THE THIRSTY MUSE: TIM POWERS, THE STRESS OF HER REGARD. Just finished the third novel I’ve read from this excellent dark fantasist. I had more problems with this one than with Declare or Last Call: For the first time ever with this guy, I thought occasional sentences were simply overwritten; the structure didn’t always work for me; and at times the “he intuitively understood that the magic worked in way X and not way Z” stuff got intrusive and handwavey. Also, I’m at a disadvantage, because on the top level this is a novel about the Romantic poets dealing with vampires, and I am not immediately inclined to care about the Romantic poets. Write me a book about Philip Larkin dealing with vampires!

But. Once again, this is a fantasy of salvage, in which the characters pay terrible costs. The underlying idea of the book reminded me strongly of a bit of writing advice I read once: “When you don’t know what to do with your plot, take your character and figure out what would be the absolute worst thing to befall this particular person. Then do that.”

I really, really liked how Powers portrayed the shifts of strength and weakness in his characters, the stiffening of resolve and the exhausted surrender. It’s easy to write about the moment of declaration, much harder to write about the temptations and backsliding and grueling loneliness of life afterward.

I also felt like the emotional payoffs were more evenly-distributed throughout the book than they were in Last Call (and yeah, I realize this cuts against my uncertainty about the book’s structure). I’m glad I read this, and I’d definitely recommend it (after you read Declare, though!).

And yes: I love the title.