Status
Available
Call number
Publication
William Morrow (2006), Hardcover
Description
When Einstein told Roosevelt in 1939 that the atomic bomb was possible, he did not tell the president about another discovery he had made, something so horrific it remained a secret--until now. When 12-year-old Daphne takes a videotape labeled Pee-wee's Big Adventure from her grandmother's house, neither she nor her college-professor father Frank has any idea that the theft has drawn the attention of both the Israeli Secret Service and an ancient European cabal of occultists--or that within hours they'll be visited by her long-lost grandfather, who is also desperate to get that tape. And when Daphne's teddy bear is stolen, a blind assassin nearly kills Frank, and a phantom begins to speak to her from a switched-off television set, they find themselves caught in the middle of a murderous power struggle that originated long ago in Israel and Germany but now crashes through Los Angeles and the Mojave Desert.--From publisher description.… (more)
Media reviews
The place is Greater Los Angeles, a neighborhood today, San Bernardino, Pasadena, Hollywood, Palm Springs. People arrive, or their predecessors did, so there are reflections, or repercussions, of Germany — Switzerland — Israel — and a ranging universe so vast and strange the characters think
The time is 1987: three days of it: hence the title — with a look at 1967 — the days of Charlie Chaplin and Albert Einstein — Pope Innocent III — Moses — and a man from 2006 who can’t stand the crude technology.
The actors are a preteen girl and her father who teaches literature — and her great-grandmother — and her uncle — and two teams trying to undo place, time, and action, one from the Israeli intelligence service, one vast and strange.
The focus of these forces keeps this story strong. Powers has set us at their nexus, holds us there. The careful painting of their operation, almost prosaic in the midst of poetry, almost mundane in the midst of the mystic, keeps this world weird. He makes it shock and shimmer. Its spine is his imagination. Its sinew is his understanding. He is unafraid of good or evil, of comedy or crime.
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of it as a freeway to their local lives, or God.The time is 1987: three days of it: hence the title — with a look at 1967 — the days of Charlie Chaplin and Albert Einstein — Pope Innocent III — Moses — and a man from 2006 who can’t stand the crude technology.
The actors are a preteen girl and her father who teaches literature — and her great-grandmother — and her uncle — and two teams trying to undo place, time, and action, one from the Israeli intelligence service, one vast and strange.
The focus of these forces keeps this story strong. Powers has set us at their nexus, holds us there. The careful painting of their operation, almost prosaic in the midst of poetry, almost mundane in the midst of the mystic, keeps this world weird. He makes it shock and shimmer. Its spine is his imagination. Its sinew is his understanding. He is unafraid of good or evil, of comedy or crime.
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User reviews
LibraryThing member dukedom_enough
Tim Powers has a formula. Start with actual history, and focus on parts of it where what we know trails off into mystery. Fill in the unknown with elements of the fantastic. Connect it all to the lives of his characters via a fast-paced story.
But that formula doesn't constrain any of the inventive,
Powers imagines a much longer, eventful life for her, ending in California in her old age, in 1987. We learn a lot about that life, but much remains unknown, as she appears only as her descendants knew her.
Frank Marrity knew Lieserl as his grandmother Lisa. He and his daughter Daphne find their lives - and much more - endangered by agents of secret organizations, who want the magical artifacts Lieserl guarded.
Powers mixes time travel, Jewish mysticism, Albert Einstein, Charlie Chaplin, family dysfunction, the Six-Day War, relativity, paranormal powers, the Holy Grail, the Cold War, and California's architecture and landscape into his fast-moving story.
I'm bothered a bit by Powers using one of the most significant scientists of the twentieth century as a sort of arch-mage. But, given how badly Einstein treated Mileva Marić, maybe that's only fair, somehow.
