The Drawing of the Dark

Author – Tim Powers

Paperback
Pages: 336 pages
Publisher: Del Rey Books
Release Date: June, 1979
ISBN-10: 0345430816
ISBN-13: 978-0345430816

When I first read The Anubis Gates, a novel hailed by many as Powers best, I fell in love with it. I had searched high and low for a copy for months and when it finally landed on my mother’s head (almost literally), I dove right in and almost instantly knew it was worth the search.

Since that time, I’ve hunted down many of Powers’ other work (sadly most of his older work can be hard to find, at least in my part of the world) and have saved each of them for a time when I need something special to read, something to kick my imagination back in gear. The Drawing of the Dark seemed like the perfect companion for the other novels I packed with me on my trip – it takes place in Hungary (which I just left) and Vienna, Austria (where I’m headed), has an Irish protagonist (which, if you couldn’t tell from my name, I have a lot of in my blood), and is about beer (which any decent man has a love affair with).

Unlike Powers’ other works, The Drawing of the Dark is a more standard fair, very akin to the works of other authors writing fantasy at the same time (Terry Brooks, Stephen R. Donaldson, etc…). It has everything that made Epic Fantasy of that period so damn good – big battles, rip-roarin’ magic, a mysterious wizard, hidden legacies – but with that Tim Powers twist.
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