Tim Powers is a remarkably clever writer, and there’s nobody else quite like him. He has a technique he has used in a number of his books, notably Declare and The Anubis Gates, where he takes a set of unusual events and makes up the rest of the story around them that would make them fit together and make sense. It’s like an inside-out conspiracy theory, or an answer to a riddle nobody was asking. In our family when we hear a particularly odd fact, we ask rhetorically “I wonder if Tim Powers knows that?” (Lord Halifax only had one hand! The glasses that Ernest Walton was wearing when he saw the atom split are stored in the same room as the Book of Kells! Every son of a British monarch called Arthur has died before reaching the throne!)
In The Anubis Gates Powers takes a lot of things that are historical facts from 1810, or at least genuine reports, and shakes them together with some of the superstitions of the period and comes up with a book as cleverly fitted together as one of those three-dimensional wooden egg jigsaws. It’s a very clever trick. I find that sometimes his books work for me and sometimes they whizz past my ear with a whistling sound. The Anubis Gates is the one I read first, and it remains the one that always works, the one I keep coming back to and always enjoy reading.
Brendan Doyle is not so much a point-of-view character as our way through the maze of intricate plot. He’s an American expert on Coleridge who’s writing a book on the obscure poet William Ashbless. He’s hired by a weird millionaire who wants a Coleridge expert to take a group of people through a gap in time in 1983 to one in 1810 to hear Coleridge lecture on Milton’s Areopagitica. He goes through to 1810, gets stuck there, and then things get very very weird. As well as the gaps in time, there’s Dog-Faced Joe, a body-switching werewolf. There are spoonsize boys who sail around in eggshell boats. There are beggar armies, a girl disguised as a boy to avenge her fiancé, a creepy clown on stilts, evil Egyptians manipulating gypsies, a ka of Lord Byron, gods, magic, time travellers, and the mystery of William Ashbless. The wonder of it is that it all makes perfect sense and comes together as neatly and satisfyingly as one of Bach’s orchestral suites.
There’s far more here than any one point-of-view could encompass, and indeed Powers gives us plenty of other points of view, but Doyle is our reliable lodestar. I find myself pulled through the intricacies on the thread of caring what happens to Doyle. I think this is why The Anubis Gates works better for me than Last Call and The Stress of Her Regard. It’s not enough to be dazzling, I also have to care, and here I do. Even knowing exactly what’s going to happen, I get caught up in the story.
There are a number of notably nifty things about this book. It’s probably worth saying that it’s a story I enjoy more re-reading and knowing what’s going on than I did the first time I read it.There are twists and revelations and things you’d never think of but that fit with machined precision—and I still like it a lot better knowing how it’s all going to come out, and that it’s all going to come out like an exceptionally satisfying sudoku. One of the things I like most about it is the way Doyle repeatedly relaxes into thinking he knows what’s going to happen, and how it does happen but never quite the way he imagines. You can’t change time in this universe, though you may hop about in it, and trying to change it defeats your purpose. But you can’t rely on what you think you know either.
He was passing a narrow street of Aldgate and somebody crossing one of the rooftop bridges was whistling. Doyle slowed to listen. It was a familiar tune, and so melancholy and nostalgic that it almost seemed chosen as a fitting accomplishment for his lonely evening walk.What the hell is the name of that, he wondered absently as he walked on. Not Greensleeves, not Londonderry Air…
He froze and his eyes widened in shock. It was Yesterday, the Beatles song by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
For a moment he just stood there stunned, like Robinson Crusoe staring at the footprint in the sand.
Then he was running back. “Hey!” he yelled when he was below the little bridge, though there was nobody on it now.”Hey, come back! I’m from the Twentieth Century too!”
Wonderful book. There really isn’t anything else like it.
Agree. Anubis Gates is by far my favorite Tim Powers. Last Call and Drawing of the Dark were neat, but this one was just brilliant.
I really love this book. This one really stays with you, it’s like a haunting adventure story. This isn’t a huge book but it’s depth and richness are profound. It’s a bit of roller coaster book moving quickly from delightful to disturbing. It’s a classic. It’s also interesting to try and tease Mr. Power’s Christian framework of the universe from this book.
Cosign. And Tim Powers is great. Although its peculiar that this book, Declare and Last Call all did strong things to my brain that made me wonder at them. Because Expiration Date and Drawing of the Dark left me cold to the point I stopped reading. His more recent book, in contrast to both those reactions, I can barely remember. In fact I’m about to google it …. Three Days to Never. It was fine, but forgettable. Spending time on wikipedia reminds me of Dinner at Deviant’s Palace, which had an odd charm but still didn’t particularly move me.
The non-reactions to those other books are important for me to contrast with how much I was affected by his other works …. Declare took over my life for a couple days. Anubis Gates did similar.
I also meant to say, that this is the counter-example of American writers who write things set in Britain that grate on British readers. Powers does it pretty much perfectly.
I’ve enjoyed all of his books, but Anubis Gates is special. And by the way, “an inside-out conspiracy theory, or an answer to a riddle nobody was asking” is a perfect description. Well done!!
