Strange Itineraries
by Tim Powers
fantasy, short stories
copyright 1982 to 2004
read in April 2016
rated 5/10: readable, but only if there's nothing else
This is a book of short stories. I don't really enjoy short stories. They need to be very good -- or I wonder, what was the point. My rating may reflect my anti-preference.
This is not really a book of short stories. It's a book of short story. At least, that's the impression I have after the first few: it's the same story, told in a variety of different ways. People meet ghosts, people are ghosts, there's no reason given.
For variety, one story is: people travel in time, people meet time travellers -- who are, of course, themselves, time travel is stopped.
The best of the bunch would be, The Way Down the Hill. Something does happen, something comprehensible. More than the usual drifting and wailing and gnashing of teeth. Could almost be good -- except for the weak as water ending: "That's it, I'm not doing that again, I hope you lot won't do it again." Ho hum. I wish I could remember the novel where the same idea was treated so much better.
Then there's Night Moves. I can see who the mysterious Evelyn is. I just can't see, Why?! Oh well. By that stage -- the last story in the book -- I am skim reading. Perhaps there is logic behind the fantasy.
Or, perhaps not.
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