AccueilGroupesDiscussionsPlusTendances
Site de recherche
Ce site utilise des cookies pour fournir nos services, optimiser les performances, pour les analyses, et (si vous n'êtes pas connecté) pour les publicités. En utilisant Librarything, vous reconnaissez avoir lu et compris nos conditions générales d'utilisation et de services. Votre utilisation du site et de ses services vaut acceptation de ces conditions et termes.

Résultats trouvés sur Google Books

Cliquer sur une vignette pour aller sur Google Books.

Chargement...

A deux pas du néant (2006)

par Tim Powers

MembresCritiquesPopularitéÉvaluation moyenneMentions
1,0473419,530 (3.64)33
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.… (plus d'informations)
Aucun
Chargement...

Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre

Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre.

» Voir aussi les 33 mentions

Affichage de 1-5 de 34 (suivant | tout afficher)
Better than Earthquake Weather not as good as The Anubis Gates which is more fun. The historical references to Einstein's life seem believable. I like Powers depiction of higher dimensional spaces. I do not like the setting of California. That is also something I disliked about Earthquake Weather and Expiration Date. I liked Last Call better than those other two and it was set more in Vegas than California. I also liked The Stress of Her Regard more than those others, there was more historical depth than this particular one. Anubis Gates was best. Stress second. Last Call third. Three Days to Never and Drawing of the Dark tied for Fourth. Next, Expiration Date and then Earthquake Weather. I have not read the rest of his novels yet. ( )
  mgplavin | Oct 3, 2021 |
It definitely is full of the who's who of cabals, famous personages, Time Travel, and just enough quirky psi and technological hijinks to want me to catapult this novel to one of those must-read realms of creative SF.

I mean, what does Einstein and Charlie Chaplin have in common with time-travel that mimics the trajectory of a swastika? Or a novel that attempts to do the same in it's plot progression? Theoretically, these are some damn cool villains.

The opening is solid and grounded, and even all of the Shakespeare quotations make perfect sense as a means to focus oneself in a timeline. It's cool!

So why didn't I love this?

I think it's probably the characters. I kept losing my "care" focus.

The family stuff was interesting in retrospect, especially when some of that family isn't family but is yourself at a different age or across an erased timeline or as a sacrifice to a better timeline that turned on itself to bite you, your progeny, or your friends on your ass. I love the fact that it got really wacky and strange. Truly.

But it also took it so far away from my love of the characters that I started going glassy-eyed. Especially when the ghosts came into play. Or the sex changes. Or the ragged bursts of time travel and reattachments of lifelines on a revolving helix of galaxies.

Or something like that.

Just how many Mary-s WERE there? Yikes.

At least when Heinlein did it, he spread out the weirdness over many books in small doses and grounded fully in good stories. :) Let's do an all-out 4th dimensional viewpoint romp, shall we? It's impressive, but it's even a bit too much for me! Whoa. :)

Maybe it's just me. I also don't like it when authors don't do ENOUGH of the weird stuff. :) Maybe I'm just impossible to please. :) ( )
  bradleyhorner | Jun 1, 2020 |
Oh man! Just... so much damn fun! Einstein! Jewish mysticism! Time travel?! Nice and smooth... ( )
  Loryndalar | Mar 19, 2020 |
This was more of a thriller than I usually enjoy. I was intrigued by the time travel element, but even though it pretends to be scientific by involving Einstein in its origin, it's pure mysticism. A decent story, but those looking for hard (or any) science will be disappointed. ( )
  chaosfox | Feb 22, 2019 |
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 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. ( )
1 voter williemeikle | Dec 22, 2018 |
Affichage de 1-5 de 34 (suivant | tout afficher)
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 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.
 

Appartient à la série éditoriale

Vous devez vous identifier pour modifier le Partage des connaissances.
Pour plus d'aide, voir la page Aide sur le Partage des connaissances [en anglais].
Titre canonique
Titre original
Titres alternatifs
Date de première publication
Personnes ou personnages
Informations provenant du Partage des connaissances anglais. Modifiez pour passer à votre langue.
Lieux importants
Informations provenant du Partage des connaissances anglais. Modifiez pour passer à votre langue.
Évènements importants
Informations provenant du Partage des connaissances anglais. Modifiez pour passer à votre langue.
Films connexes
Épigraphe
Dédicace
Informations provenant du Partage des connaissances anglais. Modifiez pour passer à votre langue.
For Chris and Teresa Arena

And with thanks to Assaf Asheri, Mike Backes, John Bierer, Jim Blaylock, Didi Chanoch, Russell Galen, Patricia Geary, Tom Gilchrist, Rani Graff, Julia Halperin, John Hertz, Jon Hodge, Varnum Honey, Pat Hough, Barry Levin, Brian and Cathy McCaleb, Karen Meisner, Denny Meyer, Eric Nylund, Aya Shacham, Dave Sandoval, Bill Schafer, Sunila Sen Gupta, David Silberstein, Kristine Sobrero, Ed Thomas, Vered Tochterman, Guy Weiner, Hagit Weiner, Naomi Weiner, Par Winzell, and Mike Yanovich.
Premiers mots
Informations provenant du Partage des connaissances anglais. Modifiez pour passer à votre langue.
The ambulance came bobbing out of the Mercy Medical Center parking lot and swung south on Pine Street, its blue and red lights just winking dots in the bright noon sunshine and the siren echoing away into the cloudless blue vault of the sky. (prologue)
"It doesn't look burned."
Citations
Derniers mots
Informations provenant du Partage des connaissances anglais. Modifiez pour passer à votre langue.
(Cliquez pour voir. Attention : peut vendre la mèche.)
Notice de désambigüisation
Directeur de publication
Courtes éloges de critiques
Informations provenant du Partage des connaissances anglais. Modifiez pour passer à votre langue.
Langue d'origine
Informations provenant du Partage des connaissances anglais. Modifiez pour passer à votre langue.
DDC/MDS canonique
LCC canonique

Références à cette œuvre sur des ressources externes.

Wikipédia en anglais (1)

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.

Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque

Description du livre
Résumé sous forme de haïku

Discussion en cours

Aucun

Couvertures populaires

Vos raccourcis

Évaluation

Moyenne: (3.64)
0.5
1 3
1.5 2
2 15
2.5 8
3 65
3.5 23
4 83
4.5 15
5 36

Est-ce vous ?

Devenez un(e) auteur LibraryThing.

 

À propos | Contact | LibraryThing.com | Respect de la vie privée et règles d'utilisation | Aide/FAQ | Blog | Boutique | APIs | TinyCat | Bibliothèques historiques | Critiques en avant-première | Partage des connaissances | 204,764,126 livres! | Barre supérieure: Toujours visible