Expiration Date by Tim Powers

Seven of us met at Adventures in Crime and Space on March 18 to discuss Expiration Date by Tim Powers. The novel is a dark fantasy set in Los Angeles, featuring the ghosts of Thomas Edison and Harry Houdini. We all liked many of the ideas and elements of the book, but we were divided about how successfully the story was told. Two of the group found the writing style “wonderful,” while most of the rest found that the story started very slowly and took a couple of hundred pages to pique our interest. One person had nightmares while reading the book, so obviously the writing style was effective for her. One member who’d also read the British version of the book, which differed substantially, felt that the American version seemed “padded.” Powers’s ideas and unique points of view are always interesting, and we never know what he’ll do next.

— A. T. Campbell, III