Dinner at Deviant's Palace [Paperback]

Tim Powers (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

First published in 1985, this legendary and still distinctive novel may attract new fans, although the postnuclear-war theme has become somewhat dated. Technology has vanished in a barbaric, 22nd-century California run by a Sidney Greenstreet lookalike messiah, Norton Jaybush, who boasts a fancifully colossal "night club of the damned" in Venice and his own Holy City in Irvine. His young hippie followers, aka "Jaybirds," drift in a hallucinatory Philip K. Dick-style dream, while "redeemers" strive to rescue them. The serviceable plot focuses largely on the efforts of the hero, Gregorio Rivas, a musician and former redeemer who lives in "Ellay," to bring back a runaway. The film Mad Max (1980) seems to have inspired many of the images in this rundown world, such as "an old but painstakingly polished Chevrolet body mounted on a flat wooden wagon drawn by two horses." Powers has a nice knack for puns, e.g., a "hemogoblin," a balloonlike monster who sucks blood from its victims, and "fifths," paper money issued by a "Distiller of the Treasury." The antireligious tone of the book, not uncommon in science fiction of the era, is a refreshing change from much of today's blatantly proselytizing SF (see feature, "Other Worlds, Suffused with Religion," Apr. 16). At times Powers's heavy prose style can be trying, but his engaging conceptions will keep most readers turning the pages.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Ace (July 15, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0441148786
• ISBN-13: 978-0441148783
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,164,223 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Character development is not a weak spot., September 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Dinner at Deviant's Palace (Paperback)

I have to disagree with the previous reviewer regarding Gregorio Rivas as a weak spot in the book. While on this "quest" for his long lost love, Rivas actually changes and grows as a character. Here we have someone who is affected by his enounters instead of just a fellow meeting external obstacles. Rivas doesn't have mood swings. He confronts himself as he revisits people and places from his past. He gradually goes from being a rather arrogant egotistical jerk to an empathatic decent human being trying to do the right thing instead of a one dimensional idiot bent on just earning his "brandy." Here Powers has created a man capable of learning some things as the story progresses. How many contemporary authors of any genre can pull that off without making readers snicker and say, "Yeah, right."

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fantasy set against a post-apocalyptic landscape, August 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Dinner at Deviant's Palace (Paperback)

This is the first Tim Powers book I've read, and though I can't compare it to the rest of his work, it seems that he is more inclined to writing fantasy than science fiction. Yes, the setting is L.A. after some (unmentioned) armaggedon, and, without revealing too much, there are alien beings here, but the treatment is closer to a sword-and-sorcery tale... with swords exchanged for slingshots and guns, and religious mysticism for sorcery. And then, there are Powers' grotesques, like the hemogoblins and those weird trash men within the Holy City, that don't seem scifi at all.

So: the tale IS about a man, Greg Rivas, bent on rescuing an old flame from the clutches of a religious cult, and the subsequent confrontation with the entity behind it. It IS NOT about this post-apocalyptic world the action is set in.

In my opinion, the one weak point of the novel is character development: Greg goes through several mood swings that don't mesh together well. But the plotting is strong, giving an envolving tale.

To those willing to taste this fanciful dinner, enjoy.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books of the genre, November 20, 1997

By 

[e-mail] (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dinner at Deviant's Palace (Paperback)

Very few books deserve a ten. This is one. It amazes me that this book is not a classic of modern science fiction/fantasy. Dark, mysterious, almost pre-cyberpunk. Powers does an amazing job of setting up a post-nuclear war devastated L.A., populating it with well thought out characters. Drop in drugs, violence, religious fanatics, and psychic beings and you have an amazing read. Anyone who has played the classic computer role playing game "Wasteland" will feel right at home.