Medusa’s Web: A Novel (Review)
Written by Tim Powers
Published by William Morrow
Before I get into the “meat” of this review, I must first confess that I have never read any of Tim Powers’ previous works and am not normally a fan of fantasy/speculative fiction (although many people will say that horror fiction is speculative fiction of its own special kind). SO, with that in mind, I approached Medusa’s Web with some trepidation. BUT, I must say that, with only a few mind-boggling plot twists to mess with my head, I was pleasantly surprised by this latest offering by Powers!
Set in present day Southern California, the novel tells, on the surface, the tale of cousins Madeline and Scott Madden and their return, by virtue of their recently deceased aunt’s will, to live for a week in the sinister-named home they grew up in with their weird cousins, the wheelchair-bound Claimayne and his brittle sister, Ariel. The house, aptly referred to in the book as “the House of Usher in the Hollywood Hills” is called “Caveat,” which translates from the Latin as “Let him beware” or “Beware.” None too comforting, I must say.
In addition to the “weird cousins” and the bizarrely-named house, Madeline (a direct reference to Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher”) and her brother lost their aunt to a straight-out-of-Southern-Gothic mode of suicide – death by hand grenade on the roof of the house. So I am inclined to categorize Medusa’s Web as SoCal Gothic (if there IS such a sub-genre… and there should be, if not).
But things only get more weird as the two sets of cousins have grown up with “spiders.” And not the traditional crawly kind either. These “spiders” are two-dimensional drawings which allow whoever views them to time travel, past and future, and inhabit another person’s body. To, in other words, “give up their souls” briefly… and become more and more addicted as the “spiders” allow the addict to prolong their own life and drain other people of theirs. And this addiction DOES slowly take its toll on the addict – here Claimayne and Ariel are showing the debilitating effects of long-term time travel, and Scott is fearful his sister may be as well.
The time travel in Medusa’s Web takes the reader back to 1920s Hollywood, where one meets such silent screen luminaries as Rudolph Valentino and Alla Nazimova, who all seem to be involved in the horrors that accompany the use of the “spiders,” as well as into the not-so-distant future where Scott must battle his aunt’s spirit in order to save Madeline, who has become mesmerized by the power of not only the “spiders” but Caveat itself. Motorcycle chases through the hills of LA (Powers has an almost Siri-like knowledge of LA geography and puts it to great use in these high-octane scenes), as well as battles with Claimayne and Ariel AND the worst “spider” of all – the Medusa “spider,” all culminate in…
Well, I am NOT going to spoil the book for you! Just know that this reader was quite enthralled with this book and knows that fans of Powers (of which there are apparently many) will be thrilled with his latest tale. Not a particularly prolific writer, publication of a novel by Tim Power’s seems to be a cause for celebration among his followers.
I will admit to having a little trouble getting into the time travel bit, but once I overcame that and “got into the groove,” the book was a lot of fun whilst being spooky and unsettling at the same time. Poe references, the SoCal Gothic I mentioned, the creepy, decaying old house (with the sinister name) in the sunny hills of Hollywood – there is a LOT of (unnerving) fun and adventure going on in Medusa’s Web. Check it out even if you are not familiar with Tim Powers – this should send you to his back list to read his previous works. The man hasn’t won the World Fantasy Award three times for nothing!
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