[UA] Tim Powers

[Stacy Stroud]

>I am not convinced Tim Powers is all that and a bag of chips, to
>coin current idiom.
>
>I have read "Last Call" and "The Anubis Gates", and while Powers is
>a lot of fun, his characters seem pretty flat.

True, characterization is not Powers' strong point.  Though he writes
primarily fantasy, he is like many of the great SF writers in that his
talent lies in the realm of *ideas*.  In particular, I read and love him
because of the very thing you said in praising UA, his talent for making
the real world fantastic.


>In fact, I would say that UA owes more to Ellroy than Powers.

Possibly.  I've not read any Ellroy, but he is the other person cited as
biggest influence on UA.  (In fact, if I recall correctly -- I think this
was from Ken Hite's interview with John Tynes -- UA was originally going to
be a gritty crime RPG, which would imply that the stuff from JT's New
Inquisition notes was added in later to create a composite setting.)


Stacy Stroud
sstroud at uky.campuscwix.net