Expiration Date, by Tim Powers - Book Review
October 19th, 2008 by Robert
Sometimes I get the feeling that there are so many crazy, whacked out, brilliant ideas running around in Tim Powers’ head that perhaps his greatest challenge when writing a novel is to keep in control of the outflow. Let the tap out too fast and everything would spill out onto the page willy nilly, and the task of tying all these threads together would be impossible. The multitude of plot strands in Expiration Date, each of which entails at least one weird and funky idea of its own, must have made this a particularly difficult project to keep the lid on.
Garth Nix emerged from nowhere with his novel, Sabriel, the first volume of the Old Kingdom Trilogy. With its blend of richly imagined magical rules and a fascinating relationship between the realms of life and death, it established him as one of the world’s most exciting young fantasy authors. In the second volume, Lirael, Nix fleshes out the Old Kingdom with greater detail, more realised characters and, most importantly, more hordes of shambling zombies! 
As volume six of The Dark Tower series, Song of Susannah, rolls toward us, we are beset by one burning question. Can Stephen King rescue the plot of his magnum opus from the wayward excess of self-indulgence that dominated the last two instalments in the series, Wizard and Glass and The Wolves of the Calla? 
How can I convey in a few pithy paragraphs the wonder, the fascination, the emotional turmoil, the sheer artistry to be found within the covers of this truly amazing novel? Perdido Street Station is a masterpiece – pure and simple. 
I knew Mieville was a great writer, but little did I know on picking up this volume of short stories for a casual read while enduring some economy-class air hell that I was about to embark on an almost religious experience. 
Long and detailed, but saved from being boring by some episodes of genuine suspense and tension. The action scenes are very well written and, apart from some obviously Tolkienesque plot elements, this is one of the more original sword and sorcery genre series (not that originality is one of the genre’s strong points!)