Customer Reviews

Expiration Date

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I love Tim Powers but I was initially hesitant about this book, mostly because of its length and the fact that I had heard several mixed reviews about it, generally a new Tim Powers book is a cause for celebration of his writing genius. This time folks seemed unsure. I can see why, this is his longest book by this point as far as I know (Earthquake Weather, the sequel, might be longer, I can't remember, not having it) and I think his typical ultracomplicated plotting can wear thin over the course of five hundred pages when maybe four hundred isn't so bad. But with a premise like this I just couldn't resist: Los Angeles in the present day (1995) is home to ghosts and ghost hunters and people addicted to ghosts and basically the plot centers around a boy who has accidentally inhaled the last breath of Thomas Edison and now everyone is looking for him because Edison was such a powerful figure in life that his ghost hasn't diminished a bit. The twists and turns of the plot are left for the reader to discover but rest assured this is a book that commands patience. For those who like instant thrills, there are those here, Powers still has his ability with words and he strings along a bunch of cool moments together enough time to make this into a near page turner. But it's not totally addictive as his other books are, you finish it because you want to know what's going to happen and he has you really interested but it's not "bring your flashlight under the pillow to read it after bedtime" material. Indeed, this is probably not for the Tim Powers novice, those would probably be better off cutting their teeth on the Anubis Gates or Last Call (both highly recommended) but when they're done with those and want more they should come here for more of his utterly unique take on fantasy. No elves and forests here, this is urban fantasy.

I expected to be stunned by Expiration Date, much as I was by Powers' previous novel, Last Call. Oh, sure, I knew it would take me a little while to get into it, to warm up to the characters, to comprehend the kinds of plot twists and turns that functioned so perfectly in Last Call. When I read Last Call, Powers' tour de force spanning tarot cards, Las Vegas and the Fisher King, I felt like I'd lived with its characters, and I understood their motivations and actions.

I was stunned all right, but not in a good way. Expiration Date left me cold. Instead of relying on a mythology with a deep and complex foundation, as Last Call does, Expiration Date makes use of what amounts to an old wives' tale--the idea that people can eat the ghosts of others to rejuvenate themselves. Powers' technical expertise and thorough research helps to make up for this flimsy premise. In the end, though, I realized I just didn't buy what he was selling.

This may have as much to do with the way Powers portrays the characters in Expiration Date as with the unwieldy situations in which he places them. I found the characterizations flat and slippery, much like the giant dead fish that washes up on Venice Beach towards the middle of the novel. The novel's young hero, Kootie, reads like the kind of Generic Kid character that I expect to see in a Michael Crichton novel. Then there's the inexplicable romance that occurs between the two adult protagonists. The basis for their relationship seems to be a shared ability to detect the presence of ghosts, which is not something that bespeaks true love to me.

Perhaps most disappointing is the way Powers develops the ghost of Thomas Edison, who inhabits Kootie's mind for about two-thirds of the story. To me, it's sad that the book's only "real" character displays few of the quirks and contradictions that Edison himself must have had.

I tried really hard to enjoy this book. It's rare that reading turns into a task for me, but Expiration Date was a chore that I just wasn't up to

As soon as I saw the cover, I knew Expiration Date was going to be a thrill. And, I was right! The story about a boy who swallows the ghost of Thomas Edison and as a result is being hunted down the streets of Los Angeles did not let go of me, even after I had finished reading. What's more, despite the absurdness of the whole story, it struck me as very realistic. Having taken the bus in LA for a year and recognizing much of the surroundings, this book was a trip through a different layer of a city I thought I knew. Thumbs up, I can't wait to read more by Tim Powers!

Powers is hard to classify. He writes fantasy, but there sure aren't any trolls or hobbits or wizards here. His fantasy is a brilliant pastiche of the mystical detritus of several civilizations funnelled into the late twentieth century and then polished to a rare sheen by a fine, fine mind. He knows his stuff, and the more knowledge of Edison and Houdini and mysticism and spiritism you bring to him, the better you'll like this-- Powers gets it all right, and makes an entertaining story something more. This one's a bit more convoluted than Last Call, but just as rewarding. Along with its predecessor and sequel (Last Call and Earthquake Weather), this creation stands as a milestone of late 20th century fantasy, and should be enjoyed by all imaginative readers.

