The Drawing of the Dark(1979), and most of his
subsequent fiction has fallen into that category.
The protagonist of his first fantasy tale is ostensibly
a bouncer at a tavern but is actually the current in-
carnation of King Arthur, who is continuing his
mission to protect a mystical ruler. The novel
marked Powers as a writer to watch, and it was not
long before he lived up to the promise. The Anubis
Gates(1983) is a historical fantasy involving a time
traveler who finds himself battling a variety of vil-
lains, including one who rules an immense under-
ground kingdom and uses sorcery against his
enemies. The blend of traditional and original fan-
tasy elements distinguished this novel from main-
stream fantasy without being so strange that
readers could not identify with it.
After returning to science fiction briefly, Pow-
ers next wrote On Stranger Tides(1987), set in the
Caribbean during the days of pirates and treasure
ships. An accountant finds himself pursuing a new
career as a buccaneer, but the pirates he meets are
not of the ordinary variety. One is using black
magic to advance his aims, including voodoo in-
cantations that give him control of a small army of
zombies. More overtly adventurous than most of
Powers’s other fiction, it is more suspenseful as
well. Powers’s drift toward the supernatural be-
came even more evident in The Stress of Her Re-
gard(1989). As with his other novels, there are
major historical figures as characters, this time
Lord Byron , Keats, and Shelley, who have taken as
their muses a race of vampirelike creatures. When
they finally break away and try to continue on
their own, they discover that they lack the inspira-
tion to do so.
Powers turned away from historical settings
during the 1990s, or at least moved closer to the
present. The Last Call (1992), which won the
World Fantasy Award, is set in an alternate Las
Vegas that has been magically transformed after
the death of the gangster Bugsy Siegel. The chief
protagonist is a gambler who feels he has lost his
soul and sets out to recover it. Expiration Date
(1995) similarly presents an altered Los Angeles. A
young boy assimilates the spirit of Thomas Edison
and finds himself pursued by others who seek Edi-
son’s vitality. Powers invented an entirely new leg-
end of ghosts and possession and transports the
reader into a world that is tantalizingly familiar but
always a bit skewed. Earthquake Weather(1996) is a
sequel to both of the previous novels, drawing
their threads together as another ghostly posses-
sion leads to murder and the brink of yet another
magical transformation.
Powers’s most recent novel is Declare(2001),
which alternates between 1960 and the 1940s. The
protagonist is a British spy who was involved in a
project to destroy a colony of powerful supernatu-
ral djinn who lived on Mount Ararat. The first at-
tempt failed, but 20 years later the authorities wish
to try again. The novel is complex and involves
very intense action, and as always it includes a few
historical characters, most notably the spy Kim
Philby. It won Powers his second World Fantasy
Award. Although Powers rarely writes short fic-
tion, it is almost always worthwhile. Most of his
short fantasy can be found in Night Moves and
Other Stories(2001).Pratchett, Terry(1948– )
Terry Pratchett’s first fantasy novel, The Carpet
People(1971), is a children’s fantasy set in a magi-
cal world contained within an otherwise ordinary
carpet. He tried science fiction next, but his third
novel, Strata (1981), is set on another planet
where dragons and robots intermingle. That set
the stage for The Colour of Magic(1983), the first
of the DISCWORLD SERIES, which has made up the
greatest part of Pratchett’s fiction ever since. The
Discworld books, which are immensely popular in
England and made him that country’s single best-
selling writer, are set in a magical world that is flat
and peopled with a variety of wizards, witches, and
other fantastic characters. The books are loosely
organized into separate, occasionally overlapping,
series, and are marketed primarily for adults, al-
though their wacky humor is equally appealing to
younger readers. Some of the more recent titles in
the series have been targeted specifically at chil-
dren. They rely heavily on puns, coincidences, far-
cical situations, magic spells gone awry, and good
intentions gone bad. The villains are villainous,
but only to a point, and the heroes are often less
than heroic, although they usually try very hard to
succeed.Pratchett, Terry 279