Using ancient Egyptian magic, a Coleridge scholar leads a travel expedition to the 17th century to hear the actual Coleridge speak. Things quickly spiral out of control when the main character is stranded in the past and seeks to find a way home. Quirky, smart, and a little bit weird, this is a classic time travel story not to be missed.
-Wendy M.

Absolutely blew me away!

This book also has the distinction of having the creepiest character I've ever read (Horrabin). *shudder*

I had great hopes for this book. However, I Did-Not-Finish. I thought it was a time travel story. Its a fantasy/horror/historical fiction crossover novel.

This book was first published in 1983. I found the writing and story to be old fashioned and not in a campy way.

I was expecting a techno-time travel story. After 4-5 chapters this story devolved into a historical fantasy. The pantywaist protagonist Brendan Doyle's bumbling around the slums of 19th century London was cringeworthy for me. What finally clinched it was when the story lurched into the horror genre with the introduction of Horrabin the clown, magician-- I was done.

Other readers may enjoy this story. However, its not my cup of tea.

Man, this book had everything: time travel, fencing, magic, strange people, suspense, twists, and history. I really liked how he took recorded points in history -- real events -- and didn't disturb any of them while writing about all these fantastical events that occurred off-page, from a historical perspective. This book really shows how we can't really know what happened anytime in the past, even if we are an expert on a particular historical character. Plus, the story was great.

Brendan Doyle es un profesor de literatura especializado en Coleridge que recibe la oportunidad de viajar al Londres de 1810 para asistir a una de sus conferencias gracias a un agujero en el tiempo. Pero todo se complicará para él cuando sea incapaz de volver a su época y una serie de personas "peculiares" le persigan por motivos que no alcanza a comprender.

Nos encontramos ante una historia de fantasía con viajes en el tiempo que, además, es una oda a la literatura inglesa. El autor incluye muchas de estas referencias a lo largo de la trama; desde poetas como Coleridge hasta el famoso Lord Byron reciben mención a lo largo de las páginas.

El Londres alternativo que nos presenta Tim Powers no está solo lleno de literatura, sino que está plagada de magia ancestral, sociedades secretas, intrigas y viajes en el tiempo, lo que convierten este libro en una historia intrigante y llena de acción.

Debo decir que me ha encantado la trama aunque los capítulos me han resultado muy largos. Yo tengo la "manía" de no poder dejar un capítulo a medias y con este libro me ha resultado complicado. Pero eso no quita lo mucho que lo he disfrutado.

Encontramos personajes que evolucionan a lo largo de la historia, haciendo mención especialmente al protagonista, Brendan, que sufre una gran evolución a raíz de todos los problemas a los que se enfrenta desde que decide aceptar la oportunidad de viajar en el tiempo.

En general, una historia de fantasía y viajes en el tiempo que engancha muchísimo y que, además, hará disfrutar a los amantes de la literatura inglesa por sus múltiples referencias a la misma.

I consider myself fairly intelligent so I'm not too happy to say that I got lost in the story multiple times. Time-traveling (apparently) gives me a headache. Also, I really don't like scary clowns. And all the ka's, the mutilations ... didn't appeal to me either.

But still ... the story read rather fluently and I was curious to know how everything would turn out. It wasn't dull, I just didn't like it all too much.

Conclusion? Not my cup of tea.

Goodreads has been recommending this book to me for a long, long time. I finally took the plunge. To my profound dismay, I am not the inscrutable enigma I want to believe because whatever algorithm GR/Amazon is running, they hit the bullseye with this one. As a result, I'm afraid to look at any more book recommendations for fear it's a hole from which I'd never be able to climb out.

Time-travel historical magic books are a new genre for me, but if Tim Powers' work is any indication of the larger field, I think I'm going to enjoy it. I've always been a fan of history and the occult offers strange fascination--I appreciate science, but pretending there are things that can't be understood and are genuinely magical, and potentially hostile, is mesmerizing. We have all of that wrapped up in one with this book, and Powers proves a fairly strong writer in all respects, though his writing is not as sparse as more contemporary writers. Frankly, that's a relief.

The prologue and first chapter of The Anubis Gates begin in fairly low gear. With respect to the Egyptian magicians, Powers doesn't vomit up a pile of exposition to tell the reader everything they need to know. His main character, Doyle, is a stodgy historian researching a man with very little history--not really the heroic sort. But Powers is able to conjure up a convincing tale from these humble beginnings.

As a time-travel work, Powers operates in a fashion that should please readers by giving them a sense of intellectual prowess. I was able to guess Doyle's fate 1/3 through the book and see where his future would take him, more or less, though other mysteries remained and provided satisfying closure. Don't come to this work with an expectation of complete predictability. There are just enough to let you feel clever.

