Medusa's Web

wheelbugs and spiders and salome, oh my! sometimes i think tim powers doesn't love me as much as i love him. or maybe it's just that he looks at my page and sees i have only read three of his books before this one and he just doesn't understand that it's not always about quantity with me; that i love The Stress of Her Regard SO MUCH that even if i'd only read that one single book by him, it would still be tru luv 4eva. (not to self - get a better tattoo artist and maybe finally fix that drawerâ [...]

Medusa's Web is a mind-bending story about two siblings that have to uncover occult secrets about their family. Secrets that goes back to the 1920's Hollywood.Scott and Madeline Madden are summoned to Caveat, a spooky crumbling mansion, after their Aunt Amity's suicide. It's been years since they have been back there and the old mansion brings back memories. Their cousins Claimayne and Ariel are living at the mansion and they are not too happy that Amity apparently wrote a new testament one hou [...]

A new Tim Powers novel is always cause for rejoicing around here, and this one was excellent. When the aunt who raised them commits suicide in a spectacular fashion, Scott and Madeline Madden are summoned back to her mansion to stay for a week until the will (drawn up just before her death) is tested. But the cousins who still live at the mansion, Claimayne and Ariel, don’t want them there, and a secret magic threatens to draw them back into its power. Still, how much can happen in a week?The [...]

A deteriorating, creepy old Hollywood mansion full of secrets. An old Hollywood family reunited due to the matriarch's dramatic suicide. A magical drug-like addiction that allows users to trade or share bodies, for a price. A loser brother and his even more losery sister are dropped into this and must solve the mysteries of their aunt's identity, their parents' disappearance, and a long lost film sought by multiple nefarious parties.While it did become hard to put down toward the end, Medusa's W [...]

REVIEW: MEDUSA' S WEB by Tim PowersReading any book by Tim Powers is to enter a universe of possibilities, where dimensions cross and probabilities intertwine. A universe of magic in the broadest scene, where anything within and beyond the range of thought is the universe which Mr. Powers' imagination populates. I first stumbled upon this author years ago when I discovered LAST CALL, and immediately was enrapt. Mr. Powers interweaves classical mythological strands and personages into consensus r [...]

Given the option I'd probably rate this at 3.5 stars. I'm a long time Tim Powers fan and I had this on pre-order for months. It delivers some of what we've come to expect in any Tim Powers novel: meticulously researched history re-imaged through a lens of magic. In this case, we have 1920s Hollywood and "spiders": strange geometric shapes which, when looked at, connect the viewer to other times and places, including other people who have looked at the same spider in the past. There are spider ad [...]

Another one-sitting read from the great Tim Powers. I've been a fan since reading THE DRAWING OF THE DARK in 1980, and over the years since he's never failed to astonish and entertain me with his skill and imagination. This is no exception.Medusa's Web initially sets itself up as a Gothic horror, with its rambling old house and disfunctional- and weird - family members, but Powers quickly spins things off into fractured time streams, plots within plots and a mystery dating back to 1920's Hollywo [...]

I'm tempted to say something terribly cliche about Tim Powers being a national treasure, but a writer as audaciously _original_ as Powers does not deserve cliches. His ability to pick up seemingly-random threads of history and make them _make sense_ together, and relevant to the present, is unparalleled. His best books, like _Declare_ and the "Last Call"/Fisher-King trilogy, move the mind, the heart, and the aesthetic sense (whatever that is), equally._Medusa's Web_ can stand with these books un [...]

If any big city in the United States seems less likely to harbor ghosts than Los Angeles well, no, that's not true, now that I think about it. So many hopes and dreams, both fulfilled and otherwiseL.A. must be full of ghosts, if such lingering imprints from life exist anywhere.Tim Powers knows this. He knows Los Angeles intimately, its street corners and alleyways, its histories and moods, the way so much darkness hides beneath its sunny stuccoed exteriors. And in Medusa's Web, Powers recreates [...]

A new a Tim Powers book is always a three-part pleasure. The first is initially reading the book. His contemporary novels are like walking through a darkened room filled with half recognized shapes. The room slowly lightens as you move through it faster and faster and then suddenly, you're there in the light.The second is rereading the book. Now that all is clear, you can see where all the pieces inevitably fit together to make the whole. The third part is rereading the book in a few years when [...]

You know me, I'm a huge fan of Tim Powers and his books. This one is 4 stars not 5 just because I did struggle with the concept behind the spiders and how they interacted with the here and now and the past lives of the protagonists. I love the characters and wanted to slap Clamayne on several occasions! Tim has a seemingly effortless ability to create unusual situations that are set in the present and the past and in this case also the future - I'm sure he has to work hard at making it seem effo [...]

It wouldn't be a Tim Powers book without strange entities, time and space anomalies, occult gangs, and both protagonists and villains facing addictions to experiences that are beyond human ken. Medusa's Web has all of these things. But the pacing is more sedate than usual for Powers, and he doesn't take advantage of multiple viewpoints as he did before. For one thing, in this story I didn't feel like the 'bad guy' characters were fleshed out at all, compared to say, Last Call or Expiration Date. [...]

Power's time travel device/rules in Medusa's Web are pretty trippy, and the fact that he merges in a number of real life silent film actors/directors/films into the story arc is a bonus.It took me a bit to get comfortable with Power's dialogue flow, and like any good time travel story there are confounding elements introduced early on that eventually fit perfectly as all of the strangeness comes together. Sort of.

