"Tim Powers on historical novels" Topic

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"Several of Powers' novels depict historical events being influenced by occult or supernatural factors. Regarding his 2001 novel Declare, Powers stated, "I made it an ironclad rule that I could not change or disregard any of the recorded facts, nor rearrange any days of the calendar – and then I tried to figure out what momentous but unrecorded fact could explain them all.""

"Declare"'s plot has Djinns and Kim Philly. 😄🍺
And he succeeds admirably.

He's one of my favorite fantasy and science fiction writers.
Check his books out.

Love that kind of stuff.

There was a time travel show on a few years ago that I always thought would have been much better if instead of a made up conspiracy would have used the actual Cold War history and had the protagonist foil the plans of the reds so things turned out as they did in reality.

"Declare" is outstanding. I've read several of his books and enjoyed most of them. Honourable mentions for "The Drawing of the Dark", "The Anubis Gates" and "Stanger Tides".

I was seriously impressed by "Declare," and Stoss remarked on how well it went with the early "Laundry Files" books--before Stoss became one more "urban fantasy" novelist. And "no changing recorded facts" is my preferred position. Judith Merkle Riley pulls this off three times--"Oracle Glass," "Master of All Desires" and "The Serpent Garden."

But Scott & Barnett's "Armor of Light"changes history twice and is still a first-rate historical novel with a fantasy element.

When it comes to works of art, all my rules have footnotes and exceptions.

Far too many "historical novels" start with the SNL gag "What if Napoleon had a B-52 at Waterloo?"

There are a lot of bad novels out there, and a historical novel is harder to get right than a contemporary. But "Armor of LIght" is more like an alternate history historical. A good solid take on Britain late in the reign of Elizabeth I, but magic works as contemporaries believed it did, and Sir Philip Sidney has recovered from his wounds instead of dying in the Low Countries.

I'd have said the worst problem with historical novels wasn't that someone got the tech a little off, annoying as that is, but that the author imports the thinking of his or her own era, or dedicates the entire story to resolving some political or social problem of the novel's publication date rather than its setting. SF is equally prone to that last, and even straight history isn't immune. A review of Arthur Schlesinger's "The Age of Jackson" (1941) commented that "every page votes for FDR."

I used the same approach for a not-quite-fantasy novel based around an actual incident in the ACW (not far from where I grew up). All the recorded history is correct (including the weather), but the more fantastic story intertwines with basically "nobody realizing it." Even worked in local Choctaw legend, a prehistoric "sea serpent" (yes, for real), and the Underground Railroad. (No, there is no evidence it operated in the area, but the UR remained a secret long after the war, especially outside of Union states due to lingering backlash— even among families.)

So I love this sort of stuff, and Powers is a master of it.

I had the honor of meeting Tim Powers at the 1996 World Con in LA, the man is as wonderful to meet as he is to read.

Fun story that may or may not be true.
He wrote On Stranger Tudes long before the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Its main plot elements would work well in a "sequel", but there was legal … uncertainty about the rights.
So the Studio, probably on the advice of the legal department, offered a check far in advance of his expectations.
He and his wife were flown out to the premiere and had a grand time.
Like Donald Westlake, he knew when to set his child free. $$$

The Drawing of the Dark? Let me shovel some more myths into it. Love it.

But my main point of course is how much he sticks to History when the story is "historical". Much like Fraser and Flashman.

I need to catch up on Powers, I read a couple "back in the day"

It calls for a visit to my local library.