...And unmoor'd souls may drift on stranger tides
Than those men know of, and be overthrown
By winds that would not even stir a hair ...
--William Ashbless
The next Tim Powers novel to hit the shelves was the wonderful On Stranger Tides. This superb fantasy adventure takes place during the early years of the nineteenth century in a Caribbean fertile with voodoo magic . Once more the author takes as his framework the rich history of his chosen period and binds a fiction around it so tightly and so seamlessly that you find it hard to believe that was not his version of events that actually occurred.
On Stranger Tides sees Powers return again to some of his favorite obsessions. This book is possitively brimming with raw magic and as in other Powers stories, we see the cost of sourcery to those dabble in its arcane secrets. Here, as in The Anubis Gates, we have a central protagonist forced by circumstance into lifestyle alien to him,
and here also Powers continues to explore his fascination with the concept of body switching. Add to this recipe the author's knowledge of swordplay, sailing and puppetry, not to mention the way he manages to emerse his reader in the salty waters of the time and the result is a thoroughly exotic and satisfying read.
This book was first published in hard cover by Ace (now part of the Penguin Putnam organisation) in November 1987. ISBN 0-441-62683-1, it originally sold for $16.95. Copies of this first edition are widely available in varying conditions. The wonderful cover art was by Jim Gurney.
Also available are certain collectors copies published virtually at the same time by Ultramarine Press, NY. These are actually the Ace edition presented in a variety of special bindings. They come in three distinct varieties. All are hard covers, 150 copies of which are bound in quarter red morocco leather, 134 bound in half citron morocco and 16 lettered copies bound in full leather (I am not sure what colour). All are signed by Powers and numbered or lettered as applicable. These highly collectable volumes have all been hand bound by Dennis Gouey.
Though rare and limited, there seem to be a suprising number of these editions regularly available on the collectors market . Prices vary from dealer to dealer and currently the quarter and half bound numbered copies are being offered anywhere between $125 and $250. The one full bound leather copy I have seen for sale was being offered at $750.
To look for these or other copies of On Stranger Tides, try following these links to Bookfinder.com or Advanced Book Exchange.
1988 saw further printings of this novel. The Science Fiction Book Club released their own hard cover edition in April (#12005) costing $6.98. on the surface this edition seems identical to the Ace hardcover though their are distinct differences. "Book Club Edition" is printed on the inside front flap of the dustjacket. Also wheras the boards of the Ace edition are red with a black spine, the book club edition is black with a red spine! Similarly the Ace edition features marbled red endpapers whilst the endpapers of the BC edition are white.
The UK first edition came in hardcover from Grafton (Now HarperCollins) in August 1988. ISBN 0-246-13152-7, it cost £11.95. Only 2000 copies were printed making this edition now quite scarce. Also released by Grafton at the same time was a trade paperback edition costing £6.96. ISBN 0-24613236-1. The extraordinary cover art was by Richard Clifton-Dey.
The first US paperback edition was printed in November 1988, published by Ace at a price of $3.95. ISBN 0-441-62686-6. This used the same artwork as the HC, but as you can see, featured a slightly different cover layout. Fine copies of this edition are rare, but if you hunt around you'll probably find one.
The most recent (Ha!) edition was a reprint in the UK by Grafton in August 1989. A paperback, this edition carried the ISBN 0-586-07282-9, it cost £3.99. This edition features the same artwork as the other Grafton releases.
Page created 30th May 1998 - Last Updated:
© John Berlyne