The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers
October 6th 2006 08:57
The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers
The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers combines elements of two genres which are least attractive to me: science-fiction and horror. I do not like science-fiction novels becuase the science is always hokey and more often than not they end up moaning endlessly in a queer,dystopian world. I've never tried reading horror books like those written by Stephen King, Lovecraft either. Nevertheless, The Anubis Gates turned out to be a very pleasant surprise.
The novel opens with a vivid scene in which holes are punctured in the fabric of time using Egyptian mythology. In the modern times, Darrow is a businessman whose interests have turned to the occult. When he finds about these gaps in time, he plans getting rich by arranging a series of tours to past designed to meet certain historical figues.
The first planned trip is to meet Coleridge and so he takes Doyle, a Coleridge scholar along with him. Back in 19th century, Doyle is mugged by gypsies and left there. It is hard living out in those hard times and Doyle is conscripted in turn by rival group of beggars. The only bright spot for him is a hope to meet a poet called William Ashbless, whom he was researching back in future.
Meanwhile, London is plagued by a weird wolfman-like creature known as Dog Face Joe who is killing a lot of people, not the least a friend of Ms.Elizabeth Tichy, who will be the future wife of Mr.William Ashbless. Elizabeth is searching for Dog Face Joe in guise of a man, calling herself Jacky and meets Doyle, in one of the beggar slums.
The novel gets progressively more complex from there. The action is frenetic, non-stop and the first part ends on a breath-taking flourish. The second part is a bit slower than the first but concludes only after tying all the loose ends satisfactorily.
I did not like all the ghoulish elements and the novel is chock-full of them but I could still admire the skill by which Powers conjures up distant worlds with minimum effort and maximum speed. Sadly, Powers uses only a little Egyptian Mythology but whatever he takes, he uses it to standout effect. Even though I am not happy with his deterministic world-view, Powers provides for an amzingly complex but well thought-out conception of time.
The Anubis Gates was the second novel of Tim Powers and his first success. It has been reissued in Fantasy Masterworks series and there are few novels in any genre which can beat it for sheer chutzpah.
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