The Anubis Gates
by Tim Powers
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Read in February, 2008
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Read in January, 2008
Ever wonder what it would be like to travel in time and be able to rewrite parts of history? In The Anubis Gates, Brendan Doyle, a professor of nineteenth-century English literature living in 1983 California, accidentally gets to try his hand at it when he is invited by a mad scientist to attend a lecture given by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1810 London. Needless to say, an accident prevents Doyle from returning to his own time (it always does in these books, doesn't it?), so he is stuck i...more
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Read in February, 2007
recommends it for:
People who don't mind reading about English professors time travelling.
Bitchin', this book was bitchin'. If you have any interest in William Faulkner, Proust, or Seamus Heaney, then you might like this book, because it has some poetry in it. But there are no real instances of class or racial issues, and it isn't really related to anything French or Irish, for that matter. The book does have words.
Essentially, Tim Powers devised a shit load of really off-the-wall (mostly supernatural) characters, threw them in an old, worn Adidas shoe box, shook it up a bit...more
Essentially, Tim Powers devised a shit load of really off-the-wall (mostly supernatural) characters, threw them in an old, worn Adidas shoe box, shook it up a bit...more
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Read in March, 2006
This is a bizarre book. Powers has a wild imagination, and takes the reader on a time-travel fantasy back to early 19th century London. The hero/victim is Brendan Doyle, an American literature professor who is a specialist in Coleridge (yes, I love novels that have academics as the protagonists). He is forced to survive in 1810 and deal with a strange cast of characters. My favorites are Horrabin, a clown-faced thug who walks on stilts and runs an underground den of criminals; Jacky, a young wom...more
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Read in May, 2003
Well, you certainly have to admire a guy who can pull this off. It's enough of a challenge to resolve the conundrums faced with time travel, but add in a body-switching werewolf, a deformed clown lord of beggars,
sorcerers, poets, and enough surrealism to make Felini proud, and you can't help but feel obligated to keep reading. I was 20 pages into The Anubis Gates when I decided it wasn't for me. I went out and picked up
a Ruth Rendell novel, came home and after checking out the Amazon reader ...more
sorcerers, poets, and enough surrealism to make Felini proud, and you can't help but feel obligated to keep reading. I was 20 pages into The Anubis Gates when I decided it wasn't for me. I went out and picked up
a Ruth Rendell novel, came home and after checking out the Amazon reader ...more
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Read in April, 2007
recommends it for:
Contemporary Sci-Fi fans
Tim Powers has created a hurricane ride through the England of Coleridge, Byron and others. I suspect the book would be even more entertaining if you have a basic background in these poets and their contemporaries, as the details of their lives feature heavily in the story line. Familiarity with period London might also add to the experience. Such knowledge is not crucial for enjoying the book though.
My only gripe about the book was that t...more
My only gripe about the book was that t...more
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Read in January, 1994
recommends it for:
Anyone who loves time travel stories the way fetishists love their kink porn.
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. Thin...more
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. Thin...more
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Read in December, 1998
recommends it for:
everybody ever
This is one of my favorite books. It's just good. It's about time travel, but it's not. It's about wizards and magic, but it's not. It's about 1800's England, but it's not. And it's just SO GOOD. Tim Powers is a genius for writting this. The pace is fantastic, the writting is fantastic and to this day I still say "'What's a Catastrophy?' 'It's like a small piano. I saw one when I went to see my nephew play his organ.' 'His what?' 'His Organ!' 'People will pay to see anything'" which I ...more
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recommends it for:
Time Travel Fans
Time travel can be a hard thing to make work in a novel, especially when your take on it is as non-standard as Tim Powers. Viewing time as a tunnel with holes in it is something of a large pill to swallow, but once you do this book settles into a nice groove. Powers crafts a fascinating world full of genuinely interesting and well developed characters.
Plus a clown on stilts.
The books has a billion twists and turns, not all of them successfully pulled off, but it is definitely worth the...more
Plus a clown on stilts.
The books has a billion twists and turns, not all of them successfully pulled off, but it is definitely worth the...more
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Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
Kubla Khan
How not to love a book whose climax hinges on how S.T. Coleridge will laudanum-dream the London underground (ala Cirque du Soleil) as his fractured psyche???
