Dinner At Deviant's Palace (1985) - Plot & Excerpts
i'm glad i read the introduction to this book before i started. i don't generally, because they tend to give too much away, but this one was a really nice intro from powers himself, reminiscing about when he wrote this book 20 years ago. see, i thought it was a new book when i clicked it on netgalley, and finding out that it was written in his writer-infancy was good to know going into it.not that this is a bad book, or an immature book at all. in fact, it was cool to see that a lot of what is great about tim powers was there, right at the beginning of his career. i have only read his vampire books, but what i was struck by most in them (besides the quality of his research when writing about byron and shelley etc - a rare thing indeed) was the density of his prose. he makes sentences that matter. he is also very good at his world-building, which is impressive enough when you are layering a veil of supernatural explanation over the actions of real people whose lives are well-known and somehow making it seem plausible and not silly, but with this one he has created a whole post-apocalyptic landscape packed with its own creatures and religion and social hierarchy and music, currency, cults, drugs, thugs - the whole package. and it makes sense! not in the way of, "this is probably what will happen in the future," but "these characters are behaving in a way that is consistent with the world in which they live." it's a kind-of, sort-of retelling of the eurydice/orpheus myth, but with some tim powers twists and turns.rivas is a wonderful creation.he is neither hero nor antihero - he exists in that liminal space where he could be both or nether at any given time. his moral code is all grey. he is holding on to the memory of a love he lost years ago, and for her sake he allows himself to be led back into a life he thought he had left behind, enduring pain and danger to rescue her, but he is not at all the selfless hero. he does change along the way, as any character in a journey-narrative will, but it is a transformation that is a combination of redemptive/practical. very grey all around. but he is likable. and he does go through a lot of shit to get the girl. and it is such a hushpad situation, at the end of it all. (if you get that reference, i love you)so, yes - a very good blast-from-the-past book from tim powers, and it will not be the last i read from him. read the book, read the intro, and tell me it isn't adorable when he is remembering the way he came up with the names and groaning at some of his youthful pretensions.in closing, i love the hemogoblins, and the hemogoblin/tumbleweed scene was a killer. brief, but i loved it!!
Tim Powers is an author I have heard a lot of good things about, but I never actually got around to reading anything by him until now. This particular book wasn't one of the ones anyone ever recommended to me, and I'd never heard of it until it went on sale at Amazon. Still, it was on sale, and the sample looked interesting, so I thought I'd give it a try.Dinner at Deviant's Palace is set in a post-apocalyptic (and faintly radioactive) dystopian Los Angeles, but this is not your usual dystopia. I expect, with a setup like that, that the plot of the novel is going to be something that engages directly with the setting in a transformative way -- either the protagonist is going to institute order and bring back prosperity, or they're going to interact with the past and we're going to be treated to Why We Shouldn't Have Bombed Ourselves Into Oblivion. There are more options than those, but you know what I mean, right? We're going to really come to understand and alter the setting.And Dinner at Deviant's Palace... kind of doesn't. The setting is just the setting. You might think this would make it a mediocre book, but I still thought it was really enjoyable, mostly because the setting is so cool. Our hero, Greg Rivas, is a professional musician, though formerly he had a very different career: breaking people out of cults, for money. You see, future LA is in the throes of religious fervor, with many people falling for the siren song of a cult led by a mysterious man named Jaybush whom no one has seen in years. People who enter the cult tend not to come back. Rivas thought he was out of this rescue business, but of course he isn't: he is asked to rescue his ex-girlfriend, and he can't possibly say no to that. Cue a quest across really weird, entertainingly broken southern California, with some even weirder revelations about the nature of the cult along the way.It's two genres that you maybe wouldn't think would work that well together -- the post-apocalyptic travelogue and tales of cult deprogramming -- but they really do, in some kind of strange way. (I gather that most of Powers' work has a similar feel to it.) It's fun. The characters are strong enough to carry the novel, and my complaints are minor: that the epic showdown with the ultimate evil comes off a little unsatisfying in a way I can't quite articulate, and then it feels like the book keeps going for longer than it needs to.I don't think this book is my favorite thing I've ever read, but it was an entertaining way to spend an afternoon, and I'll be on the lookout for more by this author now.
What do You think about Dinner At Deviant's Palace (1985)?
This is the second Tim Powers book I've read and I feel like I'm noticing a pattern. The first full 3rd of this book is basically setup. Powers attempts to wrap it in a story but the story drags around a lot because of all the setup points Powers needs to hit before he actually gets to the meat of the story. The main story is a very interesting concept and the world Powers has built is detailed and facinating. Unfortunately, I think the story only makes for about a novella piece of work and Powers should trust his readers more that we don't have to have everything laid out for us so intricately. This and the other book I read (THE ANUBIS GATES) are relatively early works; so, I will probably continue reading Powers to see how he develops. In both books there are a lot of signs of a very interesting author -- interesting characters, fantastic world-building, unusal and intriguing magic/supernatural systems. And these elements are woven together into interesting stories, at their heart. But, it's my opinion that the first 3rd of DINNER AT DEVIANT'S PALACE is so slow going that I'm not sure the pay-off is worth it.
—Jamie Henderson
This is again outside my usual drama, I tend to prefer science fantasy to straight science fiction and I've never been a fan of the apocalyptic genre, BUT this book managed to overcome these things and grab me and keep me very rivetted despite my Dragon Age 2 addiction. I think this is very much a promotion of the author, as it's his character that made the book worth reading, his transformation and the ways he manages to overcome the obstacles presented to him are both intriguing and worthwhile. Bravo good sir, Tim Powers I will be reading more of your work.
—Adriane
Dinner at Deviant’s Palace is a strange post-nuclear science fiction novel from a skilled storyteller. The wasteland of California feels well-developed, and increasingly strange details crop up as the plot progresses. Greg Rivas begins on a quest to redeem his long-lost ex-girlfriend from a dangerous cult, but his journey will force him to face some difficult truths about himself and the world he lives in. This story feels a little more dated than some of Powers other novels, but I still enjoyed it thoroughly.Full review on my blog!
—Allie
