Rating: 
Summary: The Author at his BEST
Review: This is the first work of Tim Powers I have read and by far his best . I keep waiting for more of Duffy and sadly there has been no sequel or prequel.
Rating:
Summary: good
Review: A good mix of imagination,legend,and maybe fact.But most of all and perhaps most importantly entertaining.
Rating: 
Summary: 90%
Review: A wonderful and rich journey. Excellent characterization . I can't wait to read the next book because it must have been started before he ended Drawings in the Dark.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: An excellent book, a wonderful historical novel, with enough fantasy to liven it up. The period he is writing about is not often featured in historical or fantastic novels, and the book educates as well as entertains. 5 stars, definitely.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: An excellent read, one of my favourite books. Nice to see it back in print. It's entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: Good Straight Ahead Fantasy
Review: Brian Duffy is just your average work-a-day soldier for hire when he is pulled into a plot involving forgotten heroes, strange magic, and bizarre creatures. Encountering monsters straight out of legend and meeting up with some guy named The Fisher King, Duffy slowly learns that his past stretches much further back than he realizes.In typical Tim Powers style, the plot of this late Renaissance fantasy begins with threads of story weaving in all directions, and resolves at last by the end of the book. Powers works in the invading armies of Islam, King Arthur, a mystical brewery in Vienna, Vikings, and more in this fantastic yarn. I enjoyed this book overall, but it wasn't Mr. Powers's best (which can be forgiven, seeing as it was his first book). The plot moved a bit slowly at times, and the ending seemed a tad rushed. But overall, this was an enjoyable read and very funny. Great for taking a break between other, more "serious" fantasies.
Rating:
Summary: Who Knew Beer Was So Important?
Review: Certainly not Brian Duffy, aging Irish soldier of fortune, when he makes the mistake of accepting a job as bouncer at the inn which brews the famous herzwestern beer from the new owner, a mysterious black robed old man called Aurelianus. All of a sudden peculiar people, and even more peculiar *things*, are out to kill Brian Duffy - or protect him! . Who *is* this Aurelianus? Who is the mysterious King of the West? and most unervingly of all - who exactly is Brian Duffy? I love this book it is one of the most convincing blendings of fantasy and history I've ever read.
Rating:
Summary: Now that's good . . . beer
Review: Even early on Tim Powers made sure he stood out from the pack. As an author writing in the fantasy genre, he clearly had ambitions beyond having characters go running after the same old magical items and experience winding neverending quests through lands with hard to pronounce names. His type of fantasy retains all of the fantastic elements but shifts the setting to more urban places, adds a bit of cleverness and manages to remain as entertaining as anything else out there. In this novel, he centers the novel around beer and manages to come up with one of the more original premises for a fantasy novel ever. Now, this isn't beer in the sense of drunken frat boy parties, this is beer in terms of the old European tradition of crafting fine beer. In fact, the story itself takes place in the sixteenth century, in the days prior to an invasion by the Eastern lands (mostly Turkey), as the enemy comes apparently to take over the lands but maybe for another reason entirely. In this mess walks Brian Duffy, aging soldier for hire (an underused fantasy character if there was one), who takes an assignment from an elderly but mysterious man to look after his brewery . . . except he finds that it's not simply an inn and he's simply not Brian Duffy, man for hire, anymore. Powers gets lots of credit for not only recreating the time period here and writing it authentically (as far as I can tell) but for making it fun to read as well. Bonus points also go to his mingling of Arthurian mythology with European legends and some Eastern myths as well (oh yeah and Norse myths, to boot, his local library must have loved him) . . . along with some other stuff that he probably made up and managed to slip in seamlessly. Even at this early date his plotting is second to none, with loads of threads weaving effortlessly throughout the novel, innocous elements coming into play later in the oddest ways. His explanation for why everyone should care about beer makes perfect sense in the context of the story and it's a testament to his ability that he can write a thrilling story about protecting a keg. Brian Duffy remains a fun character, weary of the world, sarcastic, not completely believing what's going on around him and in the end accepting what he is and doing what he has to do. The mixture of fantasy, reality, suspense and humor makes for a heady brew (I couldn't resist) and although it's not Powers' masterpiece it's a fun bit of writing that gives a nice break from the endless trilogy quests that so often populate the fantasy genre. Just about anything by Powers is worth a read and this is no exception.
Rating:
Summary: Drink deeply and be refreshed...
Review: Here's an unheralded classic, returned to print after a decade on the shelf, which is simply one of the more marvelous fantasies out there. I was simply spellbound by this book. A brief description of this novel tends to emphasize what's not important about this novel. There are several important things here that make this a delight. First, simply, are the characters. Brightly drawn and lovable, be they knaves or heroes. The texture and dialog do not (as many fantasy novels do) evoke modern Americans, even though there is no dialect used. Second is the feel for medieval Europe, history, and realism (in what is a rather fanciful novel). Although this novel features such things as dwarves, dervishes, King Arthur, Merlin, Excaliber, the Fisher King, Norse gods, etc., the sheer realism of the novel never is pierced. Third is the delight that infuses the whole work. Why the title alone is at least triple entendre, if not quadruple. I mean: how can you dislike a work who's central premise is that Western civilization is based in no small part on quality beer? So by now it is obvious that I love this book. If you like books such as Silverlock or Brunner's Traveller in Black, I think you'll be enchanted by this gem.
Rating:
Summary: Bloody good read
Review: I seriously enjoyed this book. It is a good blend of drama, humour and legend. good read all round.
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