Tag: the-anubis-gates • BookLikes

review 2016-12-24 00:00

The Anubis Gates (Ace Science Fiction) - Tim Powers

This is a fast-paced and imaginative book that combines quantum mechanics, Egyptian mythology and sorcery, Lord Byron, clown sorcerers, body snatchers, cross dressers, millionaires, doppelgangers (called "ka" in the book), time travel and hints of illegal human medical experimentation . How can you go wrong with that combination? Powers weaves an interesting and fun story with these elements that keeps you on the edge wanting more. The ending has an interesting little twist.

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text 2016-05-06 12:19

The Nine Novels that Defined Steampunk

Grey Warden — feeling smile

(reblogged from The Steampunk Workshop)

I’m a librarian by profession, and a scholar by inclination, so when I got involved with the amazing confluence of ideas that was steampunk in mid naughts I naturally wanted to know where this idea of steampunk came from. Most steampunks know little about steampunk’s origins. We are part of a strange phenomenon in which loads of elaborately costumed people call themselves “fans” of books they can’t even name.

This is not too surprising since steampunk didn’t become popular as a genre until after it inspired an art and lifestyle movement. The few histories of the genre are too lengthy for most people to digest, but not knowing the basics about where steampunk came from leaves its enthusiasts wallowing in a shallow puddle of clichés when they could be swimming in an ocean of imagination. As a cure I suggest the reading nine of the most creative works of late twentieth century speculative fiction, the novels that defined steampunk.

The Original Steampunk Novels

A popular idea is that H. G. Wells and Jules Verne were the originators of steampunk. This is not really true. Despite its anachronistic veneer, steampunk is a very contemporary genre expressing contemporary interests and concerns. Wells, Verne, Shelly and others are important sources of inspiration for steampunk but they are not steampunk authors themselves. They wrote in a nineteenth century or nineteen century inspired setting because that’s when they lived. For a modern writer full of current ideas to choose such a setting is a totally different thing. There are isolated examples of writers revisiting Victorian settings throughout sci-fi’s history but steampunk as a word and concept has a clear origin in a letter to the science fiction trade journal Locus published in April 1987.

Dear Locus,

Enclosed is a copy of my 1979 novel Morlock Night; I'd appreciate your being so good as to route it Faren Miller, as it's a prime piece of evidence in the great debate as to who in "the Powers/Blaylock/Jeter fantasy triumvirate" was writing in the "gonzo-historical manner" first. Though of course, I did find her review in the March Locus to be quite flattering.

Personally, I think Victorian fantasies are going to be the next big thing, as long as we can come up with a fitting collective term for Powers, Blaylock and myself. Something based on the appropriate technology of the era; like 'steam-punks', perhaps.

—K.W. Jeter

Jeter’s letter tells us three important things.

1. K. W. Jeter invented the word "steam-punks" to describe authors of "gonzo-historical" "Victorian fantasies"

2. The other two steam-punks were Tim Powers, and James Blaylock.

3. Morlock Night was the earliest of the novels in the newly named genre.

Powers, Blaylock, and Jeter wrote a lot books between them, but of all the novels they wrote by 1987 only four of them were "gonzo-historical" "Victorian fantasies" so the original steampunk genre consisted of only four novels.

Morlock Night by K. W. Jeter, originally published in 1979

There is no clearer illustration of the distinction between steampunk and original Victorian adventure stories than comparing H. G. Wells The Time Machine to Morlock Night. Wells’ novel is a straightforward story about a device that allows one to travel in strictly linear time. It expresses the common modernist idea that technology can do anything but may destroy humanity in the process. In Jeter’s book the Morlocks seize the time machine and invade 19^th century London with it. It takes a Victorian premise and mashes it with Arthurian legend and lost technology from Atlantis. More than thirty years after it was written it is still too “experimental,” for many people’s tastes. If read with an open mind you will find an adventure story with some highly imaginative twists. It shows the roots of steampunk as literature that took genre assumptions, smashed them, and made mosaics out of the most interesting bits.

The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers, originally published in 1983

This novel won the Philip K Dick award. It is stunningly well written. The central character is an English professor who travels back to 1810 to attend a lecture given by English poet. When he misses his return trip he must survive in City plagued by a mass murdering Egyptian god and an evil sorcerer clown. The plot snakes around like a serpent in the dark London sewers where so much of the action takes place. What is most surprising is how Powers combines a very hard science fiction approach to time travel with some of the creepiest portrayals of black magic you will find in late twentieth century writing. It’s worth noting that while Jeter grouped this book with his “Victorian fantasies” it is actually set in the last year of the reign George III.

