The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers (August 2019)

[Jon]

Sorry for the late pick this month!

I picked this one for two reasons. I haven't read many books from the Philip K Dick Award list which is why I looked there first. I've never read a Tim Powers book even though I've been told many times that I'll probably enjoy his work. Let's see how this works out for me.

Other Philip K Dick Award nominees that year include Tea with the Black Dragon, The Zen Gun, Benefits, The Floating Gods and Millennium. It looks like this is the second year that the award was given.

[Nick]

I only just noticed this topic! One day I'm going to have to figure out how to set my notifications so it tells me when new stuff appears in the group!

[Nick]

I downloaded this yesterday - not knowing much about it and without much in the way of preconceptions - and ended up staying up a least two hours longer than I should have because I couldn't put it down.

Whatever other faults the book may have, it has so far been a wonderfully swashbuckling, romping adventure! Not at all the sort of thing I associated with the memory of PKD!

[Jon]

Nick said: I only just noticed this topic!

Completely my fault for starting so late in the month!


Through Ch 4 - pg 126

Fun fact, up until earlier this year I lived in Fullerton, Ca, mentioned in Ch 1. It was a little weird to read that sentence.

The prologue was confusing and Ch 1 was a little bit of a slog but at some point I did start to get sucked in. Looking forward to 'a wonderfully swashbuckling, romping adventure!'

[Jon]

Through Ch 8 - pg 272

Chapter 5 started off with a bang, really into it at this point.

What's up with the old beggar with half of a face? That little interaction was really strange, going to an empty lot and looking at a skull.

There are odd moments of humor, like when Jacky gives Carrington the password for a brothel.

The other thing that I've noticed are some fantastical elements that I really didn't expect. Fire elementals, the ka and body jumping, just to name a few. I found the scene with the fire elementals to be humorous as well, which is strange given what is happening at that point.

[Nick]

Jon wrote: "What's up with the old beggar with half of a face? That little interaction was really strange, going to an empty lot and looking at a skull."

That's the sort of thing I most enjoy about time travel stories! You know it's all going to be meaningful at some point, the fun is in the guessing.

And yes, it seems to me to be a fantasy book rather than a SF book. Everything that happens is because of magic, more or less.

[Jon]

Nick wrote: "You know it's all going to be meaningful at some point, the fun is in the guessing."

Yup, a few of those pins have started to fall, including the old beggar!

Nick wrote: "And yes, it seems to me to be a fantasy book rather than a SF book."

Time travel - historical fiction - urban fantasy about covers it.

[Jon]

Through Ch 12 - pg 383

The action has really heated up! This section was a lot of fun. I do have a couple of small problems so far but I will mention them when I finish. I really liked the reveal of who that old beggar is/was.

One of the ways I rate Urban Fantasies is by how well the urban setting is set up. Does it feel dirty, gritty and crowded, which is what I think of cities? And if the city is identified, do I feel like I'm in that actual city, or just some generic city? The definition of Urban Fantasy can be fluid so this doesn't always apply. Anyway I think Powers is doing a pretty good job of this, whether he was trying to or not. Urban Fantasy wasn't really a thing when this was written so maybe I shouldn't describe this book that way, but it does have some familiar tropes.

[Nick]

I think this city feels very Dickensian - dirt, beggars, forgotten buildings built over and over, and loads of boats! I liked it.

[Jon]

Finished

I really enjoyed this one. A few elements that I wasn't expecting, even though I knew it was going to be geared more towards fantasy since I read the Fantasy Masterworks edition.

It did feel a bit dated. Where are all of the women? Other than Elizabeth Tichy. Also there was a little too much reliance on coincidence to keep the story moving forward. I'm thinking of when Doyle just happens to be holding a piece of paper that lets him return from whence he came.

I think I'll try to get to Declare before the end of the year.

[Nick]

Yes, I think it is a little dated. I was surprised to see so many people calling it early steampunk - apart from being early Victorian I couldn't see what was steampunk about it at all? I always thought that trying to imagine clockwork or steampowered tech was the heart of steampunk?

I did like the bits with Byron and Coleridge. Powers clearly did his research on that front! I was especially amused by Coleridge stumbling around imagining himself to be in a laudunum dream.

I agree there was a bit too much coincidence and also the pacing was a little off. The first third has a bit too much running to/from various beggar gangs. And then the last third has some kind of revolution in Egypt that we hardly get to see any of! Blink and you'll miss it.