Alternate Routes by Tim Powers

Los Angeles freeways with off-ramps that appear and disappear, offering a glimpse of an empty desert highway. Covert government agencies with secret agendas and an assortment of oddball characters (real, imagined and somewhere in between) all populate the latest ghost story from the mind of Tim Powers in Alternate Routes. Sebastian Vickery, ex-Secret Service agency living off the grid and driving for supernatural-evasion car service stumbles onto as supernatural events appear to be ramping up and heading for a place where not only his life is in danger, but all of Los Angeles is in danger.

Vickery is aided by agent Ingrid Castine, a homeless boy, and a few supernatural or supernatural adjacent friends. In order to save themselves and L.A., they may have to travel down the ghost ramp into that strange desert world of the Labyrinth. A world that few people have returned from.

There is no denying that Tim Powers is talented. He creates a fascinating world with enough similarities to our own that the bizarre twists and turns feel more jarring the more you learn about how this world is different. It takes a bit of concentration to follow the turns in the plot, but Powers manages to bring the story together for an exciting conclusion. There are a number of characters who are quite interesting, but Vickery and Castine as the main characters don’t stand out quite enough for the prominent role they play in the story.

The audiobook is narrated by Bronson Pinchot who is an amazing voice actor who quickly makes you forget that it is only one person narrating these many characters. Given the ghostly tone of some characters and sections of the book, it does make hearing difficult unless you are in a low-noise environment.

The pacing is steady and Powers is always interesting. While an entertaining read/listen, I wouldn’t recommend this as the first book to sample Powers’s writing. If you are already a fan, you will enjoy this book as well.

I was provided a copy of this audiobook by the publisher.

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