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    Medusa's Web
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    Medusa's Web
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    Medusa's Web
    Ebook425 pages8 hours

    Medusa's Web

    By Tim Powers

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    In the wake of their Aunt Amity's suicide, Scott and Madeline Madden are summoned to Caveat, the eerie, decaying mansion in the Hollywood hills in which they were raised. But their decadent and reclusive cousins, the malicious wheelchair-bound Claimayne and his sister, Ariel, do not welcome Scott and Madeline's return to the childhood home they once shared. While Scott desperately wants to go back to their shabby south of Sunset lives, he cannot pry his sister away from this old house that is a conduit for the supernatural.

    Decorated by bits salvaged from old hotels and movie sets, Caveat hides a dark family secret that stretches back to the golden days of Rudolph Valentino and the silent film stars. A collection of hypnotic abstract images inked on paper allows the Maddens to briefly fragment and flatten time - to transport themselves into the past and future in visions that are both puzzling and terrifying.

    As Madeline falls more completely under Caveat's spell, Scott must fight to protect her. But will he unravel the mystery of the Madden family's past and finally free them. . . or be pulled deeper into their deadly web?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCorvus
    Release dateJan 19, 2016
    ISBN9781782391838
    Author

    Tim Powers

    Tim Powers is the author of numerous novels including Hide Me Among the Graves, Three Days to Never, Declare, Last Call, and On Stranger Tides, which inspired the feature film Pirates of the Caribbean: 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.

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    Reviews for Medusa's Web

    4/5

    55 ratings6 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This is really a 3 star book, but it kept my attention, so I bumped it up a star. Tim Powers is one of those writers that is hit or miss, but whatever the quality, it is done spectacularly. The book is all over the place - jumping from time to time, with really no rhyme or reason, and a family that doesn't like each other, has to come together for a will when the matriarch, a great aunt, unexpectedly commits suicide.The "Spiders" really don't make a lot of sense - the author makes them whatever they need to be for the story, so getting a handle on the rules, isn't possible. The side story of what happened to Scott and Madeline parents didn't add anything to the main story, but it did muddle the main plot line. And when little Madeline falls in love with an adult at the tender age of eight, was inappropriate.However, I finished the book, and while not great, it was fun.
    • 3/5
      Ok so I love Tim Powers. "Last Call" is one of my favorite books ever. Full-stop.

      But I was not...as 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 problem with this book is the modern-day characters are just really...lacking. The dialogue is flat and seems more of a way to get the readers up to speed with the plot than actual people talking to one another. It ends up reading like:

      "Hey remember when we were kids and we saw this weird thing happen?"
      "Yes I do, I wonder how it relates to current weirdness."
      "Huh I don't know. Also there's this REALLY BIG PLOT POINT that I'm going to tell you about right now"
      "Wow that's an interesting fact, I wonder what is going to happen next?"

      It just feels really forced in some ways, and I feel like Powers didn't spend enough time on character motivations; in this book, characters make huge decisions based on certain things but those certain things are just barely mentioned, or mentioned in passing without any real depth given to them. It made the reading really...hard to get through at times because the overarching idea of the novel is really interesting but the way it's played out is just...lacking.

      So overall not one of my favorites of Powers' books but definitely worth a read if you enjoy the author.
    • 4/5
      Another weird but satisfying urban ghost story populated with fictional and real characters from the past. Melding mythology, the occult, inter-temporal doorways, and one of the stranger time-travel mechanisms ever, this is an eclectic mix of genres that succeeds on many levels. No one I know of does weird contemporary fiction quite like Powers and this latest effort from him is no exception. If you are already a fan of Tim Powers, you will want to read this. If not, it might not be a bad introduction to his dark worlds that live just behind - or maybe somewhat adjacent to happy, sunny places like southern California.
    • 5/5
      I loved this book. It was a time travel, mystery, and fantasy all wrapped up into a nice story that keeps you guessing til the end. I would have like to know more about the origins of the spiders, but maybe that would have made it a very different story.
    • 3/5
      Spiders. Not the crawly beasts in class Arachnida. In Powers's latest novel, spiders are certain 8-branched images, usually ink on paper, which have the fantastic power to connect whoever views one with other viewers, throughout time and space, when and where those others are also viewing that image. The viewer may exchange consciousness with the counter-viewer, may be able to control that person'ls body, or may be a passenger only, for the duration of the vision-usually several minutes. The counter-viewer may be in the past or the future of the viewer. For many, the spider experience is addicting; for all, it is extremely stressful mentally and physically. People, including historical figures you've heard of, have been using spiders for centuries, forming a secret subculture of addicts and those who prey upon them.So Powers is doing what he does so well, writing a historically-informed time-travel thriller. The matriarch of a spider-using clan commits suicide. Her act brings together four people in the family's decaying mansion in Hollywood, California, for several days of escalating conflict and danger. Powers depicts Hollywood, both contemporary and historical, well. However, for whatever reason, I wasn't caught up in the story as I had hoped. If you're interested in Powers, I suggest trying his early [The Anubis Gates] instead of this one.
    • 4/5
      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 Hollywood. A word of warning though - if you're an arachnophobe, it's probably best to avoid this one, as there are spiders here that'll haunt your dreams.

      As ever, it's all heady stuff from Powers. There were a couple of places where I felt the complications of the mythos he built, and the amount of exposition needed to keep the plot going, was in danger of bringing the whole thing crashing down - but Powers is a master juggler, and keeps all the balls in the air just long enough to speed us along to the finale.

      A very enjoyable way to spend the day.