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I just read Stolen Skies by Tim Powers, which was published last year. It is his latest book, and he is my favorite writer. His first two books, which I did not care for, were science fiction. With The Drawing of the Dark (1979), his third book, he found a home in the genre of dark fantasy. In that book, Arthur and Merlin help central Europe fight off an all-out assault from the east, using magical beer. Some books are darker than others, and a few are so horrifying they were hard to get through (e.g., The Stress of Her Regard, 1989). I still consider The Anubis Gates (1983), his fourth book, to be his best. In that book, Egyptian wizards in England try to restore their dead gods to power. Difficulties and time travel ensue. Stolen Skies I read in two three-hour sessions and I only put it down because I had no choice. In Stolen Skies, crop circles are explained, and aliens from outside our SpaceTime continuum threaten to destroy just about everything. A couple of unlikely protagonists, ex-federal agents, who have experience with the horror that underlies reality (Alternate Routes, 2018, and Forced Perspectives, 2020) with various helpers (including several ghosts), are all that stands against them. The book begins with the difference between real crop circles and fake ones. Agent Castine, one of our two protagonists with experience of the supernatural, can see a few minutes into the past. She sees the aliens at work, but tells no one. That same day she is sent to California, for reasons that are not immediately clear, and is thrown back into a mix of purposes and events familiar from the preceding two books. I strongly suggest that you read the first two books in the series before you read Stolen Skies. even though each book can stand on its own.