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THE� ‌GREAT� ‌COMPLETIST� ‌CHALLENGE:� ‌In� ‌which� ‌I� ‌revisit� ‌older� ‌authors� ‌and� ‌attempt� ‌to� ‌read� every� ‌book� ‌they� ‌ever� ‌wrote�

Currentlyâ€� ‌inâ€� ‌theâ€� ‌challenge:â€� ‌Isaacâ€� ‌Asimov'sâ€� ‌Robot/Empire/Foundationâ€� ´¥â€� ‌Margaretâ€� Atwoodâ€� ´¥â€� ‌JGâ€� ‌Ballardâ€� ´¥â€� Cliveâ€� ‌Barkerâ€� ´¥â€� Christopherâ€� Buckleyâ€� ´¥â€� ‌Jim Butcher's Dresden Files | ‌Lee Child's Jack Reacher | ‌Philipâ€� ‌Kâ€� ‌Dickâ€� ´¥â€� ‌Ian Fleming | Williamâ€� ‌Gibsonâ€� ´¥â€� ‌Michelâ€� Houellebecqâ€� ´¥â€� Johnâ€� ‌Irvingâ€� ´¥â€� ‌Kazuoâ€� ‌Ishiguroâ€� ´¥â€� Shirleyâ€� Jacksonâ€� | ‌Johnâ€� ‌Leâ€� ‌Carreâ€� ´¥â€� Bernardâ€� ‌Malamudâ€� ´¥â€� Cormac McCarthy | Chinaâ€� ‌Mievilleâ€� ´¥â€� Toni Morrison | ‌VSâ€� Naipaulâ€� ´¥â€� Chuckâ€� ‌Palahniukâ€� ´¥â€� ‌Timâ€� ‌Powersâ€� ´¥â€� ‌Terryâ€� ‌Pratchett'sâ€� ‌Discworldâ€� ´¥â€� Philipâ€� ‌Rothâ€� ´¥â€� Nealâ€� Stephensonâ€� ´¥â€� ‌Jimâ€� ‌Thompsonâ€� ´¥â€� Johnâ€� ‌Updikeâ€� ´¥â€� Kurtâ€� ‌Vonnegutâ€� ´¥â€� Jeanette Winterson | PGâ€� ‌Wodehouseâ€� â€�

Now that I'm no longer reviewing 200 contemporary novels a year for the CCLaP website, 2018 is giving me the opportunity to become a "completist" of certain authors whose entire ouevres I've always wanted to tear through; and along with other writers like Christopher Buckley, Daphne du Maurier and Shirley Jackson, this has also included Tim Powers, who is revered within science-fiction and urban-fantasy circles for his complex, clever novels that mash up several different genres in order to present something truly unique and original.

I started a few months ago with his 1983 The Anubis Gates, the Philip K. Dick Award winner that miraculously mixes together time travel, the Early Romantic writers of Great Britain, and Aleister-Crowley-type worship of the occult elements of Egyptian mythology; then for my second read I thought I'd go all the way back to the beginning of Powers' career, with his 1976 debut novel The Skies Discrowned. I had been told in advance that it's nothing great, a straightforward space opera tale that most people would deem only mediocre at best; and sure enough, that's exactly what it turned out to be, a sort of bald ripoff of E.E. "Doc" Smith that wallows in the expected tropes of science-fiction instead of elevating itself above them. I specifically wanted to read it so that I'd even better understand just how much better he got as a writer by the time his celebrated novels from the '90s and '00s came around; but unless you're doing a similar full-career look at Powers, I'd recommend skipping his underwhelming debut altogether, and instead go straight to the books I'll be reading next, his "Fault Lines" trilogy from the '90s (including 1992's Last Call, 1996's Expiration Date, and 1997's Earthquake Weather), considered by most to be the best books of his career, in which he creates out of whole cloth a secret magical history for contemporary Los Angeles, and delves into the "hidden in plain sight" battle for who will control this magical realm's throne.

Tim Powers books covered in this review series: The Skies Discrowned (1976) | An Epitaph in Rust (1976) | The Drawing of the Dark (1979) | The Anubis Gates (1983) | Dinner at Deviant's Palace (1985) | On Stranger Tides (1987) | The Stress of Her Regard (1989) | Last Call (1992) | Expiration Date (1996) | Earthquake Weather (1997) | Declare (2001) | Three Days to Never (2006) | Hide Me Among the Graves (2012) | Medusa's Web (2016) | Alternate Routes (2018) | More Walls Broken (2019) | Forced Perspectives (2020)