The circularity of the story worked so well for me. It's a closed loop. It's self referential and self contained. You can read parts of the book early on and see them realized later. Apparent backstory proves to be prelude, hinting at an outline of a story. In being self referential, it becomes clear as the mysteries unfold that all of the disparate parts, the failed wizardry in the prologue, the body-swapping Dog-faced Joe and his affliction, the time traveling, the gaps in knowledge about characters, all serve a purpose and have been fully considered by Powers rather than simply thrown into the mix because they sound interesting. Powers is able to give each quirky aspect of the tale a purpose, and that is solid writing you don't see often enough.

The book left no hanging threads that I can recall, which is something characteristic of contemporary authors more interested in creating a popular series than a complete story. There's no great harm in a series if you have a long story to tell, but don't write one because it's the best, proven mechanism for return readers.

Powers' plotting and writing are both top notch, but it's the latter that really stood out in our current era of light-hitting, weak or absent metaphor, thinly detailed, plot-heavy stories.

My opinion of a book sometimes rests upon what I read immediately before--I'm looking at you, Ancillary Justice. When the prior book is particularly disappointing, reading something even remotely improved is akin to walking out of a cave into the light. Dazzling and a relief.

As Keely pointed out in his withering review, sometimes the language can be wishy washy, though I think that point is labored, particularly in comparison to the previous book I read. This was one of many, many complaints I had with Ancillary Justice. In fact, I couldn’t shut up about the elements that bothered me, turning what I’d intended as a statement of disappointment into a miles-long screed. But if the writing and metaphors of The Anubis Gates were bland, they made the entirety of Ancillary Justice read like a first draft.

Compare this poem/song:

My heart is a fish
Hiding in the water-grass
In the green, in the green

to this:

The Spoonsize Boys steal the dollhouse toys
while the cat by the fire is curled.
Then away they floats in their eggshell boats,
down the drains to their underground world.

One of these writers either a) put more effort into their work or b) is just a better writer. The latter is so much more evocative. I will allow that Powers had history to draw from to flesh out his tale where Leckie had to invent everything herself, but the Spoonsize Boys are pure invention by Powers.

The whole of The Anubis Gates feels evocative and fully clothed and real and labored upon to make vivid environments, appropriate metaphors, and distinct characters easily distinguishable from one another. If you step back, you can see a yarnball of interconnected plotlines, and it's difficult to feel unimpressed.

In the end, the book took me on an atypical ride, which is rare enough, but it also did so in an articulate fashion that solved all of the mysteries it posed. A complete story. A clever story. And one I found well-written.

I think I've found a new writer to enjoy. And the best part of discovering a good writer late in their career is not having to wait for the next book. They're already out there, waiting for me. I think I'll try The Drawing of the Dark next.

Increíblemente sorprendida y encantada con este libro.
Creo que no le gustaría a todo el mundo y que es de estas historias que dependen totalmente de cómo te pillen, así que no la iría recomendando. Sin embargo a mí me ha tenido enganchadísima y estoy deseando atacar otro de Powers.

This book was exhausting to read.

It has an extremely convoluted plot and I had to concentrate carefully to avoid feeling confused. I couldn’t decide if I was loving it or irritated by it; I ended up feeling frustrated but found it fascinating too.

I suppose it earns 4 stars or even 5 for the author managing to put it all together at the end, and that was quite a feat, but my experience of reading it was just that I liked it, nothing more.

I think that too much happened and that there was too much action. The villains were too villainous for me and that would have been okay if they’d had smaller roles and were around much less frequently. (Voldemort in the Harry Potter series is very evil but he’s around on the page very little of the time compared to Harry & his friends & other more benign characters.)

I liked only 2 characters and had a really hard time figuring out most characters’ motivations, and even when they were made clear, the whole long plot still seemed too much to me; I think this story could have been told better if it had been slightly less complex; I don’t say that often.

I was ahead of the hero on quite a few happenings but I think that was a deliberate choice on the author’s part .

The prologue was really hard for me to get through but once I got to the rest of the book I found it interesting. The last ¼ of the book I was so curious about what was going to happen that it was hard to not skim through as quickly as possible but I managed to read as carefully as I needed to read.

I appreciated the historical fiction, especially the inclusion of some romantic poets. I liked the humor, especially one extended part toward the end. The time traveling was interesting and somewhat unique, but I didn’t like much of the rest of the magic. It was all a tad too dark for me.

I’ve rarely been both so satisfied and so unsatisfied with an ending.