Homunculus by James Blaylock, originally published in 1986

This is the first book about Professor Langdon St Ives and his archenemy the wicked Dr Narbondo. It involves a ghostly dirigible, undead slaves resurrected with fish guts, a stranded space alien and lots of Laphroaig whiskey. Blaylock writes with a dry absurdity that seems very English especially when coupled with his Victorian wording. One of my favorite scenes is when the Trismegistus Club debates what to do while smoking and drinking to the point of incompetence. Not exactly the behavior of heroes but a brilliant satire of the chattering classes.

Infernal Devices: A Mad Victorian Fantasy by K. W. Jeter, originally published in 1987

Not to be confused with Philip Reeve’s or Cassandra Clare’s later works by the same name. Jeter’s Infernal Devices is one of the funniest steampunk books ever written. The central character, George Dower is a hapless English “every man” character comparable to Arthur Dent in Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. All sorts of absurd things happen to Mr. Dower until the madcap plot is tied together with an elaborate dig about Victorian sexual repression. This was the first novel in the genre to heavily feature clockwork technology but there are elements of pure fantasy as well.

Read the rest of the article here.

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review 2014-12-20 07:30

Bry's Bountiful Book Blog

Without actually intending it to be any sort of theme, I've read a number of time-travel books this year, and enjoyed all of them. The Anubis Gates was the most recent, and I picked it up not knowing that it was a time-travel story; I simply wanted to read more Tim Powers, as I really liked the other books of his that I'd read. This one, as it turns out, is vintage Powers.

In true Tim Powers fashion, this is at its heart an alternate history novel - that is, history with magic and a lot of other weirdness thrown in. It doesn't let you languish at all, as Powers keeps the plot moving forward at a near break-neck speed for the majority of the book. I liked this about it, but found that the character development could have been accentuated a bit more, almost as if character was sacrificed for the sake of action. That said, Professor Brendan Doyle was a pretty fascinating character (though I would have really liked to see him grapple with the body switching scenario a little more). As is typical for a Powers novel, if you simply list the story components used in the book, it sounds pretty ridiculous - time-travel, a werewolf, a clown crime lord, murderous gypsies, magicians, simulacra, Lord Byron, Egyptian gods...and so on and so forth. The really incredible part is that Powers makes it work, which in such a fast-paced book is quite something.

The only other minor issue I had with this one was a certain paucity of prose. I wouldn't say that the other Tim Powers books I've read (On Stranger Tides and The Drawing Of The Dark) had fantastic prose, but the writing served the story and didn't stand out. There were a few moments in this book, however, where I actually thought to myself, "Hmm, he might have been able to say that better," which drew me out of the story a bit (something prose is certainly not supposed to do). Although this didn't happen often, it was enough to make me knock a star off the rating.

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants that most rare of all books: a really good stand-alone fantasy novel.

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review 2014-08-21 21:35

Get beyond the first two chapters and you're in for a treat!

Nik's book blog

The Anubis Gates (1983) is a time travel fantasy novel by Tim Powers. It won the 1983 Philip K. Dick Award and 1984 Science Fiction Chronicle Award.

Well where do I start. I remember first reading this in the early 1990's and like a few other people, I struggled somewhat with the first two chapters. I think if I re-read this now, I wouldn't struggle with being plunged in into the world of 1801 in the rule of the British empire in Egypt.

That said, I implore you to just bear with this initial back story (even if you are left wondering like me at the time "what the hell is going on here!") as it is the springboard on which you will use to dive in to the remainder of the novel and discover it's many jewels of treasure throughout.

It's just one book that you will not be able to put down and will no doubt read in one session. It's a roller-coaster of a tale, which just doesn't slow down to let you take even a short gasp of breath.

Inventive, humorous and thrilling.

I highly recommend it to you and to enter the world of Brendan Doyle and Horrabin the evil clown (yes really...)

Buy The Anubis Gates here:

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review 2014-01-21 00:00

The Anubis Gates (Ace Science Fiction)

Aki's B'ook'log

One of the better time travel novels I have read. The story is full of surprises, twists and turns and weird ideas. You are never sure where the author is leading you but its always pleasantly surprising. There are strange and interesting characters but most of them are not really fleshed out.