Timothy Thomas Powers (born February 29, 1952) is an American
science fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction. It differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically-established or scientifically-postulated laws of nature...
and fantasy author. Powers has won the
World Fantasy AwardThe World Fantasy Awards are annual, international awards given to authors and artists who have demonstrated outstanding achievement in the field of fantasy...
twice for his critically acclaimed novels
Last CallLast Call is a fantasy novel by Tim Powers. It was published in New York by Harper Collins in 1996 with ISBN 0-380-72846-X. It is the first book in a loose trilogy called Fault Lines; the second book, Expiration Date , is vaguely related to Last Call, the third book, Earthquake Weather , acts as...
and
DeclareDeclare is a supernatural spy novel by Tim Powers. It presents a secret history of the Cold War in which an agent for a secret British spy organization learns the true nature of several beings living on Mount Ararat. In this he is opposed by real-life communist traitor Kim Philby, who did travel...
. His 1988 novel
On Stranger TidesOn Stranger Tides is a 1988 historical fantasy novel written by Tim Powers. It was reprinted in 2006 by Babbage Press with a limited edition in 2008 from Subterranean Press...
was optioned for adaptation into the fourth
Pirates of the CaribbeanPirates of the Caribbean is a multi-billion dollar Walt Disney franchise encompassing a theme park ride, a series of films and spinoff novels as well as numerous video games and other publications...
film.
Most of Powers's novels are "
secret historiesA secret history is a revisionist interpretation of either fictional or real history which is claimed to have been deliberately suppressed, forgotten, or not a subject dealt with by respectable scholars....
": he uses actual, documented historical events featuring famous people, but shows another view of them in which occult or supernatural factors heavily influence the motivations and actions of the characters.
Typically, Powers strictly adheres to established historical facts. He reads extensively on a given subject, and the plot develops as Powers notes inconsistencies, gaps and curious data; regarding his award-winning 2000 novel
DeclareDeclare is a supernatural spy novel by Tim Powers. It presents a secret history of the Cold War in which an agent for a secret British spy organization learns the true nature of several beings living on Mount Ararat. In this he is opposed by real-life communist traitor Kim Philby, who did travel...
, Powers stated,
Biography
Powers was born in
Buffalo, New YorkBuffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, second only to New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River, Buffalo is the principal city of the Buffalo-Niagara Falls metropolitan area and the seat of Erie...
, and grew up in California, where his
Roman CatholicThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church. With more than a billion members, over half of all Christians and more than one-sixth of the world's population, the Catholic Church is a communion of the Western, or Latin Rite Church, and...
family moved in 1959.
He studied
English LiteratureEnglish literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; Joseph Conrad was born in Poland, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, V.S....
at
Cal State FullertonCalifornia State University, Fullerton, commonly known as CSUF, CSU Fullerton, or Cal State Fullerton, is currently the second largest California State University campus...
, where he first met
James BlaylockJames Paul Blaylock is an American fantasy author.He is noted for a distinctive, humorous style.He was born in Long Beach, California; studied English at California State University, Fullerton, receiving an M.A. in 1974; and lives in Orange, California, teaching creative writing at Chapman...
and
K. W. JeterKevin Wayne Jeter is an American science fiction and horror author known for his literary writing style, dark themes, and paranoid, unsympathetic characters...
, both of whom remained close friends and occasional collaborators; the trio have half-seriously referred to themselves as "
steampunkSteampunk is a sub-genre of fantasy and speculative fiction that came into prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century, and often Victorian era England—but with prominent elements of either...
s" in contrast to the prevailing
cyberpunkCyberpunk is a science fiction genre noted for its focus on "high tech and low life". The name is a portmanteau of cybernetics and punk and was originally coined by Bruce Bethke as the title of his short story "Cyberpunk", published in 1983...
genre of the 1980s. Powers and Blaylock invented the poet
William AshblessWilliam Ashbless is a fictional poet, invented by fantasy writers James Blaylock and Tim Powers.Ashbless was invented by Powers and Blaylock when they were students at Cal State Fullerton in the early 1970s, originally as a reaction to the low quality of the poetry being published in the school...
while they were at Cal State Fullerton.
Another friend Powers first met during this period was noted science fiction writer
Philip K. DickPhilip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer, and essayist whose published work during his lifetime was almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian...