Anyone interested in Powers (and do please forgive this shameful act of self-promotion, albeit a justified and, I hope, useful one!) should point their browser to http://www.theworksoftimpowers.com for further insight into his work. And have a look also at the forthcoming PS Publishing Powers bibliography – which contains some extraordinary never-before-seen material directly relating to The Anubis Gates, including the original outline for the novel, and a 12k word section that formed the original opening to the published version. Real hardcore Powers fans can even get their hands on the lettered state manuscript facsimile edition of The Anubis Gates!
Anubis is nice and I love it, but I first read Last Call and that’s the one that stays with me and I always come back to. I think Powers was still trying out his particular style in his earlier books, but Last Call was when, IMHO, he hit his stride.
When you consider that:
there is time travel, so the man you thought was young can appear in front of you as an old man, or vice versa;
there are kas, animated wax dolls in the likeness of their models, so the man you think is the original can be a copy, and the original elsewhere at that time; and
there is a body-swapping murderer, so the man you think you see can actually be the murderer, or the victim of the murderer’s most recent body-theft, in the body of the murderer’s most recent murder-victim…
…then it’s amazing that the plot isn’t even more convoluted than it is. This is without even mentioning women disguised as boys, who make for enough identity confusion in ordinary plays or novels without time travel.
Powers does [Britain] pretty much perfectly.
His gypsies aren’t great, but then whose are?
Drawing of the Dark was my first Powers, and the only one I reread. On the other hand, I’ve never actually managed to read The Anubis Gates, and from the description I really want to. Earthquake Weather turned me off. And the description of his books as ‘inside-out conspiracy theories’ is absolutely perfect – I heard the click as it fit in with all I know about him.
Thanks – I’ll look up Anubis Gates and see if I enjoy it as much as you did!
LAST CALL was my gateway into Powers, and remains my favorite to this day. but ANUBIS, DECLARE, and ON STRANGER TIDES are among the most wonderful books I’ve ever read as well.
If you get a chance, it’s a treat to hear Tim Powers talk about his techniques for producing these gonzo histories–he’s an amazing guy, and The Anubis Gates is really extraordinary. He doesn’t always quite pull off what he’s trying to do, but it’s always something to watch. I also have a certain attachment to the Last Call/Expiration Date/Earthquake Weather sequence–for those of us who live here, I think there’s a special resonance to his stories of the great mad cities of the west (LV/LA/SF)–his special brand of insanity seems to fit here, somehow.
I’ve only read two of Tim Powers’ books–“Declare” and “The Anubis Gates”. I thought “Declare” was the better of the two, but “The Anubis Gates”, was a bit more accessible. I found both books to be very challenging reads. In fact, I had to put “Declare” down for a few years and start over when I was at a point in my life where I had more time and attention to devote to reading it. Tim Powers is one of those authors I’ll turn to when I really want to challenge my brain.
OK, I’ll be the contrarian voice :) I bought Anubis Gates recently after LOVING Last Call, but had trouble finishing it. Bored me to death. Guess I’m just not into the Victorian era clowns and beggars and such. Trying to decide when to read the other couple of Powers books I got at the same time – hopefully they’ll strike me more like Last Call than Anubis.
Yeah, I enjoyed Anubis Gates, but it was one of my least favorite Powers books. For me the great ones are Last Call, Expiration Date, On Stranger Tides, and Declare.
One of the amazing things about Powers is his ability to put his protagonists through the worst of all proverbial wringers, yet he still cares enough about those same characters that we as readers care about them too. As I recall, Doyle actually has his leg sewed to his face in Anubis Gates.
I’m going to give a shout-out to The Stress of Her Regard, because it needs the love.
Yes, it’s a big, hard book, and plot-wise similar to The Anubis Gates (hapless man gets caught up in conspiracy, hijinx, femmes mysterious and mutilations ensue…), but it did a richer turn in me, somehow. After reading it, I saw the Romantic concept of the sublime much more clearly than I had when I researched the English Romantic poets for school, plus I discovered a comfort with a unique and perverse cosmology that I thought I had exhausted after Last Call, et al.
For his LeCarre-skool thrillers, Declare is my favorite, just because it stunned me that he did near-history so thoroughly and well. Between him and Stross, we have our psychotronic storytellers of the Cold War all set up.
This weekend I start reading his other works — Night Moves, A Soul in a Bottle, Strange Itineraries, plus Expiration Date and Earthquake Weather again, since I just re-read Last Call. His work rewards careful re-reading.
There’s a scene in Declare that made me feel connected to that mad conspiracy, where Kim Philby is having a tense meeting in the Carlton Hotel in Beirut in 1963. In 1963 I was a young kid living in Beirut, and the Carlton was our nearest swimming pool. So when I read the book I had the odd feeling I was outside splashing about as my father took photos while Philby was inside conducting his shady business.
Nicholas: I entirely identify with that feeling. When I read The Stone Canal there’s a mention of the character having a stall in the Dealers Room at the 1995 Glasgow Worldcon selling space junk, and I thought “Yes, I remember walking past that…” It was like seeing myself in the background of the story.
Tally a vote for Last Call. I loved loved loved Anubis Gates, but it lacked the total package at times that Last Call offered with eerie consistency. The scenes with Crane’s interactions (in Last Call) with the various tarot readers he encounters provided a potent sense of supernatural terror that I have not seen matched since, and his relationship with his family was well drawn as opposed to Anubis, which seemed to lack any meaningful connection between its interesting characters except destiny and the overarching plot.