Review: Alternate Routes, by Tim Powers

John C. Wright on par with the late Gene Wolfe. Wright basically writes straightforward science fiction and fantasy novels, only layers with philosophical implications as part of basic worldbuilding, and written in a style that's more literature than airport read.

Knowing all this, I often wondered why John C Wright had never written for Baen Books, who publish a wide variety of science fiction, and who might be the best game in town for a non-indie SFF read.

Now I know. They don't need John C. Wright. They have Tim Powers. And he is amazing.

The story

Ex-Secret Service agent Sebastian Vickery is on the run from the federal government for once overhearing radio intercepts from the world of ghosts. When Ingrid Castine comes to save him from being assassinated, both of them end up on the run.

It seems that the US government has been using ghosts as intelligence assets. After all, when someone dies, it's not like they're going to be apt at counterinterrogation techniques. The man in charge is Emilio Terracotta, who may have looked into the abyss one too many times.

Unfortunately, the more Terracotta and his agency reaches out to the other side, the more the other side reaches back.

As I read through the novel, I must admit that one thing kept running through my mind: the scene from the original Ghostbusters, where the psychokinetic activity in New York City had gone from a normal Twinkie, to one approximate the size of a bus.

The Twinkie is about to hit the fan.

The pacing of this book basically makes it a thriller. As such, it's basically very straightforward. But it has a combination of elements. There are touches of horror (obviously, there are ghosts), urban fantasy (after all, we're in LA) as well as science fiction reaching out towards fantasy.

When we got to the action, there are two modes. For the fantasy action, he operates under the rules and operating procedures of fantasy--no one here is punching a ghost in the face. When it comes to the action against other humans, Powers wields a deft hand on par with Robert Ludlum, but nowhere near as convoluted.

The characters

There are two main point of view characters, Vickery and Terracotta. Castine is also a major player, but we see little from her point of view. Despite matching certain surface characteristics, Vickery and Castine are not Mulder and Scully. During his years on the run, Vickery has learned the rules of dealing with ghosts as a "spectral-evasion driver," and the risks of being on the freeway that have nothing to do with Los Angeles traffic. Castine has been approaching the supernatural from a more clinical setting.

In a fashion I have come to expect from authors of this skill level, Powers establishes character, physical descriptions, and a whole history for both Castine and Vickery in a quick and efficient number of pages. And the shooting begins shortly thereafter. But the character building never stops, and it's usually carried in a whole sentence.

For example, and it's not much of a spoiler, but Vickery refers to

"a vasectomy I got when I was twenty-three. And came to profoundly regret. He shied away from thoughts of  his wife's suicide...."

That's a whole short story in two lines. One plus one equals an emotional gut punch.

These characters are also very real, if only at points where it is very clear that they don't want to play hero, they have plenty of ways out of being the hero, and no one expects them to be the hero... but we can give it a try, right?

Terracotta... is a Dean Koontz villain, with less mustache twirling. He's a creature who believes in no God, but reaches out for the occult. His view of the world is deterministic and atomistic --human beings are meat machines who will do what we do because we are supposed to do it. He is all too real--literally, I think I've met this guy. But like all men who mess with forces they don't understand, he gets in way over his head, and he ever even realizes. He's a creature out of That Hideous Strength, and if he's not pure evil, he gives a great impression of it.

As Castine explains

"Terracotta says people can't help what they do, any more than a rock rolling down a hill can. The rock might think it has a choice about rolling left or right, just like people think they can choose what to do, but really it's all just physics... In one of his books he wrote, free consciousness is pointless--what's the use of a you, when all you can do is watch what your body does and says? Sometimes he seems surprised by what he does--though he'd say surprise is useless too."

In typical fashion of people of Powers' level, he also dissects this train of thought even easier than it's originally expressed.

Seriously, I've seen more humanity from Bela Lugosi's Dracula than out of this guy. There is a backstory for Terracotta that explains a lot of why he is this way, but it makes no excuse for him.

The world

These rules are all perfectly laid out and explained to the audience as we go along. And it is clear that Powers has given a LOT of thought to what does and does not effect ghosts, throwing in thoughts on everything from the uncanny valley to biochemistry. All of our characters have already fallen down this rabbit hole, and have basically lived there for years. Everyone knows the rules and uses them within the story as weapons. And Tim Powers is not one to talk down to his audience. He's put a lot of thought into this, and he expects you to keep up. But you will probably read this book in one or two sittings, so don't worry about forgetting any of these rules.

There are certain points where this story goes down the rabbit hole, and while we're not quite on Wonderland logic, the realm on the other side has specific rules as well. Powers manages to catch this even in the tone of the narration as the characters go from one realm into another. It's quite marvelous. It makes me think that this is what Neil Gaiman wants to be when he grows up.

Powers' rules for ghosts are akin to CS Lewis'. These ghosts are just the leftovers of the people left behind. These are not souls, and they are not people. These are echoes. But as the book explains, they may not be real people but the ghosts think they are. Or, to take one example...

"Eliot's g-ghost thinks it's still Elliot! And lots of crazy people think they're Jesus or somebody.

Powers also gives a great sense of otherworldliness to his work. When something comes from elsewhere, you are certain it's not from around here. It thinks, acts, and speaks like it's from  Elsewhere.

And all of this is before Tim Powers weaponizes Greek mythology.

The politics

I'm sure if you want to reach for political analogy like Gumby, you could look at Terracotta's agency as akin to the NSA's spying program. But really, the most hay you can make out of this is "Don't trust government agencies," but I think that's a lesson we've all learned at this point in our lives.

For regular people, there are no politics here. If there's a message, there's "Do not play with Occult sh**, occult sh** will not play with you."

Content warning

People die, sometimes with gun shots to the head.

Who is it for?

This is for fans of Neil Gaiman who don't mind if Gaiman ends up looking like a poser. If you enjoy John C Wright and are waiting for his next book, then you definitely need to try this.

Why read it?

Read this because this is just a fun roller coaster ride with narrative tricks you've never seen before. Even the Twinkie.