The Anubis Gates

The Anubis Gates offers a complicated time travel story with Weird infusions of body-switching and Victorian demimonde hustle. Powers combines intricate plotting with arcane cultural history, the resulting story amounting to a juggernaut conspiracy-cum-secret history of Western civilisation (at least, through 1983). The resulting read is a romp, with action and memorable characters galore: this in itself is enough to commend another Powers novel when the mood hits. (Declare especially looks promising). My overall experience, however, was more than just a fun diversion: detailed morsels from history were the reason, with Powers as wide-ranging in his selection as he is meticulous in his excavation.

The setting is primarily 1810 London show more with an influential strain of Egyptian magic at play, supplying the occult influence over Western civilisation. (An online check of British history suggests the London setting gives a strong Victorian vibe despite nominally being Georgian / Regency). It is interesting that two camps, each powerful in its own right, are essentially at odds with one another without direct confrontation. This arrangement allows Powers to avoid the cliche of Good versus Evil on the level of superheroes and villains, though perhaps in this case it would be Evil vs Evil, seemingly thwarted by an Everyman.

Ashbless as a fictional poet is as intriguing a creation as the story at large, as is his poem "Twelve Hours of the Night". There exists a chapbook from 1985, produced in connection with a panel presentation by Powers & J Blaylock. That said, Byron and Coleridge have brilliant cameos here, I suspect even more impressive the more familiar the reader is with their specific biographies. show less

Re-Read 8/17/16

Well, apparently, the universe doesn't want me to write a review, so let's try this a third time. :)

I wanted to like this re-read a lot more than the first, but unfortunately, the things I thought were uninteresting the first time around, like the Egypt expedition, were still uninteresting, but I stuck around because all the run-ins with the egyptian magicians was still pretty damn wonderful.

As for the first half of the novel, I'd easily give it 5 stars. I mean, where else can you see some unknown poet scholar of Coleridge and an even more unknown poet by the name of Ashbless turn into a time-travelling, swashbuckling hero able to make mortal enemies of near-immortal Egyptian wizards, and do it all the while in 1810 show more London for 35 more years?

The details and the plot and the funny bits are absolutely great. I like Doyle before and after his transformation into an orange ape, too. :) Perhaps more after his transformation. I love Dog-Face Joe, the body-switching werewolf, all the dirty streets of London, and practically every single enemy in the book. So many of them had other sides to them and evil is not absolute. :)

I still regard this book very highly, especially for the ideas, the wonderful ideas, the surprising magic system, the awesome time travel problems and its clever solutions. Even the writing is clear and interesting well past the middle part, and there was nothing in it to really turn me off about it except, perhaps, that it was too light and too action-y? I don't know. I didn't feel very invested. It turned around again, of course, and the ending was very satisfying, but not enough to knock this book up to a 5 where my *mind* thinks it should be, but my *heart* refuses to budge.


Old Review:

I was surprised to find a novel that was much more complicated and rich than I might have otherwise expected. I knew this was a time travel book, and I knew there would be magic in it. I didn't expect it to be forerunner of the steampunk movement or to be so literary. Mr. Powers put a lot of consideration into the lives portrayed here, and while Doyle was hard to truly love, he grew on me as he grew as a character. I really liked him by the end. There are many twists and turns to the story, and the plot is both intricate and complex.
The novel is in third-persion limited omniscience, which allows for a great deal of variety, while sacrificing the immediacy and the feeling of being in the character's skin. I almost wish it was written in first-person, because the sheer amount of detail and description in 1810 London was astounding and beautiful in the horrible way those grubby English types can be, and feeling what he felt would have been an extraordinary treat.
This is no urban fantasy novel. The magic was strange and had some very curious aspects to it, and pitting a magical viewpoint with a time-traveler in a closed-loop system felt like a stroke a of genius.

I have to say that the novel, while sometimes slow, was well thought-out and complex. I think it succeeded as a traditional fantasy novel, a traditional science-fiction novel, and also as a traditional horror novel in equal parts. I may be jaded by modern fiction that throws together whichever genres you like to make a goulash that's tasty and strange, or even some science fiction or fantasy that simply draws from the tradition of horror. This novel balances all three and even spares a tithe to mystery, romance, action-adventure, social-commentary a-la Dickens, and poetry. The fact that Mr. Powers pulls it all off is a testament to skill as a writer. show less

There are two books I'll re-read again and again. This is one.

