"Anubis Gates" by Tim Powers

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	• The Anubis Gates Tim Powers Ace Trade, 1997 - 400 pages average customer review:based on 93 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Good but not great

WARNING: Very minor spoilers throughout

This is a book that you definitely need to keep up with. The number of plot threads and characters is pretty high, and it doesn't help that characters switch bodies at some points. I felt that there were a few too many characters as some seemed to just be plot devices to move the main characters into the right positions on the board (e.g. Chinnie has some startling revelations near the end that seem to come out of nowhere). Powers has an in medias res writing style so sometimes a section of the book will be completely incomprehensible until a few dozen pages later (e.g. old man with the bones). The number of characters/threads hurts the book some, as the characters are not very deep and sometimes their personalities change to serve the plot.

As with other Powers' books, the world is interesting and the "rules" of the magics are consistent and intriguing.

Ending felt somewhat cobbled together as though Powers was rushing to move all of the characters into the right positions for the big finale. The are a few deux ex machina plot devices just to get the right people where they're supposed to be (e.g. Big Biter).

A decent read, but not as strong as Declare.

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"Anubis Gates" by Tim Powers

This book is easily one of the 10 best books I've ever read. It turned me on to the works of writer Tim Powers, and I have now read every one of his novels (and most of his short stories, as well). "The Anubis Gates" is easily one of his masterpieces. It is usually lumped under SF or Fantasy in bookstores, because they honestly don't know what to make of it - it IS both SF and Fantasy, but so much more. For lovers of dark, modern fantasy - or anyone who loves a great time-travel tale unlike any other - this book is highly recommended. I also recommend Powers' "Last Call" - but it is not for the faint of heart.

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Great time-travel novel

This is one of the few books that I've ever read to my husband that he couldn't figure out before the end. Tim Powers and his billion-threaded plots defy attempts to predict their outcome. Definitely and enjoyable read. Powers knows how to weave a very tight plot that still leaves room for humor and whimsey. Highly recommended.

When Poetry Turns Deadly

If you think it would be impossible to meld Egyptian gods, time travel, poetry, and historical fiction, think again, because this book does it.

Brendan Doyle, a scholar with expertise in Samuel Coleridge and the (fictional) William Ashbless poets of the early 19th century, is drawn into a scheme to actually travel back to the period of those poets via `gaps' in the integrity of time flow left from the performance of a major spell by a mysterious survivor/sorcerer of ancient Egypt. Kidnapped and marooned in this time period, Doyle is introduced to the underwold of that London, becoming a beggar who must hide from the sorcerer's disciples (and their ka's, replicas grown from the original's blood). Figuring out why he is object of such attention and determining what to do about it forms the balance of this work.

The action is fast paced, the situation complex and in places appropriately horrific, the described environs of London and Egypt in that period very well done. Most of the characters were well drawn, from the ka Romany to Jackie the beggar, and their motivations and actions normally made good sense. Historically, this seems to be quite accurate in terms of known events, from the Duke of Monmouth's attempts to take the English crown to the known early life of Lord Byron. Some of the images and ideas of this book are excellent, from little four inch high men to a valid, believable werewolf. And it does provide an interesting explanation for some of Coleridge's visions.

Where I had some problems with this work was with the character of Doyle himself as he changes from something of an ivory-tower milquetoast to a man of action and derring-do, as the change just did not strike me as totally believable, even given that he was almost forced into such action or die. In some of the later stages of the book, I also had trouble following just who was who, especially for some of the minor characters (why this confusion exists is one of the mainstays of the plot).

But most disappointing to me was that Powers basically copped out on providing any answer to the philosophical question that time travel almost necessarily entails: if you go back in time, are all your actions from that point on totally pre-determined (else history would change), is there some wiggle room for self-determination if the actions were never documented; or can history be changed and a new universe born? How he managed to not answer this forms a somewhat surprising coda to the main action, good in its own right, but still left me feeling a little cheated.

Still, a strong action novel, well researched, and very different from most books that fall under the umbrella of `time-travel'.

--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)

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Very Good Read

To-date (may soon be overturned as I'm trying a new one from Tim Powers now) -- this is the best book Tim Powers has written. I have tried some of his other stuff and it has been like he is a one-hit wonder. The Anubis Gates is a very good read that he has not matched again in my view. Here's hoping that my current trial of another of his books comes close to this one.

reviews: 1, 2, page 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

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