= The_Drawing_of_the

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= The_Drawing_of_the_Dark =
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Introduction
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'The Drawing of the Dark' is a historical fantasy novel by Tim Powers
published in 1979 by Del Rey Books.

Plot summary
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In 1529, Brian Duffy, a world-weary Irish mercenary soldier, is hired
in Venice by the mysterious Aurelianus to work as a bouncer at the
Zimmerman Inn, former monastery located in Vienna, and current brewery
of the famous Herzwesten beer.

Meanwhile, the Ottoman Turkish army under Sultan Suleiman I has
achieved its most advanced position yet in their march into Europe,
and is prepared to undertake the siege of Vienna. With the Turkish
army travels the Grand Vizier Ibrahim, a magician who intends to use
horrific spells as part of the siege.

Years earlier, Duffy had spent time in Vienna, and as he returns, he
is haunted by memories of past events and finds himself having visions
of mythical creatures and ambushed by shadowy people and demonic
monsters.

Upon arriving, Duffy reconnects with Epiphany Vogel, a former
girlfriend, and her father Gustav, who is working on a painting he
calls "The Death of St. Michael the Archangel". It seems the painting
is never quite complete, and the elder Vogel is continuously adding
additional detail to the work, causing it to gradually become more and
more obscure.

Then Duffy finds himself not only drafted into the city's defensive
army, but also led by Aurelianus down mystical paths from the
surprisingly old brewery to even more ancient caves beneath the city,
in search of defenses against the approaching army and clues to
Duffy's real nature.

As it turns out, Aurelianus knows more about Duffy and his past than
Duffy himself knows, and his real purpose in hiring him is to protect
the hidden Fisher King, secret spiritual leader of the western world,
and to defend him and the West against the Turkish advance. And the
real reason that Vienna must not be captured by the Turks is that it
is the site of the Herzwesten brewery. Its light and bock beers are
famous throughout Europe, but the dark beer, produced only every seven
hundred years, has supernatural properties and must not be allowed to
fall into enemy hands.

Meanwhile, others are drawn to Vienna in anticipation of significant
events. The so-called "dark birds", magically sensitive individuals
from far flung corners of the world, arrive in the city hoping for a
sip of the Herzwesten dark, and a small group of middle-aged Vikings
have improbably sailed their ship down the Danube River to Vienna,
having sensed that the prophesied final battle of Ragnarok will take
place there.

Reception
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The SF Site called it a "jewel". 'Black Gate' noted that it is "full
of the sort of inventive oddness common to Powers’s works", and
praised both the characterization and the sudden tone shift (from
"autumnal" to "positively wintry" ) halfway through.

James Nicoll has described it as feeling like "a rough draft of a
Powers novel", but emphasized that this is not meant as criticism;
rather, "later Powers novels were even better". At 'Pornokitsch', Amal
El-Mohtar similarly found it to be a "proto-Powers work", containing
"the seeds of future writing that (she) absolutely loved", but faulted
it for excessive Orientalism, and for not portraying the viewpoints of
any of the non-Western characters.

Used myths and historical persons
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*King Arthur/Sigmund (Brian Duffy)
*Merlin (Aurelius Ambrosius).
*Fisher King - The secret king of the west, whose health is tied to
that of the land and must be protected or else the western world will
suffer.
* Roman god Bacchus
* Charon - ferryman
* Gambrinus - brewer
* Antoku Ten-no (the Emperor Antoku)
* Ghost of Finn Mac Cool
* Lady of the Lake, Morgan le Fay
* John Zápolya (loosely based on the real John Zápolya)
* The Morrígan

External links
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*The extremely detailed page about
[http://www.theworksoftimpowers.com/novels/the-drawing-of-the-dark/
The Drawing of the Dark at The Works of Tim Powers]

License
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License URL: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Drawing_of_the_Dark