The Drawing of the Dark

The legend of King Arthur gets an interesting new twist.

Brian Duffy is down on his luck when he decides to accept a strange job offer. The offer? To be a bouncer to an inn in Vienna. Well, that shouldn't be all that strange, he's an old soldier after all. Except for the fact that not only is the pay outrageously good, but he's also in Venice. With almost no reservations, he sets out on the journey to Vienna, where he finds himself not only attacked in the mountain passes, but defended by creatures straight out of mythology. As if things couldn't get any stranger, almost from the moment he accepts his new position at the inn, the sole brewer of one of the most famous beers in the world, the Turks invade, and Vikings sail into port. It fast becomes obvious that a war is coming, and it centers around the drawing of the dark.....

Fun. First and foremost, this book is just absolutely fun. I'm sick to death of the whole King Arthur schtick, but this was just plain fun to read. I mean, come on, the fate of the world rests on beer! Not just any beer, but legendary beer! And the best part of that is that Tim Powers takes something so patently absurd and he pulls it off. Somehow, he makes it all not only entirely believable, but you end up hooked.

But of course, it's not all silliness. I could be reading too much into it, but all through this book, it felt like the war between the powers of the East and West could easily apply to the cultural degradation of the East due to the march of globalization as Western influence grows. It's a major issue that is becoming harder and harder to combat with the ever increasing ease of access to electronics and technology. Not sure if it's an issue that was prevalent back when this book was written, but that's what I took from it. Like I said, I could be reading a lot into this.

Either way, Duffy was just a fun guy to read about; he just sounds like a jolly Irish fella. Of course, it's not all fun and jokes when all the forces converge on the inn for the drawing of the dark. That's when the blood starts flowing. Duffy finds that he slowly mutates from bouncer at the inn to marshal of the defences.

Whatever else you may want to say about it, it's easy to see why the book's a classic and a member of the Gollancz Fantasy Masterworks line; it veils a pretty big issue behind a rich fantastical veneer that makes for an absorbingly fun read. Highly recommended.