Oh, what a crazy adventure story... It's definitely an "out of the frying pan into the fire" kind of book, there are new dangers in every chapter. So, you have time travel (with some nice circular plots), Egyptian magic and gods, 19th century London, 17th century London, body switching and body snatching, helpless scholars growing into swashbuckling supermen (I probably shouldn't buy it, but whatever), Coleridge and Byron, beggar guilds, grotesque villains and monsters.

The latter are so grotesque that it sometimes felt like I was rushing through curiosity cabinets, rather than reading a novel. I think that was the reason it took me longer than expected to finish the book, considering the kind of story it is. I simply needed a break from the craziness every few chapters or so.

Still, it was a very enjoyable read, and I liked the ending (despite the fact that I could see it coming ;-)) ( )

What a web Tim Powers wove. At a certain point I was worried about predictability, but that worry was unfounded. ( )

This could have been so much better if I wasn't trying to figure out what was going on all the time. ( )

Fun & weird time-travel epic. This was the first Tim Powers book I ever read - and it turned me into an immediate fan. ( )

This book was billed as a classic 'Steam Punk' story that helped define the genre ... the only problem here was that there was NO steam [tech:] and there was little or no punk either. In fact, the only way it fits here would be to credit the time period as Victorian (IMHO a useless expansion of the term), before mixing in a tremendous amount of magic in what should be more honestly billed as a time-travel fantasy. That said … it WAS a pretty decent time-travel story :)

The story opens with a magical spell gone wrong which tears holes [gates:] in the time-continuum which serves of the principle mechanism for the subsequent time-travel activities. Powers does a masterful job of weaving two intriguing plotlines … one from the future 20th century and one based in the host 19th century … both of which revolve around the protagonist, one Brendan Doyle, a mediocre 20th century scholar specializing in an obscure 19th century poet (whom he hopes to meet). Not long into the tale, Doyle becomes stranded in the past where he struggles to survive in the dark underworld of London beggars while avoiding capture by the local gypsies who fear he may upset their own schemes. Along the way we are introduced to a system of magic that is at once extremely limited when in connection with the earth and tremendously powerful (the ability to make a virtual army of homunculi, or ka’s, is really over the top IMHO). Stir in a body snatching werewolf, an Egyptian god or two, a secret society, a few elemental spirits, and the real story behind the Punch and Judy puppets for an entertaining mix of odds and ends that keep your interest as the mysteries unfold. The main problem with the story is that Powers touches so many things without really going into much detail … making it hard to leave any lasting impression.
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