As always, Tim Powers is just the best. In this book, time travel, silent film era Hollywood, dysfunctional family relations, and creatures only vaguely hinted at in ancient Greek myth and Babylonian astrology come together in a gripping thriller.

Be prepared to suspense reality for a little while. I had to stop taking myself so serious, step back, and just enjoy a little paranormal drama for a little while.

This book is on Kindle for $6.49. Powers's books are usually pretty pricy, so if you wanna grab this one, now's the time. I've read worse things. ;)

Ok so I love Tim Powers. "Last Call" is one of my favorite books ever. Full-stop.But I was not impressed with this outing.First off there was a lot here I liked. Powers is amazing at weaving (heh heh pun intended) these "secret histories," he's so good at making them feel real. It never seems reductive or ridiculous to run into famous figures in Powers' books. Of course Rudy Valentino was involved in mystical occult practices!! And that gift alone makes Powers' books worth reading. But the probl [...]

lynns-books/2016/01/21/medMedusa’s Web is my first Tim Power’s book but given that he seems to have the ability to combine great writing with fantastic imagination I don’t think it will be my last. I really enjoyed Medusa’s Web. It has a wonderfully gothic horror feel to it and the writing style helps to lend it the feeling of an older book which is an aspect that I really enjoyed.The story gets off to a great start with an almost movie feel to it. Picture this. Two people arrive at a de [...]

This book is a little confusing. Lots of visions within visions within visions. And at the end of the day, just not interesting enough to make you want to keep going. :(

This is one of Powers' best books in quite some time, though even his lesser efforts are at least interesting. He seems to be at his best with books set in the present day, though I can think of at least two exceptions to that rule. In any case, I liked this novel better than his previous one, Hide Me Among the Graves.Half the fun of a Tim Powers novel is figuring out how the system of magic works. He's very clever at figuring out new ways of accomplishing supernatural occurrences. In this book, [...]

Tim Powers is the author of numerous novels, including ‘Hide Me Among the Graves,’ ‘Last Call,’ ‘Declare,’ ‘Three Days to Never,’ and ‘On Stranger Tides,’ which inspired the feature film, ‘Pirates of the Caribnbean: On Stranger Tides.’ He has won the Philip K. Dick Memorial Award twice, and the World Fantasy Award three times. He lives in San Bernardino, California. In ‘Medusa’s Web,’ Powers has written a phantasmagoric, thrilling, mind-bending tale of speculative f [...]

I love me some Tim Powers. I'm learning that for my favorite authors I rate their books on a sliding scale with their best as a 5 and everything else in relation to that. Medusa's Web is no Declare, Last Call or Anubis Gates, but not being better than some of the best damn alternate historical fantasy ever is as far from a damning review. This is a really impressive book, clearly a follow up to Three Days to Never and Salvage and Demolition in its time travel in LA aspects but I liked it better [...]

"The novels of dark fantasist Tim Powers often flow out of weird, grim moments in real history: the strange encounter of a fox and an English spy; the long lit matches burning in a bloodthirsty pirate’s beard. Powers’s latest book, Medusa’s Web, got its start when Powers encountered one of these disturbing little bits of trivia: Rudolph Valentino received Last Rites twice. Why? To answer that question, Powers spins a tale of family secrets and Hollywood ghosts–and an otherworldly, addict [...]

Wonderful first read and itching to start my first re-read (Tim Powers' books are invariably richer the second time through, or third or fourth). Set in a neighborhood I know well, the sense of place and interesting time overlays --now, then, not now? alternate now? future now?-- tremendously fun read. Avoiding spoilers.

What I particularly like about the 'spiders' is that they are too alien to be malevolent - though their interaction with humans is addictive and disastrous (possibly to them also). Most fantasy evils give human pain as much significance as humans do. This is flattering, but makes even Cthulhu serve the human ego.The spiders are something else.

Eight legged inter-dimensional beings accessible through glyphs or accidental radial fractures are used as narcotics, time travel devices and body stealing tools - especially in 1920s Hollywood.Well played Tim Powers, well played.

Tim Powers is always a good bet! Unique concept, well-developed, as usual. A pretty quick and very intriguing read.

A complicated, difficult book I probably need to re-read to appreciate properly. Fascinating core concept, though, rich with Hollywood references, past and present.

How does Tim Powers come up with this stuff?Again mining his well-traveled secret history/ghost variation/time jumping motif but in yet another direction, Powers, one of my favorite writers, delivers a wildly imaginative, tight tale that doesn't rank among his top half-dozen but is another fine novel, especially this far into his career.Here the death of siblings Scott and Madeline Madden's aunt sets in motion some adventures involving time jumping, knotty family dynamics, addiction and old Holl [...]

Tim Powers's talent is for descriptions and plotting. He is not a great writer, but he does write great stories. He can make you feel terrifying/scary stuff, as well as beautiful things too. Medusa's Web is no exception to this pattern, though it isn't one of his finest. 'Declare' does better plotting and 'The Anubis Gates' has an astoundingly well-drawn setting. I felt as if he'd had a few cool ideas, but had trouble linking them together really well; the story didn't feel particularly anchored [...]