Helpful Score: 3
When I first got this book, I was a little intimadated by what I had heard about it. I heard that it was a tough read and kind of twisted. Well, I really, really enjoyed this book. Powers has an amazing way of taking a few foreshadowing facts and weaving it into a great story. Here we have a story of time travel, magicly mutated creatures, a scary clown, sorcerers, an obscure Egyptian religion and early 1800 London! Fantastic characters and a great story. It was thrilling, it was adventurous, a little scary at times and very much worth the read!!
Helpful Score: 1
Author Tim Powers evokes 17th-century England with a combination of meticulously researched historic detail and imaginative flights in this sci-fi tale of time travel. Winner of the 1984 Philip K. Dick Award for best original science fiction paperback, this book took the fantasy world by storm. In his brief introduction, Ramsey Campbell sets The Anubis Gates in an adventure context, citing Powers's achievement of "extraordinary scenes of underground horror, of comedy both high and grotesque, of bizarre menace, of poetic fantasy." The colonization of Egypt by western European powers is the launch point for power plays and machinations. Steeping together in this time-warp stew are such characters as an unassuming Coleridge scholar, ancient gods, wizards, the Knights Templar, werewolves, and other quasi-mortals, all wrapped in the organizing fabric of Egyptian mythology. In the best of fantasy traditions, the reluctant heroes fight for survival against an evil that lurks beneath the surface of their everyday lives.
Helpful Score: 1
THE ANUBIS GATES
Tim Powers has crafted a unique time-travel story which proves to be multifaceted. Alternate history, magic, a werewolf, poets, beggars, body swapping., and a multitude of strange events fill every page of this colorful novel.
Having never read Tim Powers I wasn't sure what to expect, I hoped for the best and my wish was answered. The story is bright, witty, and very well written. Mr. Powers prose flow effortlessly, he has complete command of the English language and a cool sense of timing, and not to mention the vivid imagery his distinctive voice creates.
Elegant and effective.
A time-traveling masterpiece.
Tim Powers has crafted a unique time-travel story which proves to be multifaceted. Alternate history, magic, a werewolf, poets, beggars, body swapping., and a multitude of strange events fill every page of this colorful novel.
Having never read Tim Powers I wasn't sure what to expect, I hoped for the best and my wish was answered. The story is bright, witty, and very well written. Mr. Powers prose flow effortlessly, he has complete command of the English language and a cool sense of timing, and not to mention the vivid imagery his distinctive voice creates.
Elegant and effective.
A time-traveling masterpiece.
If I knew more English history I'd probably enjoy this book even more, but all-in-all an excellent book, very enjoyable. Recommended !!!
I really wanted to like this book. The premise was intriguing, and the first few pages really drew me in. Unfortunately, the farther along in the book I read, the less I seemed to like it.
On a positive note, Powers handled the time travel aspects of the novel with expert skill. He managed to weave all of the moving parts together with seamless precision, and managed to do so without paradox. I frequently found myself flipping back into the story to put the pieces together, and to reconcile the early clues with the revelations that came later. In that sense, I was pleased.
What lost me was everything else. Powers constantly threw characters into the story, and many of them were hastily introduced, poorly described, or ignored for a hundred pages before making a half-hearted cameo somewhere down the line. And then, as if that wasn't enough to keep up with, the body switching began. The plot itself became painfully overloaded. There was simply too much going on, and not enough plausibility (even for a sci-fi time travel novel).
This book would have done well with a hefty helping of "less is more," and I'm sorry that such a fantastic concept ended up as a bloody pulp of wasted potential. This was my first Tim Powers book. It might be my last.
On a positive note, Powers handled the time travel aspects of the novel with expert skill. He managed to weave all of the moving parts together with seamless precision, and managed to do so without paradox. I frequently found myself flipping back into the story to put the pieces together, and to reconcile the early clues with the revelations that came later. In that sense, I was pleased.
What lost me was everything else. Powers constantly threw characters into the story, and many of them were hastily introduced, poorly described, or ignored for a hundred pages before making a half-hearted cameo somewhere down the line. And then, as if that wasn't enough to keep up with, the body switching began. The plot itself became painfully overloaded. There was simply too much going on, and not enough plausibility (even for a sci-fi time travel novel).
This book would have done well with a hefty helping of "less is more," and I'm sorry that such a fantastic concept ended up as a bloody pulp of wasted potential. This was my first Tim Powers book. It might be my last.