But why, for me, does nearly every book's ending shed a star? Loose ends neatly tied, heroes prevailing against desperate odds, villainy come-up'd. But Jesus doesn't want me for a sunbeam - If only I had the discipline to stop reading even the most deliciously wrought novels at that point - just short of climax? - where the plot's arc be...more
But why, for me, does nearly every book's ending shed a star? Loose ends neatly tied, heroes prevailing against desperate odds, villainy come-up'd. But Jesus doesn't want me for a sunbeam - If only I had the discipline to stop reading even the most deliciously wrought novels at that point - just short of climax? - where the plot's arc be...more
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1 comments
A friend loaned me this book long ago. It was his absolute most favorite book at the time. So I cracked the spine and moved right in. When I'm really into a book it becomes an extension of my left arm and tends to get in the way of meals. When I finally returned it, full of crumbs and tea stains, the cover had somehow gone missing. My friend was unhappy with me but I had thoroughly enjoyed his book. Thanks, Nathan.
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Read in January, 1998
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 fab...more
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 fab...more
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Read in August, 2007
recommends it for:
homeboys and bgirls
tim powers is bananas. i don't really know where to begin with this book, but i will say it involves time travelling to 1802 to hear a lecture by samuel taylor coleridge and getting kidnapped by gypsies led by a living wax replica of a multi-millenia old egyptian magician who teams up with a deformed clown who travels on stilts and lives in a building called rat's castle. you know, typical story. anyway, if i were using hustler magazine's rating system, this book would get the "fully ere...more
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What a breath-taking book! Goodness! A cast of hundreds, all rich, well-fleshed out characters. Egyptian gods, evil sorcerors, mad Victorian poets, truly scary clowns, living puppets, cross-dressing, time travel, this had it all! I give it four stars because there came a time when I couldn't keep track of who had switched to what body, and so the motivation (and victims) of several murders confused me. That may have just been my reading of it, though. An amazing feat of literature!
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Read in April, 2007
Picture a man who looks something like Samuel Clemens, with a curly-cue moustache, a monocle, and a corncob pipe. He might have an expensive pocket watch and a sword cane.
After the pleasantries are exchanged, he hands you this book and says, "Here, now, this is a Ripping Good Yarn. I trust that you shall treat the book well and gift it to another reader in need when you have finished? Yes, good."
It is, indeed, a Ripping Good Yarn.
After the pleasantries are exchanged, he hands you this book and says, "Here, now, this is a Ripping Good Yarn. I trust that you shall treat the book well and gift it to another reader in need when you have finished? Yes, good."
It is, indeed, a Ripping Good Yarn.
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Read in November, 2007
An amazing story, so vivid. I can picture the scenes so clearly it's as if I'm right there in the filthy old streets of London.
This story has so many twists and unique details, such as tricky body shifting strategies and dirt being the thing that can kill sorcerers rather than guns or knives, I just love it.
Thanks, Seth. For recommending this one for the book challenge!
This story has so many twists and unique details, such as tricky body shifting strategies and dirt being the thing that can kill sorcerers rather than guns or knives, I just love it.
Thanks, Seth. For recommending this one for the book challenge!
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5 comments
This is my favorite Tim Powers book, which is saying a lot, since I loved everything he wrote all the way through Last Call. His time-travel theory actually makes sense. I love the way characters appear and reappear, and the arcs that they travel over the course of the story. A very satisfying book, and one that I have read over and over.
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Read in April, 2007
I was really getting into this, then got distracted by Master's Degree and it wasn't the same when I picked it back up. I am a sucker for a time travel book and try to read any good one I come across but if anything, this book by Powers has TOO many elements thrown into the mix. Lots of offshoots, plot shifts, side characters.
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A confusing (just at first really) book with time travel, a bit of Egyptian mythology, English poets, and body switching. Layers of inventiveness. I found that I thought there was not enough time spent with the one likeable character, Jacky.
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It took me a half dozen attempts before I managed to get into this book (so many many years ago.) I really don't know why I persisted, but I am ever so glad I did. Indeed, I should look up a copy and reread this, it's been too long.
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