"The Anubis Gates" by Tim Powers

With the exception of a little movie called Primer, I am normally not a fan of time travel. Or stories that use Egyptian mythology. It feels so cliché in the science fiction genre. And yet, here I am writing a review for a book written by Tim Powers called the Anubis Gates, which involves both time travel AND Egyptian mythology, but yet DOESN’T suck.

It’s a testament to my girlfriend’s awesome tastes in things. We weren’t dating yet (that would be days later) when I was standing in her apartment, looking at her book collection, and she pulled it out and shoved it in my hands. Her words to me were, “it’s an awesome book and no one else I know has read it.” I admit, I was reluctant, especially since I was at the time about halfway through Dune, which, at the time of this writing, I STILL haven’t finished yet. I know, I know…

Anyways. Don’t let the title fool you, the majority of this book takes place in London in the year 1810. Why? Well, that’s where the time travel kind of kicks in. Our main protagonist is Brendan Doyle, a professor who is hired by an aging millionaire named Darrow. Darrow has discovered these “gates,” open in certain places at certain times, following a pattern through human history, and has also discovered that one can use these gates to travel back in time to specific dates. He and a number of other wealthy entrepreneurs plan on jumping back to 1810 to see a lecture given by a famous poet, with Doyle tagging along as a sort of poetry expert.

The time travel itself goes rather smoothly. They never really explain how it works, which is for the better because even if they did, it still probably wouldn‘t make sense to me. Normally in this genre, time travel leads to horrible things happening and paradoxes and things, but not so much here. It’s just the method of how Doyle gets misplaced in the 19th century and not much else. After the lecture, Doyle is kidnapped by a band of gypsies while the rest of the gang he was with manages to get back to the gate and escape back to modern day.

And things just get crazier and crazier from there.

Sorcery is heavily used in the book, and it too is not your typical spell-casting fantasy crap. An interesting touch is that the two primary villains of the book, Doctor Romany and Horrabin the clown, cannot touch the ground due to the nature of the sorcery they use. Horrabin is always on stilts because of this, and also because of horrible mutilations inflicted upon him by his father, while Doctor Romany uses spring-soled shoes. There’s another character who factors into the book, a body-swapping werewolf named Dog-Faced Joe. No, I am not kidding: a body-swapping werewolf. And a “ka,” or copy, of Lord Byron. You know, the poet. Did I mention how unique this book is?

The story is also surprisingly unpredictable. Things never go quite as planned, so you’re never sure what to expect will happen next. Doyle has both the best and worst luck of anyone in the book, and it’s surprising just how many insane things happen to the man.

It’s not the lengthiest read, and while some of the action sequences are great, others are a bit vague and hard to follow, and the very opening of the book, a sort of prologue, was incredibly hard for me to get through, but once the first chapter starts up, the book picks up and moves at a smooth pace, leaving few if any loose ends by its conclusion.

I have no idea if the book is still in print, as my borrowed copy was apparently picked up for a dollar at a used bookstore, so you might have to do some digging for it, but trust me, it’s a fun and awesome read.

Now, to go finish Dune…

[Brett]