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.

Un libro muy entretenido, lleno de acción, pero que me ha dejado sensaciones contrapuestas: durante bastante tiempo me tuvo enganchado, pero también he tenido periodos en que no terminaba de encontrar las ganas de continuarlo. No porque no me estuviera gustando, sino por un ritmo con bastantes altibajos: ahora viene una parte que se desarrolla a toda velocidad, y ahora de repente cambia el foco y baja otra vez, y vuelta a empezar. Quizás sea un problema con las tramas secundarias, intenta abarcar mucho y a veces la acción se resiente.

Interesante idea para un libro que me gusto sin llegar a convencerme del todo. Durante toda la lectura tuve una sensación rara de que algo no encajaba sin llegar a saber qué, aunque probablemente sea culpa mía y no del libro. Me mantuvo entretenida e intrigada en todo momento a pesar de resultar predecible en algunos aspectos. Recomendable para los aficionados a la ficción y la magia.

It's funny how one work can be read so many different ways. On the one hand, this is an inventive romp through 1600s & 1800s in England and Egypt with magic, the concept of the pre-destination paradox and a whimsical explanation for some of the poetry of the time. On the other, it's tedious, self-congratulatory nonsense that is really excited about giving an elitist, whiny and essentially useless main character his best ever life.

CONTENT WARNING:

Spoiler

motorcycle accident, body horror, torture, casual misogyny, attempted rape, rape as motivation, medical experimentation, clowns

Things to appreciate:

-Predestination Paradox. This is probably one of the better time travel books in that the author took the time to work out how to make the timelines consistent with what's actually happened, and explain how the timeline corrects.

-Poetry in scifi. It's not often, and it could be of interest to fans of Lord Byron.

-Gallivanting fun. If you can get past the uselessness of the MC, there's all sorts of adventures in interesting locations!

Things off which I bounced so hard I bruised my desire to read:

-Does not age well. The g-word for the Roma diaspora is EVERYWHERE and just makes me wince. Also every woman is literally just a sex partner for the men, and all the tired things that just exhaust me thinking how hard so many of us had to just grin and bear if we wanted to read any fiction at certain points in our lives.

-The bad guys. Okay, so they're annoying, especially when they start rhyming, but I also never understood what they wanted, how they started or why, by the time we meet them, their power has waned.

-The good guys. Doyle grated on my every nerve, from his lengthy dissertation on his favorite Scotch, his whinging on a plane about his substandard scholarship and subsequent reviews, his complete lack of survival instinct in a bad situation, the number of times his butt gets saved and he's a total wretch to everyone around him...just man oh man! This guy is a mess! A mess who ends up getting every one of his dreams fulfilled, and a pretty new wife even while he's still dreaming about his former wife's brains all over the highway. Gross. I don't know why he was immune to the effects of the situation that caused his good fortune, either.

-A bit messy. So, some of this might be because of my skipping around a bit once my interest finally gave out. But I felt like we put certain things down and picked new things up and added new named characters and explained things waaay too late.

In short, this wasn't for me, I do not like time travel books, and I'm glad I can delete this off my Kindle now.

Algo decepcionante. A su favor hay que decir que es imaginativa y muy original. Prometía bastante. Pero uno tarda mucho, demasiado, en entender qué está ocurriendo, y hay cosas, como el sistema mágico, que nunca se explicarán y que hay que ir pillando al vuelo. Lo más interesante es el tema de viajes en el tiempo y cómo las tramas se entrecruzan entre sí, pero todo eso palidece ante la sensación permanente de confusión. Los primeros capítulos parecen demasiado erráticos, con un Brendan Doyle perseguido por unos mendigos, luego perseguido por otros mendigos, luego perseguido de nuevo por el primer grupo de mendigos… Hay que avanzar hasta el último tercio del libro para que los engranajes empiecen a encajar y a funcionar.

No sé. Quizás gane en una relectura, o haya detalles —como el lenguaje victoriano— que se hayan perdido en la traducción.

A time travel novel featuring sorcery, evil clowns, Ancient Egyptian Gods, body switching, a condensed version of Dante, literary scholars, cross dressing, fencing champions, dog-faced men and Romantic poets.

That opening sentence lost it's short, pithy, catchphrase-like nature somewhere along the way. Mirroring the novel in that way infact.

An American Coleridge expert gets invited on a time travel adventure to hear said poet speak only to find himself trapped in the early 19th century London, adventure and skulduggery ensue. There's so much plot that even Powers doesn't know what to do with it half of the time and after the first two thirds he was either forced to drastically cut whole swathes of storyline or he really liked the idea of a nonstop series of action sequences which repeatedly puts the protagonist in peril with very little linkage between each one.

Prior to this point it was an exciting adventure story, peopled by intriguing characters and entertaining passages of action, if not quite fully evoking the time and place at least giving enough detail to make certain that you're not in 1980s America, the time travel element is dealt with very well and isn't foregrounded to the extent that you're always aware of it and puzzling over it but really this should have been multiple books or at the very least a 900 page novel.

I found myself sucked in to the story by Powers way with words, more reminiscent of the golden period of science fiction than contemporary fantasy novelists and what starts as a pretty typical time travel idea becomes so much more so quickly that you barely have time to draw breath. It's constructed so cleverly and entertains to thoroughly that the switch two thirds of the way through isn't the disaster it might have been in a lesser novel, yes in essence you're dragged over the finish line in a river of blood but he got you there and he entertained you en route. At no point did I even consider giving up early and going home.

All in all a great read that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to anyone open to a time travel fantasy.

As ridiculous and over-the-top as this was, I appreciated its consideration for the more plausible consequences of time travel.

A strong 4 star time travel SF adventure. Nearly 5 stars, if not for some pacing issues in the second half of the novel. Things begin moving a bit too quickly in the second half, especially when the main character is abducted and rushed to Egypt. What should have been an exciting climax instead felt like a rushed conclusion. I think I would have appreciated if the author spent a little more time in both Egypt and in 1684 London, but even so the time travel elements of the story worked marvelously and fit together seamlessly. Although the Master was a bit of a let down as a main villain, both Dog-Face Joe and the evil clown Horrabin made for some delightfully nightmarish opponents, and make Tim Power's The Anubis Gates a wonderful mix of horror, fantasy, steampunk and time travel SF. I absolutely recommend! 4.5/5