Powers of Two [Hardcover]

Tim Powers (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 292 pages
• Publisher: Nesfa Press; 2nd Revised edition (January 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1886778515
• ISBN-13: 978-1886778511
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #483,850 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Portraying an escapee from a monastery, April 4, 2004

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Powers of Two (Hardcover)

This reprint embraces two of Powers' early novels under one cover: Skies Discrowned, his first novel set on a planet where space travel is ordinary and a man seeks to avenge his father; and An Epitaph In Rust, portraying an escapee from a monastery who is set loose in a changed Los Angeles. Both are excellent stories of changed worlds and different viewpoints.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A treat for fans, a fantastic intro for neophytes., September 11, 2006

By 

Brett J. Callahan (Lake Oswego, OR United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Powers of Two (Hardcover)

Tim Powers is an outstanding author. I envy anyone who has yet to read 'The Drawing of the Dark', 'The Anubis Gates', or 'On Stranger Tides', because there is nothing quite like them.

'Powers of Two' combines two of Powers' earliest works with an introduction by the author. 'Skies Discrowned' is a story about a young man who witnesses his father's murder and goes on an odyssey of vengeance, traveling to a fantastic underground city and working his way from an art forger to king of the city's thieves.

The setting in this short book is enjoyable--a far future colony world where space travel still exists, but gun powder is quickly becoming a commodity more valuable than money.

Power's plotting does not suffer for his youth; the tale moves quickly and with relative smoothness. If there is a flaw to this book, it is that the interactions between characters, particularly those between the protagonist and his love interest, are somewhat stilted.

The second book, "An Epitaph in Rust" is the tale of an indentured Monk who escapes from a monastery and blunders into the hands of a revolutionary and play director in a future Los Angeles. Like 'skies' 'Rust' is set in a far future where society is sliding backwards but some technology remains. Though I will not spoil plot details, androids play a fun role in this book.

'Rust' will be more recognizable to fans of Powers. His penchant for having characters blunder into situations to which they unwittingly hold the key is developed here.

I didn't find Thomas (the protagonist) to be a wholly likable character, perhaps because he does not assert himself in this book. I suppose you could argue that someone who has previously known only the monastic discipline of a closed society would respond by falling in quickly with whomever he meets, however.

Both of these books are must haves for fans of Powers, and you're not likely to find them anywhere else. The cover is beautifully rendered, and will look striking on a bookshelf. I highly recommend this book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Roots of Powers, January 26, 2009

By 

Jeffrey W. Jarvis "JWJ" (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Powers of Two (Hardcover)

This is a great opportunity for Tim Powers readers to catch his earliest published works. While they have not attained the uniquely way-out-of-whack surreal realism of his later work, the seeds are all here; twisting their way out of the dirt into an uncanny sky.