; the character named "David" in Dick's novel
VALISVALIS is a 1981 science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick. The title is an acronym for Vast Active Living Intelligence System, Dick's gnostic vision of one aspect of God....
is based on Powers. When
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is a science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick first published in 1968. The main plot follows Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter of androids, while the secondary plot follows John Isidore, a man of sub-normal intelligence who befriends some of the androids.The novel is...
was retitled
Blade RunnerBlade Runner is a 1982 American science fiction film, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young. The screenplay, written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, is based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick...
to tie-in with the movie based on the novel, Dick dedicated it to Tim and Serena Powers.
Powers's first major novel was
The Drawing of the DarkThe Drawing of the Dark is a historical fantasy novel by Tim Powers published in 1979 by Del Rey Books.-Plot summary:The year is 1529, and Brian Duffy, a world-weary Irish mercenary soldier is hired in Venice by the mysterious Aurelius Aurelianus to go to Vienna and work as a bouncer at the...
(1979), but the novel that earned him wide praise was
The Anubis GatesThe Anubis Gates is a time travel fantasy novel by Tim Powers. It won the 1983 Philip K. Dick Award and 1984 Science Fiction Chronicle Award.- Plot summary :...
, which won the Philip K. Dick Award, and has since been published in many other languages.
Powers also teaches part-time in his role as Writer in Residence for the
Orange County High School of the ArtsOrange County High School of the Arts , colloquially called "OH-sha", is a 7th-12th grade public charter school located in downtown Santa Ana, Orange County, California. The school targets middle and high school students with talents in the performing and visual, and literary arts...
, where Blaylock directs the
Creative WritingCreative writing is considered to be any writing, fiction, poetry, or non-fiction, that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, and technical forms of literature. Works which fall into this category include novels, epics, short stories, and poems...
Conservatory, and
Chapman UniversityChapman University is a private, nonprofit university located in the city of Orange in Orange County, California, USA.- History and background :...
, where Blaylock teaches.
Powers and his wife, Serena, currently live in
Muscoy, CaliforniaMuscoy is a census-designated place in San Bernardino County, California, United States. The population was 8,919 at the 2000 census. Muscoy shares zip code 92407 with northwest San Bernardino, California, Devore Heights, and Arrowhead Farms...
. He has frequently served as a mentor author as part of the Clarion science fiction/fantasy writer's workshop.
He also taught part time at the
University of RedlandsThe University of Redlands is a private liberal arts and sciences university located in Redlands, California. The university's campus sits on 160 acres near downtown Redlands. The university was founded in 1907 and was associated with the American Baptist Church. The land for the university was...
.
He is not to be confused with Los Angeles stand-up comic Tim Powers.
Novels
The Skies Discrowned (1976)
- also published as Forsake The Sky: a science fiction adventure novel.
An Epitaph in Rust (1976)
- also published as Epitaph in Rust.
Powers of Two (2004)
- re-release of Skies Discrowned and Epitaph in Rust.
The Drawing of the DarkThe Drawing of the Dark is a historical fantasy novel by Tim Powers published in 1979 by Del Rey Books.-Plot summary:The year is 1529, and Brian Duffy, a world-weary Irish mercenary soldier is hired in Venice by the mysterious Aurelius Aurelianus to go to Vienna and work as a bouncer at the...
(1979)
- The siege of Vienna
Vienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by...
was actually a struggle between Muslim:A Muslim , , is an adherent of the religion of Islam. The feminine form is Muslimah . Literally, the word means "one who submits ". Muslim is the participle of the same verb of which Islam is the infinitive. Muslims believe that there is only one God, translated in Arabic as Allah...
and ChristianA Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, who Christians believe was the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, and the Son of God.The term "Christian" is also used adjectivally to...
magicians over the spiritual center of the West, which happens to be a small inn and brewery in Vienna. The "dark" is a beer that has been brewing for centuries, which the Fisher KingThe Fisher King, or the Wounded King, figures in Arthurian legend as the latest in a line charged with keeping the Holy Grail. Versions of his story vary widely, but he is always wounded in the legs or groin, and incapable of moving on his own. When he is injured, his kingdom suffers as he does,...
will eventually drink.
The Anubis GatesThe Anubis Gates is a time travel fantasy novel by Tim Powers. It won the 1983 Philip K. Dick Award and 1984 Science Fiction Chronicle Award.- Plot summary :...
(1983) :
Philip K. Dick Award winner, 1983; Locus Fantasy Award nominee, 1984 ; BSFA nominee, 1985
- A time travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different moments in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space, either sending objects backwards in time to a moment before the present, or sending objects forward from the present to the future without the need to...
story set mostly in 1810, featuring a brainwashed Lord Byron, magicMagic, sometimes known as sorcery, is the practice of consciousness manipulation and/or autosuggestion to achieve a desired result, usually by techniques described in various conceptual systems...
, EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
ian godsAncient Egyptian religion encompasses the various religious beliefs and rituals practiced in ancient Egypt over more than 3,000 years, from the predynastic period until the adoption of Christianity in the early centuries AD...
and a werewolfA werewolf or werwolf, also known as a lycanthrope , is a mythological or folkloric human with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf or an anthropomorphic wolf-like creature, either purposely, by being bitten or scratched by another werewolf, or after being placed under a curse...
.
Dinner at Deviant's Palace :
Philip K. Dick Award winner, and Nebula AwardWinners of the Nebula Award for Best Novel, awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. The stated year is that of publication; awards are given in the following year...
nominee, 1985
- Unusually for Powers, this is set in the future, in a postatomic America in which an extraterrestrial psychic vampire
A psychic vampire is a person or being who has the ability to feed off the life force of other living creatures, and who may be undead, according to believers in the phenomenon. Psychic vampires are represented in the occult beliefs of various cultures and in fiction.-Alternate terms:The term...
is slowly taking over.
- In 2001 the group Cradle of Filth
Cradle of Filth are an English Extreme metal band from Suffolk, formed in 1991. They have been embraced and disowned with equal fervour by various metal communities, and their particular subgenre has provoked a great deal of discussion....
released a song in entitled "Dinner at Deviant's Palace" that was simply the Lord's PrayerThe Lord's Prayer, also known as the Our Father or Pater noster, is perhaps the best-known prayer in Christianity. On Easter Sunday 2007 it was estimated that 2 billion Catholic, Protestant and Eastern Orthodox Christians read, recited, or sang the short prayer in hundreds of languages...
backmaskedBackmasking is a recording technique in which a sound or message is recorded backward onto a track that is meant to be played forward...
.
On Stranger TidesOn Stranger Tides is a 1988 historical fantasy novel written by Tim Powers. It was reprinted in 2006 by Babbage Press with a limited edition in 2008 from Subterranean Press...
:
Locus Fantasy and World Fantasy Awards nominee, 1988
- Moves to the 18th century Caribbean
The Caribbean is a region consisting of the Caribbean Sea, its islands , and the surrounding coasts...
; with pirates (many of them real characters, primarily BlackbeardEdward Teach or Eduardo Thatch , better known as Blackbeard, was a notorious English pirate in the Caribbean Sea and western Atlantic during the early 18th century, a period referred to as the Golden Age of Piracy...
, as well as a fictional protagonist named Jack), voodoo, zombieA zombie is a creature that appears in folklore and popular culture typically as a reanimated corpse or a mindless human being. Stories of zombies originated in the Afro-Caribbean spiritual belief system of Vodou, which told of the people being controlled as laborers by a powerful sorcerer...
s, Juan Ponce de LeonJuan Ponce de León, was a Spanish explorer. He became the first Governor of Puerto Rico by appointment of the Spanish Crown. He led the first European expedition to Florida, which he named...
, and a strangely quantum-mechanicalQuantum mechanics is a set of principles describing the physical reality at the atomic level of matter and the subatomic . These descriptions include the simultaneous wave-like and particle-like behavior of both matter and radiation...
Fountain of YouthThe Fountain of Youth is a legendary spring that reputedly restores the youth of anyone who drinks of its waters.Florida is often said to be its location, and stories of the fountain are some of the most persistent associated with the state...
. In 2009, Disney optioned the novel in order to incorporate elements of it into the fourth "Pirates Of The Caribbean" film, tentatively titled Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, planned for release in 2011.
The Stress of Her RegardThe Stress of Her Regard is a 1989 horror/fantasy novel by Tim Powers. It was nominated for the 1990 World Fantasy and Locus Awards in 1990, and won a Mythopoeic Award...
:
Locus Fantasy and World Fantasy Awards nominee, 1990
- Concerning the dealings of the Romantic poets
Romanticism is a complex artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Western Europe, and gained strength during the Industrial Revolution...
—ByronGeorge Gordon Byron, later Noel, 6th Baron Byron, of Rochdale, FRS, and commonly known today as Lord Byron was an English poet and a leading figure in Romanticism...
and ShelleyPercy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is critically regarded among the finest lyric poets in the English language...
are major characters—with vampireVampires are legendary creatures said to subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, generally by drinking their blood. Although typically described as undead, some minor traditions believed in vampires that were living people....
