by Tim Powers
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Product Description
Los Angeles is filled with ghosts — and half-ghosts, and ghost hunters, and ghost junkies — chasing each other in a mad quest for immortality. As a series of disasters strikes Los Angeles, a young boy inhales the last breath of Thomas Edison, and becomes a precious prize in a deadly hunt for the elusive vital spark. Brimming with the wild imagination and heart-stopping escapades that won Tim Powers the World Fantasy Award, Expiration Date is an exuberant and inventive tale from one of fantasy’s most original talents.
Amazon.com
Koot Parganas has stolen the ghost of Thomas Edison, preserved in a hidden glass vial. Now he's on the run through the dark underside of Los Angeles, among characters who extend their lives and enhance their power by catching and absorbing the ghosts of the recently dead. Like The Anubis Gates and On Stranger Tides, this fantasy has an astonishing power that remains long after the last page is turned.
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Average Customer Review:
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
 Save Yourself The Time and Read A Californian Almanac, 2007-12-21
I enjoyed the Anubis Gates and saw another Tim Powers novel and decided to give it a try. I read a lot. Everything from Milton and Dante to Douglas Adams and Robert L. Forward.
This book is full of cruft. There's no better way to describe it. It tries to be a character piece on mid 90's California as seen through the eyes of Tim Powers and... Wow, it sucks. Holy cow, does it ever suck. Filled with billions of details about the places the characters are in, and almost as many details about the characters themselves, it overwhelms you with a tide of minutiae. Unfortunately, all of these details serve no higher purpose.
I don't mind a book being a chore to read, if it's worth it. The level of entertainment should outweigh the level of effort needed to finish the book. It doesn't even come close on this one.
I've stopped reading pulp sci-fi by forgettable authors halfway through before, but this is the first time I've ever done the same to a book by a skilled author. It's that bad. I tried, I really did. But it sucks.
When I want a billion tiresome details about a particular era in Californian history, I'll grab an almanac. When I want a good book, I certainly won't grab this one.
If there were high-minded intellectual themes behind it, that'd be one thing. If there were a solid story behind it, that'd be another. But it's simply dreck and apparently only got published on name power alone.
For shame.
3 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
 exciting paranormal thriller , 2007-03-28
Los Angeles is a city filled with beings not pumping gas or parking cars. Instead L.A. is a ghost town loaded with otherworldly spirits, some souls with a foot in the grave and the other on the freeway, and humans seeking to extend their LAST CALL on earth. Life and after life are competitors to obtain immortality.
In this weird 1990s Los Angeles, eleven years old Koot Parganas is raised by parents who worship dead Mahatmas and has been warned not to touch certain artifacts. However, the preadolescent ignores his parental warning to stay away from sacred items and breaks the bust of Dante. Inside is a glass vial that contains the preserved ghost of Thomas Alva Edison; Koot steals the container and the spirit inside. However, ghosthunters and ghost addicts can "see" the bright lit spirit of the late inventor. They want it and are inspired because for no perspiration on their part they can gain incredible power. Sensing dangerous Hurricane Weather in which he is the eye of the storm, Koot flees with mortals, semi paranormals, and a canine chasing after him.
This is an exciting paranormal thriller that grips the audience once Koot disobeys his parents and never slows down as he finds many of the residents (not all living) want what he holds. The story line is fast-paced with many eccentric characters but Koot owns the plot. Readers will appreciate his L.A. "joy ride".
Harriet Klausner
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Ride Metro, 2006-07-02
I have to say this is the first Tim Powers book I have ever read. I bought it because the plot outline made so little sense that I figured the author must have done a hell of a job to get his story straight. He did. I especially enjoyed the mixture of the fantastic and surreal ghost-ridden society smoothly blended with present day Los Angeles. I have to say, I rode the LA public buses for a year, so that may explain part of my fascination for the novel. Using an accurate description of LA as a sober backdrop of this fantasy story works wonders in my opinion. It made me believe and go along with all of the novel's twists and turns. Young boy swallows the ghost of Edison which used to be kept on the mantlepiece? Sure!
5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
Past its Freshness, 2006-02-22
What I am about to write hurts me more than it's going to hurt you.
