Cover Text:

"Young Koot Parganas is growing up in Los Angeles in the 1990s, but his parents won't let him do anything normal. His weirdo parents venerate the spirits of dead Mahatmas. At the age of eleven, Koot has disobeyed his parents, broken into a plaster cast of Dante, stolen the small glass vial concealed inside it, and set in motion events that will change his own life, and everyone else's.
For trapped in the vial was the preserved ghost of Thomas Alva Edison, and And there is no telling what power the possession of that ghost could confer. The exposure of Edison's ghost lights up a beacon for those who can see such things.
Koot is pursued through the dark underside of the city, aided by allies as strange as his enemies: a bum and his dog; a man concealed by the ghostly mask of Houdini; a psychiatrist-sorceress; and a former television child-star who has been dead for several years, but is not yet ready to leave his body or abandon his revenge on the woman who murdered his godfather."

Published by:

Harper Collins, London, 1995
Tor Books, New York, 1996
Tor Books, New York, 1997 (paperback)

Opinion:

A ghost story, you can call this one - but as you might expect, Powers has his own unique concept of ghosts. Of particular interest here is the ghost of Thomas Edison, who is sort of a co-protagonist... in fact, this book introduces a fascinating ensemble cast of characters: Edison soon shares a body with a young boy, Koot Parganas, who, in turn, shares the typical Powers protagonist role with electrician Pete Sullivan.

Turns out that Los Angeles is filled with ghosts of various forms, as well as a variety of ghost-sensitive people who have various motivations for interacting with them. There is a historical aspect, in that the lives of Edison and of Sullivan's father come to light through the adventures of those who feel the presence of their ghosts loose in the world of the living.

I have to admit that a couple of things bother me about this book...
First, the thoroughly modern setting - my preference is for Powers' excellent historical fiction. And second, the central ghost theme. Not that it isn't well done, I guess I just like a supernatural background with a slightly different flavor.

Bottom line: Not my favorite, but certainly up to Powers' standards of great writing and original ideas.

- ccb 4/17/99

Awards

Hugo Award Nominee 1996
Locus Poll Award (Horror/Dark Fantasy - #1) 1996
Nebula Award 1996
World Fantasy Award 1996

Reviews

• A page of reviews by Allan Toombs
• Albedo review
• Jade Mountain review
• Review by Steven H. Silver
• Amazon.com reader reviews