Rating: 
Summary: "You got your Last Call in my Expiration Date!"
Review: I read Last Call, and thought it was wonderful; if I ever go to Las Vegas, I'll be sure to watch the patterns the smoke makes around the poker table. The Tarot imagery was great, and the entire book was just one big cool concept.I read Expiration Date, and thought the ghost-chasing and eating plots were wonderful, especially since so much of it derived from known eccentricities. And then, comes Earthquake Weather, where the protagonists from each novel meet and work together to raise the King of the West from the dead, along with a host of new characters. It's not a bad novel at all; that's why it gets four stars. As usual, Powers writes very well, with good characterization and intelligent plotting. My issue with it is...it's a team-up book, like Spiderman Vs. Superman. Part of the fun is the learning experience of the main characters, as they figure out what the heck is going on and how to survive. We see that from the main character, but then we have the characters of the previous two novels, who should know what to do...but don't. Somehow, that aspect bothered me far more than I'd've thought. It's still a good novel, but I'm pretty sure it could've been better.
Rating:
Summary: Good reading
Review: I really liked this book and the sequal Earthquake Weather.I had never read any of Tim Powers works before and I enjoyed this one. Unfortunately I lent both books out to a friend and they were never returned.
Rating: 
Summary: not his best work
Review: I was very disappointed with this book. I read all of Tim Powers' books, I even have several autographed copies, yeah I got to meet the author. He's a really nice guy. The Anubis Gates was great, so was Drawing of the Dark. But Expiration Date is way out there. Sorry Tim - didn't like this one at all.
Rating: 
Summary: 2/3 of the way to being a total disappointment
Review: I'm a huge Tim Powers fan, but I came dangerously close to giving up on this book. The difference between Powers's earlier books and this one is like the difference between David Lynch's early and later movies: the former had coherent, engaging plots that were spiced up with liberal doses of weirdness, while weirdness was the entire point of the latter. Like David Lynch in _The Lost Highway_, Powers seemed to be _challenging_ me to figure out what the heck was going on in this novel. It was only my stubborn determination to find out, not any fascination with the plot or characters, that kept me reading. FINALLY, about 2/3 of the way in, Powers gave me a decent enough idea of what was going on to get me actually engaged in the story, and from there the tale really picked up the pace. Don't pick this one up for "light reading", folks.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but slow to start.
Review: I'm a huge Tim Powers fan, but I had a heck of a time getting through this book; sheer endurance kept me going until, over halfway through the book, things finally started coming together. I enjoyed it, but this is emphatically NOT light reading.
Rating: 
Summary: POWER Bar!
Review: I've been a fan of Tim Powers' work for several years now, and I think it could be argued that EXPIRATION DATE and LAST CALL are his two best works. (EARTHQUAKE WEATHER completes the trilogy, but I don't think it would fly as a stand-alone work, if I may mix metaphors.) Powers' work is, as other readers have noted, very dense - if you try to skim it, you'll just get lost. But careful reading can bring great rewards. Try this book for a vision of a California you never thought of before -- a place of desperation and dark ghosts. Two thumbs up!
Rating:
Summary: Tremendous! But not light reading.
Review: I've been a fan of Tim Powers' work for several years now, and I think it could be argued that EXPIRATION DATE and LAST CALL are his two best works. (EARTHQUAKE WEATHER completes the trilogy, but I don't think it would fly as a stand-alone work, if I may mix metaphors.) Powers' work is, as other readers have noted, very dense - if you try to skim it, you'll just get lost. But careful reading can bring great rewards. Try this book for a vision of a California you never thought of before -- a place of desperation and dark ghosts. Two thumbs up!
Rating:
Summary: I keep thinking that Tim Powers is a very complicated man.
Review: I've read my Powers all out of order so far. I began with _Earthquake Weather_, moved into _Last Call_, went on to _The Anubis Gates_ and have now finished _Expiration Date_. I guess of all of them, I like EW the least. Which is not to say that I didn't enjoy it. I think that Powers is one of the most (if not *the* most) creative, inventive and possibly mad fantasy writers working today. It's rarely that I read a writer who really makes me say "How on earth did he think of *that*?" Powers creates a plot centering around the ghost of Thomas Edison, the idea that ghosts can be inhaled for their essence, and complicated ideas about magic and superstition. Somehow he makes this plot feel almost inevitable-- it never feels odd for the sake of odd. So why is it my least favorite? I think that it's largely an issue of comparison. For all that the premise in this book is highly believable, it's not quite as real to me as the Last Call world. There are a few too many characters and there are almost places where some of them feel as though they're driving the plot. But largely it's because I don't quite believe the motivation where deLarava is concerned-- I find her one of the weakest of the Powers characters and I have trouble buying her eventual character arc. Still, any Powers is more worth reading more than the best book by almost anyone else.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible blending of horror and magical realism
Review: If someone told me that they had just read a novel which attempted to blend urban legend, magical realism, and ghost-story horror together into a complex, plausible novel with excellent characterization and a convoluted, wonderful plot, and it all worked perfectly, I'd likely laugh in their faces.
That said, I'm going to ask you not to laugh in my face. "Expiration Date" is all that and more. It is further proof that Tim Powers is utter genius and easily the best living author in his field. Do yourself a favour and read this in relatively small sections, when you're fully awake, despite the admitted temptation to try to get it all in one sitting (despite the novel's impressive length), because if you miss some of the story's subtle twists, you might not be able to live with yourself later.
Tim Powers is THE brightest light in modern fantasy, and this book is a must-read.
Rating:
Summary: A complex, engrossing novel-one of Power's best.
Review: If you have never read a book by Tim Powers before I'd recommend that you try a couple of his other ones first, but if you are familiar with his style this book is definitely worth a read. It has the usual twisting and looping of plot and charactor you would expect from a Power's novel but it is much deeper and darker in tone and content. There are those who don't like this book, simply because it is not as easy and light in tone as past novels he has written (Drawing of the Dark,Anubis Gates) but if you have read his other works, it is nice to see that he isn't willing to settle into a rut. I highly recommend this book.
| 
