tim Powers are nothing if not ambitious. Whether writing about zombie pirates of the Caribbean (On Stranger Tides), female vampires preying on Romantic poets (The Stress of Her Regard), or the escapades of a time traveler in 19th-century England (The Anubis Gates), Powers always goes the distance, never taking easy shortcuts that tempt authors with lesser imaginations. Meticulously researched and intellectually adventurous, his novels rarely fail to be strange and wholly original."
-San Francisco Chronicle


Tim Powers was born in Buffalo, New York, on February 29th (leap year day) 1952, but has lived in southern California since the age of seven. He graduated from California State University at Fullerton with a B.A. in English in 1976. The bio text from his books will tell you that Powers and his wife, Serena, live in southern California: in Orange County, in Santa Ana, over a barber shop, or possibly all three.
More recently, however, Powers says in an interview:

"My wife and I moved to an outlying region of San Bernardino called Muscoy, and we love it."

What's your connection with Tim Powers?

None at all, except as a reader and a fan. I noticed that although there was some information available on the web, there was not a site which brought it all together. This site attempts to do that.

My information comes primarily from the books themselves and from various locations on the web. If you have any information which I may have missed and you would like to see added to this site, let me know!

Who is William Ashbless?

Sir Ashbless deserves a page of his own. So please proceed to the William Ashbless page.

What's Powers' connection with other authors?

In the acknowledgement section of his books, Powers thanks a variety of people for friendship, support, and inspiration, several of whom are also sci-fi/fantasy/horror writers.

Powers, Blaylock, Jeter
Powers, Blaylock, and Jeter (pictured here at a book signing November 21st, 1998, at Dangerous Visions bookstore. Photo is courtesy of Dangerous Visions.)


James P. Blaylock

Blaylock is probably the most frequently mentioned colleague, and one who has developed a style that is similar to that of Powers.

While it may be the case that Powers has gotten some of his inspiration from Blaylock's ideas and works, the opposite is almost certainly true. Blaylock himself notes in the dedication section of The Paper Grail :
"And Tim Powers, from whose tin shed full of plots, images and ideas I've always stolen ruthlessly."

I haven't read all of Blaylock's books yet, but the ones I have, I do recommend to fans of Tim Powers:
  • The Digging Leviathan (1984)
  • Homunculus (1986)
  • The Last Coin (1988) This one features Andrew Vanbergen, considered by some to be the quintessential Blaylock protagonist, and it's one of my favorites. The story doesn't so much move forward from beginning to end, but rather putters about in various directions, exploring the involvement of cats, pigs, coins, and Wandering Jews. Meanwhile Vanbergen is ostensibly trying to open a restaurant, but if his motives are unclear to the reader, it's probably because he doesn't have them all that clear himself. Quirky and enjoyable, if somewhat less satisfying, in the end, than a Powers novel.
  • The Paper Grail (1991)
  • Lord Kelvin's Machine (1992)
  • All The Bells On The Earth (1995)
  • The Rainy Season (1999)
The two authors were both involved in the creation of William Ashbless, and also have collaborated on short stories (We Traverse Afar and The Better Boy), and their stories The Way Down The Hill (Powers) and The Pink of Fading Neon (Blaylock) were published together as a single booklet.

While I found The Paper Grail and The Last Coin in particular to be quite Powers-like, more well-read Blaylock devotees are quick to point out the differences, especially in Blaylock's earlier works. "...Blaylock is far more whimsical and absurdist..." is one comment, and I'm glad to defer to more knowledgeable opinions.

Here's a very nice James Blaylock site (the only one I know of) created by Blaylock readers who know much more about him than I do!

Powers has written introductions/afterwords to several of Blaylock's works.

K. W. Jeter

Jeter is mentioned in a couple of Powers' acknowledgements, and also in Edward Bryant's fanciful introduction to The Way Down The Hill. In defending his supposed proposition that Powers is an immortal living among us, Bryant says:
"To hedge against the loneliness of eternity, you'd hang out with others of your kind - odd and distinctive personalities such as James Blaylock, Dean R. Koontz, and K. W. Jeter."

I've read the following by Jeter:
  • Infernal Devices (1987): In a class with several of Blaylock's books, this is a quirky Victorian fantasy where things don't necessarily make a lot of sense - it involves the creation of automata, both human-like and otherwise, as well as a secret race of fish people. Considering all the weirdness, the plot manages to hang together pretty well. The protagonist is from the same mold as a typical Powers hero - naive, unwilling, and nevertheless dragged into exotic adventures; but the whole thing is treated with less seriousness than a Powers story.
    Jeter dedicates it
    "A James Blaylock et Tim Powers , maitres de l'absurdite".
  • The Glass Hammer (1985): After getting the impression that Infernal Devices was not typical of Jeter's material, I figured I should try something else. This is something else indeed - you might not guess that it's by the same author. It's suspensefully written, and I did enjoy it, but it's somewhat dark. In a post-apocalyptic setting, it centers around a supposedly high-risk smuggling activity which is treated as entertainment by the media. Seems a little contrived, and appropriately so, as it turns out. But the real message is about religion - not in a whole lot of depth, but he does a surprisingly good job of inventing and fleshing out a belief system. I believe I read that Jeter considers this one of his best.
  • Noir (1998)
For more info on this author, here's the official Jeter site, and here's a cool and very thorough unofficial one: Introducing K.W. Jeter.

Philip K. Dick

Before his death in 1982, Dick was a sort of a mentor as well as a friend to several of the group of California writers which included Powers, Blaylock, and Jeter.

By Dick, I've read only VALIS and Ubik. Here's a comprehensive PKD site.

A couple of Powers references at the PKD site:

"Around this period (1972), he met K. W. Jeter and Tim Powers at Cal- State in Fullerton; they attended a lecture by a writing professor named John Schwarz."

"In PKD's book Valis, the characters David and Kevin were partially based on his friends Tim Powers and K.W. Jeter."

Powers has written several articles about Dick in The Philip K. Dick Society Newsletter, as well as the intros/forewords to several of Dick's works.

How do I contact Tim Powers?

It's surprisingly easy these days to contact many authors, and Powers is one of these. Just go join the Yahoo discussion group "timpowers", where he is a regular participant, using the name TTPMuscoy. You can write to him privately from there or post a question or comment to the group if you think it would be of general interest to Powers fans.

Are there any plans for movies based on Powers books?

Last Call has been optioned by Freakshow Films, but there have been no updates since the completion of the screenplay in September '00.

Powers has stated recently that Declare has also been optioned.




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