But that formula doesn't constrain any of the inventive,
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exciting stories Powers writes with it. In Three Days to Never, the principal historical mystery concerns Lieserl Marić, first child of Albert Einstein and his first wife Mileva Marić. Lieserl was born in 1902, before Einstein and Marić married. That she had ever existed was unknown to the world before the 1980s, and history does not record her true name or what became of her. The linked Wikipedia article states that most observers think she died in infancy.Powers imagines a much longer, eventful life for her, ending in California in her old age, in 1987. We learn a lot about that life, but much remains unknown, as she appears only as her descendants knew her.
Frank Marrity knew Lieserl as his grandmother Lisa. He and his daughter Daphne find their lives - and much more - endangered by agents of secret organizations, who want the magical artifacts Lieserl guarded.
Powers mixes time travel, Jewish mysticism, Albert Einstein, Charlie Chaplin, family dysfunction, the Six-Day War, relativity, paranormal powers, the Holy Grail, the Cold War, and California's architecture and landscape into his fast-moving story.
I'm bothered a bit by Powers using one of the most significant scientists of the twentieth century as a sort of arch-mage. But, given how badly Einstein treated Mileva Marić, maybe that's only fair, somehow.
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LibraryThing member williemeikle
I do love Tim Powers' writing. THREE DAYS TO NEVER marks me catching up completely, and finishing reading all of his novels, and they've all been brilliant in their own way. A couple haven't quite grabbed me as much as others, but this one has time travel, remote sensing, Albert Einstein, Charlie
I've been away for two days in Powers' head,, held by his way of taking a weird idea, such as Einstien inventing a time machine, then filtering it through a world view that contains ghosts, ESP and all manner of psychic phenomena. Anybody who has read Powers in recent years knows all his tics and enthusiasms, and they're here in full, but this is tighter, more controlled than the frenzy of, say, Earthquake Weather, and all the better for it.
There are moments of briliance here too, in descriptions of how a blind woman can live by seeing through others' eyes, of swooping travels in the astral planes, and a climactic sequence as tense as any thriller.
But at heart, it's a story of a broken family, working together for each other against heavy odds, and it's often rather touching and tender. And funny too, with a comedic touch that's sometimes absent from Powers' books.
I'm sorry I took so long getting to this one.
It's another winner.
And I'm also sorry that there's no more new Powers books for me to read now. I'll be waiting impatiently for his next one.
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Chaplin and a great cast of characters tightly bound in an intricate plot. I was hooked from the start.I've been away for two days in Powers' head,, held by his way of taking a weird idea, such as Einstien inventing a time machine, then filtering it through a world view that contains ghosts, ESP and all manner of psychic phenomena. Anybody who has read Powers in recent years knows all his tics and enthusiasms, and they're here in full, but this is tighter, more controlled than the frenzy of, say, Earthquake Weather, and all the better for it.
There are moments of briliance here too, in descriptions of how a blind woman can live by seeing through others' eyes, of swooping travels in the astral planes, and a climactic sequence as tense as any thriller.
But at heart, it's a story of a broken family, working together for each other against heavy odds, and it's often rather touching and tender. And funny too, with a comedic touch that's sometimes absent from Powers' books.
I'm sorry I took so long getting to this one.
It's another winner.
And I'm also sorry that there's no more new Powers books for me to read now. I'll be waiting impatiently for his next one.
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LibraryThing member bunwat
Back once again at the question of how to rate a book that tried to do something ambitious and didn't altogether succeed. If this had worked, it would have been awesome. If he'd managed to pull together Einstein, the Mossad, Charlie Chaplin, time travel, seraphim, the law of conservation of energy,
This story is told from many points of view, I count at least nine different pov's that carry major parts of the narrative. It would take a real master of prose to keep that juggling act from breaking down into incoherence, and I guess its a measure of Power's skills that he just about manages it. But I don't see that the multiplicity actually adds enough to the story to be worth the effort required.
In the same vein, the story gets told in and out of order, with flashbacks and flashforwards, some which are from unreliable narrators and others from narrators who are telling the truth as they see it but are misled. There are bits and peices that seem to be tossed in just because they were lying around the workshop and what the heck, its already a Heinz 57 of a novel so why not add them?
