Ghostly Thin Entertainment, 18 Nov 2003

By	Patrick Shepherd "hyperpat" (San Jose, CA USA) - See all my reviews

The story line itself is a very convoluted mating of urban ghosts, two rather well known historical figures, and a large set of major characters who are apparently unrelated to each other at the beginning but who eventually are all intertwined. The driving force behind the plot is the idea that ghosts can be captured, bottled, and inhaled by the living, imparting their memories and life essence to the inhaler. Certain people have become addicted to this habit, and will do anything to capture a really strong ghost, murder being almost the least of that 'anything'. Into this idea Powers drops the ghost of Thomas Edison, a man almost reverentially talked about in schools for his multitudinous inventions, but not exactly the nicest man in the world, as a really powerful ghost that everyone who is capable of sensing his presence wants to get.

The set of ideas that Powers introduces here is impressive: inhaleable ghosts, 'rotten' ghosts that once inhaled make it impossible to inhale more ghosts, the possibility of a freshly dead person's ghost continuing to use his body, ghosts who slowly obtain a substantial physical form by ingesting trash, an ingested ghost's personality may take over the consciousness of the inhaler, and many more. None of these ideas are directly laid out at the beginning of the book, but slowly become obvious as you proceed through the story - but while you are learning Powers' ghost rules, you are likely to feel somewhat confused.

Also impressive are the portraits Powers paints of Edison and Houdini, combining known historical facts and foibles of their characters with his story line in an almost seamless mix. His descriptions of Los Angeles, both past and present, add to the sense of realism that is so necessary for a book of this nature to succeed.

The large set of characters, though, is the major problem with this book. While Pete Sullivan, Angelica Elizalde, and Koot Hoomie Parganas, the three major point-of-view characters, are each described with enough detail about their past and their current thought patterns to enable me to recognize them as real people. What they failed to do was emotionally engage me. And this same problem applied to Solomon Shadroe, Sherman Oaks, Neal Obstadt and all the other characters here - I could not find myself caring what happened to all of them. Perhaps this is because for a large portion of the book, there does not seem to be any definite goal that these characters are trying to reach - a real plot direction doesn't emerge until almost two thirds of the way through the book. While this is certainly a common trait in the modern 'life realistic' novel, where things 'just happen' and people bounce from one experience to another with no goal or direction, here it hurts, as the point is not to paint reality but to present the fantastic as commonplace.

This also points up the fact that there is almost no deeper level of meaning to this book. The actions and events portrayed do not have any relevance to everyday living, nor are the character's reactions explored in enough depth to provide new insight into the human condition. This leaves the book as an 'entertainment' only type story, which is perfectly fine as an objective for a novel, but without strong reader engagement with the characters or a strong plot, the entertainment level does not tip the meter very far into the 'enjoyable' range.

Some great ideas, some impressive historical research, but stretched across too nebulous a plot from too many viewpoints to be a real page-turning grabber.

--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)

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