There are two cities in the world where it's easy to believe that almost anything might happen. One is London, and Neil Gaiman and China Mieville can tell you all about what happens there. The other is Los Angeles (with Las Vegas, perhaps, as a distant psychic suburb), and Tim Powers (who lives in Orange County) is its resident expert. To anyone who knows the City of Angels, it doesn't seem that farfetched to be told that most of its wandering street people are actually solidified ghosts, too crazed to know they're dead. And there are ghost-sensitives, like Pete Sullivan, twin of the late Sukie, son of A.P. (now a ghost himself, in the ocean off Venice Beach), and itinerant electrician who is finally returning to L.A. after having fled the place six Halloweens before. And like Dr. Elizabeth Elizalde, whose therapeutic séances got out of hand and caused one of her patients to explode, but who has access to the vast ghost-related folklore of the Hispanic community. And like a number of local connoisseurs who capture and "eat" ghosts by inhaling them, including Loretta deLarava, for whom the Sullivan twins used to work as stage hands and ghost-bait. Harry Houdini, it turns out, was a prominent sensitive who knew how to protect himself and managed not to be captured when he died -- unlike Thomas Edison, whose last breath was bottled by his friend, Henry Ford, and who therefore never dissipated. Edison is key to the story, in fact, when he becomes, . . . let us say, closely associated with eleven-year-old Kootie Parganas, who witnesses the torture-murder of his parents after he steals the old inventor's ghost and subsequently goes on the run. Edison is the great prize of the season, and Kootie's got him, and everyone wants him -- and they don't care how they get him. Powers likes start his stories in media res and drop the reader right in the middle of things -- in this case, with Kootie trying to stay alive while he figures things out -- which means you'll be a little confused at first. Not unlike the story's protagonists, usually. The players lifelines will crisscross as they move about the city, which serves as the canvas for Powers's sprawling work. There's a lot of history in Los Angeles and the author makes the most of it. And you can believe most of it, because even when he makes things up it's difficult to see where the line between fact and fiction is. All the stories Edison tells Kootie are (mostly) true, too; Powers, in fact, makes a point of never actually rewriting history -- only adding to it. It's also common to come away from a Tim Powers novel feeling a bit paranoid, checking over your shoulder for unusual persons who might be showing an interest, and being aware of odd sounds in the night. Especially burping pigs.

I've been a fan of Tim Powers' work for several years now, and I think it could be argued that EXPIRATION DATE and LAST CALL are his two best works. (EARTHQUAKE WEATHER completes the trilogy, but I don't think it would fly as a stand-alone work, if I may mix metaphors.) Powers' work is, as other readers have noted, very dense - if you try to skim it, you'll just get lost. But careful reading can bring great rewards. Try this book for a vision of a California you never thought of before -- a place of desperation and dark ghosts. Two thumbs up!

I'm a huge Tim Powers fan, but I had a heck of a time getting through this book; sheer endurance kept me going until, over halfway through the book, things finally started coming together. I enjoyed it, but this is emphatically NOT light reading.

This book is a beautiful exploration of the fantastic that, while not as good as the classic Anubis Gates or the masterful Last Call, isn't far behind them. The phenomenon of 'Bar Time' alone is a fascinating detail (one of literally _hundreds_ that dot this story) and one that brings to mind recent physics experiments in 'synchronicity' that used photons to demonstrate connections across vast space.

Powers goes one better; he demonstrates connections across the gulf of death. From the exodus of Edison/Kootie across a nightmarish LA to the arrangment of tv antennas and electrical wiring to allow a dead man to maintain his hold on his body undisturbed by those that would literally 'consume' him, to the cost of ghost-eating as a habit, this book flinches very rarely. Powers is one of the best.

To quote Dorothy Parker, "this is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly, it should be thrown with great force." About a third of the way through this one it got assigned to the used book store stack. Sure, the plot was convoluted, but I expected that from Powers. My problem with this book was the lack of reward in reading it. By the time I gave up none of the characters meant anything to me. In short, Powers had not given me any reason to keep reading, other than (possibly) figuring out what was going on. I'm sorry, but I require more from a novel. I was quite dissapointed, since I consider Annubis Gates one of the best books of any genre. Expiration Date was DOA at my house, and I probably won't be buying anymore of Powers' work.

Just when you think Tim Powers' novels can't get any weirder, they do. Expiration Date begins with the premise that ghosts not only exist, but that inhaling them into your lungs prolongs your life and is the best high one can experience. In the Los Angeles of Powers' novel, there is a thriving underground dealing in black market ghosts, sometimes called "smokes" or "L.A. Cigar".

It is impossible to do justice to a Powers novel with a synopsis. His plots are wildly inventive and beyond description. But they are not pure flights of fancy. His books are grounded in the real world, but it is a world in which magic exists, hidden from the uninitiated. Powers' descriptions of L.A. are very evocative, reminding me somewhat of the hard-boiled detective fiction of Robert Campbell.

When Powers switched from historical fantasies to novels set in the present day, I had momentary regrets. But having read his two present day fantasies, Expiration Date and his previous novel, Last Call, I'm not at all sorry that he has moved on.