That may actually be the issue with this book - its just too much stuff for not enough good reasons. Like a cell phone that takes photos but also works as a blender and has a built in retractable steam shovel. Okay its clever that someone managed to pack all of that into one package but what am I supposed to DO with it? Make mai tai's while I dig up the sidewalk?
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and Grauman's Chinese Theater into a single plot that worked that would have been just great fun indeed. He almost pulled it off but the whole structure sort of creaks at the seams and leans from one side to the other and he has to keep running around shoring it up with interjections and explanatory this-is-what-just-happened passages. This story is told from many points of view, I count at least nine different pov's that carry major parts of the narrative. It would take a real master of prose to keep that juggling act from breaking down into incoherence, and I guess its a measure of Power's skills that he just about manages it. But I don't see that the multiplicity actually adds enough to the story to be worth the effort required.
In the same vein, the story gets told in and out of order, with flashbacks and flashforwards, some which are from unreliable narrators and others from narrators who are telling the truth as they see it but are misled. There are bits and peices that seem to be tossed in just because they were lying around the workshop and what the heck, its already a Heinz 57 of a novel so why not add them?
That may actually be the issue with this book - its just too much stuff for not enough good reasons. Like a cell phone that takes photos but also works as a blender and has a built in retractable steam shovel. Okay its clever that someone managed to pack all of that into one package but what am I supposed to DO with it? Make mai tai's while I dig up the sidewalk?
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LibraryThing member RoC
I'm never too sure what I think of Tim POwers books til i've read them several times. This one seemed to me like a return to the more compelling books he wrote set in contempory america (OK, I know its 1986, but thats contemporary enough) such as Last Call, and I did feel very involved with the
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characters. Still not sure i liked it as much as some of his work, but then all Tim Powers books are great, so thats just nit-picking. Show Less
LibraryThing member PirateJenny
This book is, well, Powersian. Take Einstein, Chaplin, time travel, Mosad, and a group called Vespers that has a mummified head and throw in Frank Marrity, an English professor, and his daughter, Daphne, who just happen to stumble into this mess via Grammar, Frank's grandmother. Obviously there are
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good guys, bad guys, and confused guys. I would have liked to know a bit more about the Vespers--any group that refers to the mummified head it has as the Baphomet head is sure to intrigue me. Perhaps I'd have been less interested in them if I knew more. But as with all Powers's books, it was weird, and funky, and Powersian. It's the best adjective I can come up with. Show Less
LibraryThing member lewispike
It's almost redundant to say this is an odd book - it's a Tim Powers book after all. But even for him, it's an odd book.
It's set (mostly) in 1987 LA and concerns the hidden inventions of Einstein - a machine that lets you travel in space and time, and a process that lets you completely remove
Despite all of that, it is a good read. It's a bit slow at times but it's fascinating and wonderfully done.
It's set (mostly) in 1987 LA and concerns the hidden inventions of Einstein - a machine that lets you travel in space and time, and a process that lets you completely remove
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someone from space-time. It mixes in psychic investigators and remote viewers from government programmes and a huge dose of literary material that initially makes sense and then becomes increasingly bizarrely related to the story.Despite all of that, it is a good read. It's a bit slow at times but it's fascinating and wonderfully done.
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LibraryThing member heidilove
Wonderful. If you're a Powers fan, this will satisfy. If you're not a Powers fank, it's wonderful, though not the best introduction to powers that there is. Read it anyway.
Once again Powers explores the impact of the past on our present perception of reality, the import of other dimensions, and
Once again Powers explores the impact of the past on our present perception of reality, the import of other dimensions, and
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how what we think and how we love is the most important thing we will ever do. Show Less
LibraryThing member grizzly.anderson
I'd put this right up there with The Anubis Gates and Last Call as my favorite Tim Powers books, and one that I will read over and over again. As with most of his books, it has an everyman caught up in something he doesn't understand, trying to find a way out. There are supernatural powers that he
Why do I like these the best? They are the ones that pull me in to the story, that feel like they are the best crafted. With some of his other books the McGuffin ties him too much to established genres - vampires, pirates, etc. - or his own previous stories and it effects the rhythm of the story he's trying to tell.