Reason one: I am a huge Tim Powers fan. I love nearly everything he has written and thrust his books into the hands of as many readers as I can find.
Reason two: Powers fans are a rabid and bloodthirsty bunch and they will make me pay for this review by racking up "unhelpful" votes at a blurring rate.
But I feel I have to, as I have just finished reading "Expiration Date" for the third time. The first time I found it incomprehensible. The second time I found it tiresome. This time I am simply perplexed as to why it was written.
On the surface, the plot is typically Powersian - there are ghosts in the world, discorporate lives that drift near the places they died or places to which they have an emotional connection. There are other people who gain a sort of "high" by snorting or smoking these souls. When a big ghost is revealed in the first few pages, all the ghost-smokers want a piece of the action, but the ghost himself isn't particularly interested in being consumed. Madcap hi-jinx ensue.
Tim Powers is a master of research, his scenes and historical facts are above reproach. But sometimes he falls down on the emotion quotient and motivations seem arbitrary. This is especially true of "Expiration Date". Powers splinters his focus by having three "main" characters and expecting us to bond with the many secondary characters. There are two villains, one semi-villain and a host of ghosts who have more brainpower than all the living characters combined.
Koot Hootie Parganas is an 11-year-old Indian who is being groomed by his parents to be a holy man, but he sneaks burgers when they aren't looking and is frustrated by his unusual life. He knows there is something very special about the bust of Dante on the mantle and, in frustration, smashed the bust, steals the contents (which happen to be the ghost of Thomas Edison, captured with his last breath) and heads for the hills. Edison's ghost is so "big" (presumably, "tasty" or providing a better "high") that all the ghost suckers in LA are alerted to his presence and set off to eat him up. But Powers is never clear on what, exactly, eating a big ghost would do for the ghost eater. I can see if it gave one power over all others, but if it's really just an exceptionally calorie-laden meal, I just don't see why anyone would kill for it.
Pete Sullivan, returned to LA after years on the road, is a twin. His sister, Sukie, aware that Loretta de Larava (about which more later) is on her trail, kills herself, but not before alerting Pete to the chase. The pair used to work for Loretta, who hired them because ghosts are attracted to twins. They are fascinated that there are two of the same thing and so come out to look.
Kootie accidentally snorts Edison, then hooks up with Pete so they can face down Loretta and free Edison and Pete's dad before Halloween. Similarly, the reader is accidentally confused, then bored out of his mind before the end of the book.
Powers leaves too many questions in his quest for cool. Much of this book's story is infused with "wouldn't it be cool if" ideas that, on the surface, are indeed cool. But once you try to make sense of them within the context of the story it all breaks down. For example, why is Edison's ghost so delicious that people are willing to kill in order to eat it? Powers never tells us; we are expected to go along for the ride. Also, ghosts who are consumed do not go away; rather, they live beneath the surface of the consumer's mind, hollering when stressed or confused or hungry. Well. I enjoy a good chicken McNugget now and again, but if they all started cock-a-doodle-dooing when I hadn't had one in a while, I think I'd just say no.
Just Say No. That's it, I think. "Expiration Date" is Powers's meditation on drug addiction. All these people running around, hungry for the next ghost, the next fix. He even has Kootie run into a crack addict to underscore the point. In this context, I suppose, even the yowling gullet-ghosts make a certain degree of sense, but the overall concept of the book does not. Any addict would be happy with a series of small highs and would forego the big one, especially if getting the big one meant expenditure of energy.
Much of what happens in the ghost world is just silly Beeetlejuice stuff. For example, when Loretta's hair bands snap around her forehead and the top of her head gets pulled to a teeny point and her arm, which is holding a heavy gun, gets stretched and pulled to the floor. It's not scary, it's not poignant, and it's just kind of ridiculous.
A bad Tim Powers book is better than about 90% of all the fantasy out there, so the reader should not take this review as a complete shutout. As I said, I have read it three times. But if I were trying to get a new reader hooked on Powers, I would not give them this book or "Earthquake Weather".
1 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
An unworthy sequel to Last Call, 2006-02-14
This novel sucks. That's all I'm going to write about it.
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