The Anubis Gates

Rating:
Summary: Intense, fantastical, and awe-inspiring.
Review: It's always a shock when I notice that this book is out of print; the world just seems to make a little less sense. Conversely, it's a relief to see a new edition like this one. For those not familiar with Tim Powers' work, this book is still the best place to start. It features a rich cast of characters and a vivid 17th century London that initially offers only glimpses of the plotting and magic churning behind the scenes. A Tim Powers book can span years or even the lifetimes of his protaganists. These reluctant heroes fight for survival against the secret evil that lies just beneath the surface of their everyday lives, and anything can happen because Tim doesn't do sequels. The Anubis Gates in particular has many awe-inspiring scenes in it, and is just an unbelievable amount of fun.... So why didn't I give it a 10? I'm only 30 years old; maybe I'll read something better someday. (Hey, I can dream, can't I?!

Rating:
Summary: fantasy worth reading
Review: The Anubis Gates is a book for those who like a mix of fantasy and science fiction without Faeries. Time travel, ancient Aegyptian gods and other magical beings (but no faeries) are well mixed with 17th Century London. Historical characters include Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Powers' plotting is well-done and keeps the reader wondering about the eventual outcome. I found his writing style enjoyable and his craftsmanship admirable. This is a book worth reading. Len Roberts [e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: breathtaking tour de force
Review: Tim Powers is a marvellous author. This time his imagination takes you on a time-travelling trip. True, it has been done before. Just not like this. Tim Powers makes it real. The research he has done for this novel probably even has some historians starting to believe in the possibility.
The Anubis Gates is not just a fantasy novel. It's pure adventure. And much more. It's part literature, the way the author is using his language skills, part fantasy, part comical roller coaster ride. I never put the book down. Not even after my third time. You won't either.

Rating:
Summary: A fabulous tale of time-travel
Review: Set aside a generous block of time. Sit back and get comfortable. You are about to embark on an incredible adventure, a breakneck ride. And you are in good hands.

The story opens in 1802. Two ancient sorcerers are planning a magical spell to help restore Egypt as an independent world power, by driving out the British. They're in the countryside just outside of London because the spell must be cast from the heart of the British kingdom. Their magic is supposed to open the gates between the present time and the Egyptian underworld. Ancient gods will then burst out in modern (1810) England, suppress all resistance and restore Egypt to its supremacy.

For hundreds of years the sorcerers and their network have been trying to use magic to achieve this aim, but something (they think it is linked with Christianity) is causing the magic to go awry. Over the past eighteen centuries, sorcery has become much more difficult and personally costly to the sorcerer. And despite their best efforts, magic is unpredictable and twisted in its effects. The sorcerers cast their spell, but it apparently doesn't do what it was supposed to do.

Another scene opens in London in 1983. A rich and brilliant man has discovered a way to time travel. He engages an expert on Coleridge (Brendan Doyle) to accompany him and ten other people who have paid a million dollars each to go back in time to the year 1810 to hear a lecture by the famous poet. The trip to 1810 goes smoothly and the travelers hear the lecture. But before Doyle can return with the others, he is kidnapped by the sorcerer.

Doyle soon finds out that the sorcerer isn't his only enemy. Other people from the future are there, and are trying to kill him. While struggling with his two goals -- staying alive and returning to 1983 -- Doyle finds himself up against incredible, colorful, and ruthless characters, whose menace is compounded by the widespread use of magic. Further complicating the story are another time jump (to 1684 and back to 1810); and someone who can do body-switching.

The Anubis Gates keeps you guessing; you are often following it closely so you don't get left behind, and you bump up against some surprising twist. But the pace is not so hectic that it doesn't give you pause to think about other levels to the story. Keeping track of the timelines of characters -- who is from where and when -- leads to thoughts about the nature of identity, and our relation to time. And body-switching seems to become a metaphor for reincarnation.

The Anubis Gates delivers a thoroughly satisfying ride.

Rating:
Summary: Weird and Wonderful
Review: Tim Power's "The Anubis Gates" is one of the books that makes me squeal (ok...maybe not literally) with delight. You know the kind. You read and read, and things are good, but nothing is new, nothing is exciting. Then a friend drops a book into your hands, by someone you've never read before. You start the book, hoping against hope, and within a couple of pages you're hooked.

This is how it happened for me and "The Anubis Gates". A mix of Egyptian mythology and time travel? Heck yeah! Where do I sign up? Aside from a fresh mixture of the known and the unknown, Powers' prose is great fun to read.

Rating:
Summary: This book is greatly overrated
Review:
This novel is just one or two rungs above ususal low-level fantasy stuff. Supposed to be wonderful but definitely not. Quite imaginative but undescriminating and with oh-no-not-again slugs of action too much like a movie, and with the author being an English teacher he ought to know better -- supposed to be very "well researched" but not really, it reads like it was writen by a bloke who writes for a hobby and has a dead shaky understanding of the setting in terms of language, politics, culture, etc. Nor can he bring characters to life or make people or situations attractive so he just throws in more distr-action. Not a fan. Wouldn't read any more of his.

Rating:
Summary: Not only for history or sci-fi buffs
Review: I was recommended this book by a co-worker who knew I liked the works of Umberto Eco. Though less erudite, Powers does spin a great tale by reworking actual historical facts and filling in the gaps with far-out fiction. Somehow he makes it work. If I tried to tell anyone the plot of this book, I would get the most absurd looks imaginable.

I started out hating this book, if only because I have no interest in the politics and poetry of the early 19th century. All I can say is "stick with it". The amazing writing and terrific story will pull you happily thru.

This would have been a 5/5 if I was more learned about the 19th century. If you are, then this is definitely the book for you.