-like beings from Greek mythologyGreek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
.
Fault Lines series
-
- Last Call
Last Call is a fantasy novel by Tim Powers. It was published in New York by Harper Collins in 1996 with ISBN 0-380-72846-X. It is the first book in a loose trilogy called Fault Lines; the second book, Expiration Date , is vaguely related to Last Call, the third book, Earthquake Weather , acts as...
: Locus Fantasy and World Fantasy Awards winner, 1993
- A professional poker
Poker is a sport from the family of card games that share betting rules and usually hand rankings. Poker games differ in how the cards are dealt, how hands may be formed, whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a showdown , limits on bets and how many rounds of betting are allowed...
player finds out that he lost far more than he won in a poker game played with TarotThe tarot , , is a pack of cards , used from the mid fifteenth century in various parts of Europe to play card games such as Italian Tarocchini and French Tarot. The tarot has four suits corresponding to the suits of conventional playing cards...
cards two decades ago.- Expiration Date
Expiration Date is a 1996 fantasy novel by Tim Powers. It was nominated for both the Nebula and World Fantasy Awards in 1996.-Plot Summary:There are two main protagonists and two main antagonists....
- World Fantasy Award nominee, 1996 ; 1996 Nebula Award nominee ::A boy possessed by the spirit of Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor, scientist and businessman who developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb...
is hunted through Los AngelesLos Angeles is the largest city in the state of California and the second largest in the United States. Often abbreviated as L.A. and nicknamed The City of Angels, Los Angeles has an estimated population of 3.8 million and spans over in Southern California...
by people wanting to consume the ghostA ghost has been defined as the disembodied spirit or soul of a deceased person, although in popular usage the term refers only to the apparition of such a person...
he carries
- Earthquake Weather
- BSFA Award nominee, 1997 ; Locus Fantasy Award nominee, 1998 ::Sequel to both Last Call and Expiration Date, involving the characters of both: two fugitives from a psychiatric hospital, the magical nature of multiple personality disorder, and the secret history
A secret history is a revisionist interpretation of either fictional or real history which is claimed to have been deliberately suppressed, forgotten, or not a subject dealt with by respectable scholars....
of wineWine is an alcoholic beverage typically made of fermented grape juice. The natural chemical balance of grapes is such that they can ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes or other nutrients. Wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast consumes...
production in California
DeclareDeclare is a supernatural spy novel by Tim Powers. It presents a secret history of the Cold War in which an agent for a secret British spy organization learns the true nature of several beings living on Mount Ararat. In this he is opposed by real-life communist traitor Kim Philby, who did travel...
(2001) :
World Fantasy Award winner and Locus Fantasy nominee, 2001 ; 2001 Nebula Award nominee,
- A Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
espionageEspionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, as the legitimate holder of the information may change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
thriller which evokes LovecraftianHoward Phillips Lovecraft was an American author of horror, fantasy, and science fiction, known then simply as weird fiction....
horrorHorror fiction is a genre of fiction in any medium intended to scare, unsettle and horrify the audience. Historically, the cause of the "horror" experience has often been the intrusion of a disturbing supernatural element into everyday human experience...
and the work of John le CarréJohn le Carré is an English author of espionage novels, several of which have been adapted for film and television...
, involving Kim PhilbyHarold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby or H.A.R. Philby , was a high-ranking member of British intelligence who worked as a spy for and later defected to the Soviet Union...
, djinnIn Islam, a Djinn is a supernatural creature which occupies a parallel world to that of mankind, and together with humans and angels makes up the three sentient creations of Allah...
and the ArkNoah's Ark is the vessel, which, according to the Book of Genesis, was built by the Patriarch Noah at God's command to save himself, his family and the world's animals from a worldwide deluge...
on Mount AraratMount Ararat is a snow-capped, dormant volcanic cone in Turkey...
.
Three Days to NeverThree Days to Never is a 2006 fantasy novel by Tim Powers. As with many Powers novels, it proposes a secret history in which real events have supernatural causes and that prominent historical figures had actually been involved in supernatural or occult activities...
(2006) :
Locus Fantasy Award nominee, 2007
- Time travel, Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin, KBE was an English comedic actor and film director. Chaplin became one of the most famous actors as well as a notable filmmaker, composer and musician in the early to mid Classical Hollywood era of American cinema.Chaplin acted in, directed, scripted, produced and...
