28 June, 2002
The Drawing of the Dark
Tim Powers
1979
323 pp (TPB)
One of the few side-benefits of being sick and unable to concentrate on work is that there's nothing to do except read or watch TV. Since there is absolutely nothing worth watching during the daytime in the summer, that leaves reading.
One of today's books is The Drawing of the Dark by Tim Powers. It's set in 1529, when Europe was seemingly on the brink of being swallowed up by the Ottoman Empire. Brian Duffy is a greying, down-on-his-luck soldier of fortune who's fought in many of the European wars of his time. While he's in Venice, a mysterious old man called Aurelianus (who smokes dried snakes like cigars!) offers him a princely sum to travel to Vienna and be a bouncer for the old fellow's brewery/inn. Sure, it sounds pretty suspicious, but Duffy doesn't have anything better to do, and the money's good, so he takes the job.
So, Duffy goes to Vienna and settles in at the brewery, followed shortly afterwards by Aurelianus. The city prepares for the coming seige. Finally, the Turks arrive, and there's a lot of fighting. The outcome is a foregone conclusion: Austria was not taken over by the Ottoman Empire.
Of course, this being a Tim Powers novel, the physical conflict is only part of what's really going on. There's a spiritual conflict going on, as well, between Western and Eastern civilization, and the key to the West's survival is magic beer (the "dark" of the title) made in Aurelianus' brewery. If the brewery survives until the time for the drawing of the beer, October 31, 1592, then the magic beer can be used to heal the Fisher King and restore the vitality of Western Civilization.
Overall, the book was pretty good, although not in the same league as Last Call or The Anubis Gates. In fact, Drawing sometimes reads like a dress rehearsal for his later work; it contains a number of elements and themes which appear in the other books of his I've read, from the whole Fisher King thing to the notion that grounding oneself is a protection against sorcery. The plot moves along nicely, with enough action and adventure to keep things interesting, even for the waiting, waiting, waiting inherent in a medieval siege. There's also a good amount of amusing dialogue, such as in this scene where Duffy and Aurelianus discuss a group of wandering Norsemen who have travelled south to join the fight:
"Obviously there's another true clairvoyant in Denmark somewhere, who sent Bugge and his men here so unerringly.""God help us," Duffy said, adding with some sarcasm, "Were they correct also then, in assuming you're Odin?"
Aurelianus narrowed his eyes mysteriously, then relaxed and grinned. "Well, no. That was an excess of religious enthusiasm on their part. Helpful, though."
Duffy felt vaguely nauseated, and blamed it on the snake fumes.
Completely unrelated to the book's literary merits, I've got to say that I really like the physical design of this edition (Del Rey Impact trade paperback). It's attractive without being flashy, and it really stood out on the shelf in the bookstore where I bought it. The construction is nice, too; the book falls open easily without bending the spine, making reading easy on the book.