At the surface this is just the best time travel romp ever written, but underneath is a deliberate analogy for growth of a person, and the violent transition that necessitates.

I'd like to say that my primary enjoyment is the heady analogy, but really I'm just entranced by the macabre characters, vivid setting, and delightful take on time travel that is so much more rewarding than the typical, "oh noes, a rip in the fabric of blah blah blah!" nonsense.

Tim Powers is at his best with wacked-out time travel stories, and that's precisely what this is. He basically took the entire collection of English-language literary devices and tossed them into one book. And then added some poetry. And some genderfuckery. And Ancient Egyptian myths and legends. And, also, did I mention the time travel?

So. A mild-mannered literature professor (this is, um, something of a theme character in Powers' work) goes back to the time of Lord Byron, and - look. Things happen. I'm not going to spoil it. Suffice to say that this is the kind of book time travel fans read with joy and sorrow - joy because oh my god, so awesome, and sorrow because sooner or later the joy will be over.

The book isn't without flaws - show more Powers was still a fairly unseasoned writer when he produced this, and it shows. But, seriously, whenever I re-read this, I'm having too much fun to care. show less

This book was bonkers. Absolutely bonkers! I can’t decide if it’s bonkers in a “wow, that was fun” way or if it teeters too close to the edge of “WTF did I just read?” Either way, it kept me on my toes.

The English major in me was thrilled to see real historical figures like Coleridge and Byron woven into the chaos. They felt right at home in the mix of magic, time travel, and Victorian London’s grime. It added a layer of literary joy that balanced the crazier aspects of the novel.

The plot is the real issue. It's convoluted and messed up and... like I said... bonkers. I lost the thread a few times, and I’m pretty sure Tim Powers might have, too. There are a lot of tangents, weird trains of thought, and side quests that show more get more airtime than they probably need. That said, the epilogue was satisfying, so kudos to Powers for sticking the landing on a twisting, confusing tale.

It’s also worth noting that this book was written in 1983, and it definitely reads that way. It has the sprawling, old-school fantasy vibe that isn’t afraid to meander, take detours, and make you work for the payoff. It reminded me a lot of Clive Barker's writing with a mix of The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis.

Overall, The Anubis Gates is a mixed bag of brilliance and nuttiness. The detailed historical setting and the fascinating blend of real and fantastical elements kept me engaged even when the plot lost me. show less

Time travel, body swapping, Ancient Egyptian blood magic, lycanthropy, mutant beings in the sewers of early 19th C London, and a meeting with Coleridge. Yep, it was Tim Powers time again, and a reread of his classic THE ANUBIS GATES.

The Powers imagination is on full throttle in this one right from the start, and it's a wild ride through the aforementioned tropes, with Powers jugging a variety of characters, plots, sub-plots and timelines in a riotously entertaining romp.

He keeps everything just on the cusp of falling apart into incoherence, driving set piece after set piece at you until you give in, go with the flow and get carried along by the sheer manic exuberance of the thing.

It's a wonderful feat of imagination, a wonderful bit of show more writing and, in the Zeisling Press hardcover I've got, a wonderfully presented package all round, with an intro by Ramsey Campbel for good measure.

It's a favorite thing of mine, and one I recommend to everyone who asks what I think they should read. So, go and read it if you haven't. It's truly magical. show less

Not really steampunk but it's fun nonetheless. The things Tim does well (fast-paced without being a blur; well plotted with mysterious flash-forwards; lots of hallucinatory action) outnumber, though unfortunately don’t hide, what Tim messes up (flat characters and a self-conscious literary style).

The big problem of the book is its style. The exciting confusion of the narrative is sometimes bogged down by Tim’s sometimes convoluted and indirect writing. Sometimes he overwrites, too, like in the first chapter/prologue. It’s so bad that I almost stopped reading. Sometimes the style is good. Tim uses some interesting verbs, like "bellyed out" or "accordioned back" and pulls off some fancy, though convoluted, prolepses and narrative show more twists. In fact, the entire book could be described as convoluted, and it works for the most part. I just wish the style conveyed the narrative a little more smoothly – its overwhelming enough.

The story has so many elliptically revealed details that you feel like rereading right after you finish. That’s a huge accomplishment for B-list sci-fi. show less