The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers Search Amazon for other books by or about Tim Powers. Rating: Reviewed by: John Walsh

Mysterious and rather unpleasant Egyptian sorcerors have exploited holes in space and time to try to bring about their goals--ending the hated colonization of Egypt by the British notable amongst them. To do this, agents (in fact magically created doppelgangers known as ka) travel around Britain pursuing long-term plans that will bring the schemes and plots of the British crown to naught. Bringing other people into these plots is, of course, deeply necessary and so Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron and other less salubrious and famous characters litter the plot, in one way or another. Throw in a sociopathic werewolf, a murderous puppeteer and various lords of the beggars of London and the result is an enjoyable romp through, well, space and time, extending as far back as Revolutionary England under the Puritans and as far afield as Egypt itself. Our principal protagonist, Brendan Doyle, is an expert on the (invented) poet William Ashbless and a tolerable speaker on laudanum-drinking Xanadu-inventor Coleridge, who is recruited to travel with a group of mega-rich tourists through a hole in time so as to listen to the original poet speak at an engagement before returning home in time for tea and crumpets or whatever ersatz substitute mega-rich Americans of the 1980s preferred. All initially goes well prior to the inevitable hiccup that sees Doyle and, as it transpires, others in the party to be stranded in the past and wrestling with the need to survive in a hostile environment and avoid all those paradoxes that arise from meeting and falling in love with a woman who turns out to be one's grandmother (other gender options are also available). From there on, there is a great deal of suffering, jumping from one predicament to another and then seeking revenge via unexpected reversals of fortune. This is all great fun and the book has won both prizes and kudos--I bought my copy as one of several I have acquired from the Kinokuniya bookshop in Siam Paragon which prominently displays many of the Fantasy Masterworks series that does not seem to appear on the Amazon website--I often find that the illustration I choose for my reviews do not seem to be available in the USA or at least have a different format or cover picture.

And yet. There is something about the text that let my attention wane about halfway through--some aspects of the plot grated, the whole American in historical Britain thing never really works and often ends up sounding like a white man doing a Caribbean accent, while the often-used concept of the King of the Beggars is an irritating concept and one that finds favour among the rightists who profess contempt for the "undeserving poor," which has so afflicted Britain and other countries. Further, the idea that the actions of one or two can change the dynamics of societies (even if those plots rarely actually turn out as expected) is also ideologically unsound, in my opinion. Perhaps more germane to the issue, there is insufficient difference between the ways in which characters think and speak and, hence, it is too easy to forget who is doing what to whom and why. In many books, authors will rely on physical mannerisms to try to defeat this problem but, in a plot replete with shapeshifting in various forms, this option is less easily available.

Never mind. Many people will thoroughly enjoy this romp and not worry too much about niceties. I daresay it would transfer well to the screen and perhaps one day we will see a filmed version in one form or another.