Tim Powers: The Anubis Gates

Books by Tim Powers

	The Anubis Gates
	Cover Text: "An ancient Egyptian sorcerer whose powerful magic can change the history of the entire world! A modern millionaire with a sinister plan who journeys back to England in 1810! A werewolf who switches bodies - then kills his victims to keep his identity a secret! A hideously deformed clown of crime who performs grotesque experiments on his victims! A brainwashed Lord Byron - programmed to kill King George! A young woman disguised as a boy, hunting the thing that killed her lover! And our hero, Professor Brendan Doyle, who has no idea what he is getting into when he agrees to give a lecture on Samuel Taylor Coleridge..."
Published by: Ace Books, New York, 1983 Chatto and Windus, London, 1985 (first hardcover edition)	Opinion: Okay, this is it. The book you've heard about if you've heard of Tim Powers at all. The Anubis Gates has a well-deserved reputation as Powers' best work. If you haven't read anything by Powers, this is the one to get a hold of. This is the first one I read - picked it up in a mall bookstore, and if I recall correctly, it wasn't the rather nondescript cover art or the overly dramatic back cover text that caught my attention, but rather the line on the front cover: "Backward in time to solve an ancient mystery ...and create some new ones". That just happened to be the marketing angle that worked on me. But the truth is that this book needs no hype - it's got a little of everything, which is what the cover blurb attempts to hint at. There is so much going on here that you may even lose track of a thread, but that makes it all the more satisfying when Powers masterfully ties it all together! The time travel ideas expressed here have always been my favorite of the genre - the kind where all the loose ends work themselves out, and there's never any hint of a paradox once you understand what has happened. Brendan Doyle is is the archetypical Powers protagonist - he stumbles through this wild adventure, trying earnestly and desperately to choose the right course of action, but consistently ends up on the receiving end of malicious forces and unfortunate turns of event. You'll be amazed at how believable these improbable occurrences turn out to be. I cannot make enough positive statements about this book - if you like time travel, historical fiction, adventure, horror, or just plain great plotting, you will not be disappointed. And how can you not read the most complete history in existence of the enigmatic poet William Ashbless. Get a copy and enjoy it. Bottom Line:Clearly one of Powers' best. Not being able to narrow down my list of favorites to a single book, I place it in my top four. - ccb 4/16/99
Awards Locus Poll Award (Fantasy - #2) 1984 Philip K. Dick Award 1984 British Science Fiction Award 1986
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