, Albert EinsteinAlbert Einstein was a theoretical physicist. His many contributions to physics include the special and general theories of relativity, the founding of relativistic cosmology, the first post-Newtonian expansion, explaining the perihelion advance of Mercury, prediction of the deflection of...
, and more.
Short story collections
- Night Moves and Other Stories (2000)
- On Pirates (as William Ashbless; written with James Blaylock) (2001)
- The Devils in the Details (with James Blaylock) (2003)
- Strange Itineraries: 2005, published by Tachyon Publications
Tachyon Publications is an independent press specializing in science fiction and fantasy books. Founded in San Francisco in 1995 by Jacob Weisman, Tachyon books have tended toward high-end literary works, short story collections, and anthologies. Tachyon published a definitive anthology of...
of San Francisco, California
Other published work
- The Complete Twelve Hours of the Night (1986): Joke pamphlet co-written with James Blaylock, as William Ashbless, and published by Cheap Street
Cheap Street Press was a small publishing company started up and operated by the husband-wife duo, George and Jan O'Nale, in New Castle, Virginia. Cheap Street concentrated on publishing "forced-scarcity" or "artificially rare" books - signed, numbered limited edition books of science fiction and...
Press; features in The Anubis Gates
- A Short Poem by William Ashbless (1987): Another joke chapbook written by Phil Garland which Tim Powers and James Blaylock went along with. Published by The Folly Press.
- The William Ashbless Memorial Cookbook (2002): A cookbook co-written with James Blaylock. Published by Subterranean Press.
- The Bible Repairman (2005): A chapbook containing an original short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format or medium tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels or books...
. Published by Subterranean Press.
- Nine Sonnets by Francis Thomas Marrity (2006): A chapbook containing nine sonnet
The sonnet is one of the poetic forms that can be found in lyric poetry from Europe.The term "sonnet" derives from the Occitan word sonet and the Italian word sonetto, both meaning "little song". By the thirteenth century, it had come to signify a poem of fourteen lines that follows a strict rhyme...
s "written" by one of the main characters in Three Days to Never. Published by Subterranean PressSubterranean Press is a small press publisher in Michigan. Subterranean is best known for publishing genre fiction, primarily horror, suspense and dark mystery, fantasy, and science fiction...
and given away with the collectors' edition of Three Days To Never.
- A Soul in a Bottle (2007): A ghost story
A ghost story may be any piece of fiction, or drama, or an account of an experience, that includes a ghost, or simply takes as a premise the possibility of ghosts or characters' belief in them. Colloquially, the term can refer to any kind of scary story. In a narrower sense, the ghost story has...
about a poetess largely based on American poet Edna St Vincent Millay. This novellaA novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. While there is disagreement as to what length defines a novella, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count...
published by Subterranean Press.
- Three sonnets by Cheyenne Fleming (2007): Printed loose and inserted into the collectors' edition of A Soul in a Bottle.
External links
- The Works of Tim Powers—this is the author's official internet presence and includes a very long interview
- Stranger Tides—fan site with FAQ and book descriptions
- Die Tore zu Anubis Reich—German Homepage with Bio, Bibliography, Interviews, Artwork, Extracts
- Science Fiction Studies interviews Tim Powers by Fiona Kelleghan
Fiona Kelleghan is an American academic and critic specializing in science fiction and fantasy; she is also the metadata librarian at the University of Miami's Otto G...
- January 2001 interview at Powell's City of Books by Dave Weich
- February 2005 interview at Strange Horizons by Lyda Morehouse
- June 2006 interview at Emerald City by John Shirley
John Patrick Shirley is an American science fiction and horror writer of novels, short stories, and television & film scripts.-Biography:John Shirley was born in Houston, Texas and grew up largely in the vicinity of Portland, Oregon...
- September 2006 interview at JimmyAkin.Org by Jimmy Akin
Jimmy Akin is a Catholic apologist for Catholic Answers who has authored several books on Catholic apologetics, evangelization, liturgy, and controversial issues. He is also a primary contributor to This Rock magazine and has appeared on radio and television defending and explaining the Catholic...
- Tim Powers Yahoo! Group (Electronic mailing list)
- Interview with Tim Powers at Actusf by Nathalie Ruas
- Interview with Tim Powers at Actusf by Jérôme Vincent (includes a discussion of Three Days to Never
Three Days to Never is a 2006 fantasy novel by Tim Powers. As with many Powers novels, it proposes a secret history in which real events have supernatural causes and that prominent historical figures had actually been involved in supernatural or occult activities...
)