Yesterday I went to the library, thinking that I wanted to read a really good book about redemption, or possibly just something cheesy which would be enjoyable in the sun. Instead, I picked up two books on more serious topics, which you’ll be hearing about later. But, when I got to the post office, there was a book waiting for me, and oddly enough, it was both cheesy and about redemption.

Alas, it reeked so strongly of cigarettes that I was forced to read it outdoors and scour my hands after I finished it, but that’s hardly the fault of the person who sent it. When selling used books online, people don’t usually mention it when they come with an appalling stench. Funny, that.

At any rate, Dinner at Deviant’s Palace is about a Los Angeles of the future, in a world where an alien being comes from heaven and becomes the messiah. Jaybrush. Los Angeles has greatly declined; most people don’t know how to read, technology is minimal, and history seems largely forgotten. One nice touch in the book was the shifting of words and their meanings. I thought Power captured the shift of language really well, with places changing names and words being used in new, different ways.

Our hero is a Redeemer, a man who is capable of pulling people out of the messiah’s cult, and also a musician, and he is hired to rescue a former flame from the grip of the Jaybirds, as the messiah’s followers call themselves. He has a rather thrilling series of adventures along the way, eventually seizing his target from the stronghold of the messiah, and picking up another woman as well, and then they live happily ever after, more or less.

Yes, it was cheesy science fiction, but I still thought it was an interesting vision of a potential future. I think that Powers did a great job of imagining what the future could be like. Dinner at Deviant’s Place was still pretty good, for what it was, and I am a sucker for post-apocalyptic fiction. No prizewinner or anything, but a pleasant read, and a vague exploration of human nature and our potential to be molded and shaped by forces beyond our control.

I also found it to be an interesting commentary on cults and religion. This seemed particularly timely, given all the recent chaos over children being removed from an LDS compound, and it reminded me that this period in science fiction was particularly interesting because so many authors were so violently anti-religion. It’s a far cry from The Sparrow, which is a religious epic; this book destroys and breaks down faith, leading readers to question the nature of faith and beliefs, and I like that in a novel.

It’s an interesting choice of book to have sent, but I think I’m glad it came.

Demographics:

Dinner at Deviant’s Palace, by Tim Powers. Published 1985, 294 pages. Fiction.