Subject: Review, Declare, by Tim Powers.

From: [email-masked] (Edward McArdle)
Date: 06 Mar 2001 15:03:27 -0500

Declare, Tim Powers
	Review Copyright 2001 Edward McArdle

At a kaffeeklatch in San Antonio Worldcon some years ago, Tim Powers
mentioned he had had a great idea for a book, based on the story of Kim
Philby.

This is the book. It is about 500 pages, and as I enjoy his prose, I have
read it slowly.

For a Tim Powers book it takes its time becoming weird. There is a
two-page introduction in which something terrible happened on Mount
Ararat, then the book seems to become a conventional spy thriller. The
only odd thing is that the hero carries an ankh. The action oscillates
between 1941 and 1963.

Kim Philby is the figure readers would be expected to recognise, and he
begins to appear peripherally about a third of the way into the book. The
book is written about its hero, Andrew Hale, except for two chapters which
are written from the point of view of two other main characters.

The book has an authentic ring as it details what went on in the secret
services during the war, and afterwards, but as strange things begin to
occur we find that the world's secret services had a deep interest in the
supernatural. The further the book goes, the weirder it gets, with
throwbacks into normality from time to time.

The title is the name of a project undertaken by the British SIS, or some
deep subset. It also comes to have something to do with card-playing,
giving the title, at least, some thematic association with Last Call and
one other of his novels based on cards. However, this novel stands alone.

I was surprised when The Stress of her Regard revealed that Shelley, Keats
and co. were tied up with vampires and the like, but they lived long ago,
so nobody who knew them was likely to be offended. In this case, however,
Kim Philby died only a few years ago, and had five children. The statement
in the front that this book has nothing to do with any person dead or
alive clashes somewhat with the afterword in which Tim Powers describes
how he built his story around all the known facts of Philby's and others'
lives.  Obviously the story is pure fantasy, but it features a lot of real
people, some of whom may be still around!

This might be a good starting point for those new to Powers' writing, as
it is not as strange as some of his work. I wavered and bought the
hardback, but the paperback is due out in November.

%A Powers, Tim
%C New York
%D 2001
%G ISBN 0-380-97652-8
%I Harper Collins
%P 510 pp.

Edward McArdle.
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~mcardle
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