Start with any of these three Powers books and you'll be hooked.
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must understand and learn to manipulate while multiple shadowy conspiracies with their own agendas try to help, or harm, or simply use him.Why do I like these the best? They are the ones that pull me in to the story, that feel like they are the best crafted. With some of his other books the McGuffin ties him too much to established genres - vampires, pirates, etc. - or his own previous stories and it effects the rhythm of the story he's trying to tell.
Start with any of these three Powers books and you'll be hooked.
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LibraryThing member AJBraithwaite
This was a good read - main characters you can believe in and care about, time-travel, telepathy, Einstein, Charlie Chaplin, Mossad and a sinister group called the Vespers (descendants of the Albigenses, a French sect of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries).
I was never very clear about the
I was never very clear about the
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motives of the Vespers, apart from the fact that they were clearly The Bad Guys because of the way they kept murdering people. It also wasn't obvious to me why Daphne ended up with the ability to destroy things at will, but it didn't affect my enjoyment of the story too much - I was perfectly willing to suspend disbelief and go along for the ride. Show Less
LibraryThing member HenryKrinkle
Time travelling Nazis, Albert Einstein's ghost, seance holding Mossad agents, dybbuks, blind Shakespeare quoting psychics, drunk English professors . . . . you get the picture. Scholarly,entertaining and well written, if a bit confusing at times ( I kept think of Shel Silverstein's "I'm My Own
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Grandpa" when multiple iterations of the same person appear at once) Show Less
LibraryThing member pgmcc
I found this a bit "Ho! Hum!" It dealt with no personal issues and was primarily a a story constructed to use the name of Einstein and pull in a few elements of physics theory. Not a book I can recommend which is disappointing as I enjoyed "The Anubis Gate" and "Declare".
LibraryThing member Bluechew
Very Very Strange Indeed. Like adpaton I struggled to get through this book, it is the first Tim Powers I have read and it is unlikely to attract me back to this author. Only 2 likeable characters and a plot so convoluted it is difficult to follow and trust me this is not usually a problem for me.
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The remaining cast are either very odd or dislikeable with names which appear to have been chosen to make the book hard. In short not for me. Show Less
LibraryThing member yarmando
Cluttered with unmemorable, interchangeable characters, this story pulls Einstein and Chaplin into a messy tale of espionage, ESP, and time travel. There were little nuggets of creativity, though: the blind woman who can see through others' eyes, the Mossad agent who suddenly knows that what he has
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just done is the last time he will do that, the infant doppelgangers that appear when one returns from time traveling. Show Less
LibraryThing member adpaton
I have really enjoyed some of Tim Powers' books and hated others: this falls into the later category. Daphne Marrity has a psychic link to her father Frank and both are surprised to recieve a phone call from Frank's grandmother Lisa informing them she is about to burn down the garden shed. But the
Chaos and surreal disorder follow as the Mossad get involved with an ancient and evil cabalistic group: the goal is the machine Einstein felt too deadly to unleash onto the world - a time travel device allowing for the complete eradication of people, thus changing history. Frank is visited by a man claiming to be his long-lost father but whom we soon learn is actually future Frank, returned to kill Daphne whom he feels has poisoned his life.
It transpires that Einstein, who was their great grandfather, was also a time traveller who, by returning to prevent the suicide of his friend Adler, inadvertently caused a world war. In another time travel episode Einstein was accompanied by infantile versions of himself, one of whom was taken and raised by his illegitimate daughter Lisa. This child later fathered Frank before disappearing - actually he was murdered by the evil cabal of occultists.
Confused? Me too. The book stuttered and stalled and despite being stuck in an aeroplane for over five hours I battled to read it.
