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Timothy Thomas Powers (born February 29, 1952) is an American fantasy author, currently living in Muscoy, California.
His works are mostly notable for being 'secret histories' - he uses actual, documented historical events, but shows another view of them, in which magic is a major moving force in the motivations and actions of the characters.
He grew up in California and was a friend of Philip K Dick, and is the basis for a character in Dick's novel VALIS.
Novels include:
- Epitaph in Rust
- The Skies Discrowned, also published as Forsake The Sky
- The Drawing of the Dark - The siege of Vienna was actually a struggle between Muslim and Christian magicians over the spiritual heart of the West, which happens to be a small inn and brewery in Vienna. The 'dark' of the title is a beer that has been brewing for centuries, which the Fisher King will eventually drink.
- The Anubis Gates - A time travel story set in 1810 featuring magic, Egyptian gods and a werewolf.
- Dinner at Deviant's Palace - unusually for Powers, this is set in the future, in a postatomic America in which an alien psychic vampire is slowly taking over.
- On Stranger Tides moves to the 17th century Caribbean; with pirates (many of them real historical characters), Voodoo, zombies, Juan Ponce de Leon, and a strangely quantum-mechanical Fountain of Youth.
- The Stress of Her Regard - concerning the dealings of the Romantic poets - Byron and Shelley are major characters - with vampire-like creatures from Greek mythology.
- Last Call - a professional poker player finds out that he lost far more than he won in a game played with Tarot cards twenty years ago.
- Expiration Date - a boy possessed by the spirit of Thomas Edison is hunted through Los Angeles by people wanting to consume the ghost he carries.
- Earthquake Weather - sequel to both Last Call and Expiration Date, involving the characters of both, two fugitives from a psychiatric hospital, the magical nature of multiple personality disorder, and the secret history of wine production in California.
- Declare - a Cold War espionage story involving djinn, Mount Ararat, and the Epic of Gilgamesh.
Powers and James Blaylock invented the poet William Ashbless.
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