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shed is not burned down and they soon realise something is amiis.Chaos and surreal disorder follow as the Mossad get involved with an ancient and evil cabalistic group: the goal is the machine Einstein felt too deadly to unleash onto the world - a time travel device allowing for the complete eradication of people, thus changing history. Frank is visited by a man claiming to be his long-lost father but whom we soon learn is actually future Frank, returned to kill Daphne whom he feels has poisoned his life.
It transpires that Einstein, who was their great grandfather, was also a time traveller who, by returning to prevent the suicide of his friend Adler, inadvertently caused a world war. In another time travel episode Einstein was accompanied by infantile versions of himself, one of whom was taken and raised by his illegitimate daughter Lisa. This child later fathered Frank before disappearing - actually he was murdered by the evil cabal of occultists.
Confused? Me too. The book stuttered and stalled and despite being stuck in an aeroplane for over five hours I battled to read it.
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LibraryThing member cajela
This is another Tim Powers urban fantasy thriller, and if you like his style you won't be disappointed with this one. This book cleverly mixes up Albert Einstein, Charlie Chaplin, the Nazis, Mossad, a time machine, and a man whose daughter might be dead in another timeline.
It's fast paced, and the
It's fast paced, and the
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sheer abundance and verve of the telling make it hard to put down. Show Less
LibraryThing member bookheaven
The first half of the book is frustrating but the second half is great.
LibraryThing member lithicbee
This is the first book by Tim Powers that I read and I thought it was pretty good if a bit confusing at times. But good confusing, like Lost. I haven't read anything in a while (not since the Illuminatus Trilogy maybe) that includes so much occult activities in a modern setting. You've got spies,
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psychic powers, poltergeists, telepathy, remote viewing, time travel, Einstein, Charlie Chaplin, a blind woman who sees out of other people's eyes (her memories of sex are of her own face, not her lovers'). It is a heady mix and it took me a little bit to get into it, but by the second half of the book it was whizzing along. And the ending actually made sense and explained everything to my satisfaction. Let's hope Lost can do the same! Show Less
LibraryThing member tundranocaps
The book starts slow, but picks up in pace as it continues and plot-lines connect.Reminds one of Last Call (Mystic screening, etc.) and The Anubis Gates (Literature and time travel).Unlike his other books, where what we face we understand, and as time goes on we get revealed more and understand
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more, here we get revealed more from the get-go, but only understand it later.I think it was not the right book to translate, it came out in 2006 and was translated to Hebrew in 2008, but it was translated because he thanks people from the Israeli book scene and researched stuff during his visit here in 2005.Two things don't make sense, why did grandma have a gold swastika at the place she reached, and how did it get there?And why did Oren get a phantom-baby when he traveled back, shouldn't it only appear when he slingshots back to the present? Show Less
LibraryThing member agirlandherbooks
A sci-fi-ish novel I'd have never picked up without reading a positive review, but what a reward! A father and daughter become enmeshed in a government plot, and the father not only sees the future, but has to make an incredibly difficult moral choice. I'll definitely be reading Tim Powers again.
LibraryThing member Harlan879
Tim Powers is one of my favorite authors, but this is not one of my favorite of his books. There are a few clever aspects -- he always starts his books well, and the woman who can only see out of other peoples' eyes is a great idea. But the plot gets bogged down by a too-intricate and unpredictable
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supernatural plot, and he has too many characters and so can't focus enough on the core (as usual, mostly family) relationships. The climactic scene is written as if Powers was trying to get all the information from a complex 5-D map and schematic into text, and it just doesn't work. My suggestion is to re-read Declare instead. Show Less
Subjects
Awards
Locus Award (Finalist — Fantasy Novel — 2007)
Mythopoeic Awards (Finalist — Adult Literature — 2007)
SF Site Editor's Choice (2006)
Language
Original publication date
2006
Physical description
432 p.; 9 inches
ISBN
0380976536 / 9780380976539