[EN World Book Club] The Anubis Gates [April 2004 Selection]

Welcome to the discussion for The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers.

Warning, there are SPOILERS contained in the discussion below. If you haven't finished the book, please don't read any more unless you want to spoil some of the twists and turns of the book, of which there are many.

First, I have to say that I was VERY impressed with this novel. I had read one other book by Powers (On Stranger Tides) which I enjoyed quite a bit, and it was only a matter of time before I read something else by him. Anubis Gates had been recommended to me by several people, and I thought that the ENWorld book group was a good place to try it out. The novel has won several awards (Philip K. Dick Award 1984, British Science Fiction Award 1986, and the Locus Poll Award (Fantasy-#2 1984) and is considered by many to be one of Powers best novels.

In general, I'm not a fan of time travel stories, as they tend to fall apart by the end of the story, and ignore the consequences of an outsider changing the timestream by appearing in the past. When Doyle and the others first jumped back to London, I was interested to see what effect they were going to have in the future. As things occured, expecially when Doyle went to meet Ashbless the first time and wrote from memory Twelve Hours of the Night from memory, I realized that not everything was as it seemed. That was also the first tip off I had that Doyle and Ashbless were the same person. As other things events took place and were reconciled, the amount of plotting that Powers put into the novel became evident. Finding things that had been forshadowed became a game, as I tried to figure out who or what an event was, and how it would be resolved in the future/past, depending on Doyles perspective.

I also loved the portrayal of the seedy side of Londaon in the 19th century, with beggar guilds, gypsies, and the Romantic poets. The character of Horrabin was fascinating, and the ancient magic and it's effects on the sorcerers who used it was great. The little details like the spring soled shoes and stilts to show the abandonment of the earth for magic, bring much to the story and give a very evil feel to these characters.

I particularly liked the jump even further back in time, and how the events there were forshadowed in the book Doyle found in the archives and when the aged Romany (at that point just known to us an ancient one eyed beggar) shows Doyle a skull in the abandoned lot.

I've done a bit of research on Tim Powers, particularly on the character of Ashbless, as I knew going in that he used this character in other books. What I found out was quite amusing, and very interesting. Powers, along with James Blaylock, created the character of William Ashbless while in college in the early 1970s. Here is his description of how Ashbless was created:

... the school paper would print poetry written by the students and it was still close enough to 1968 that the poems were all free-verse, unpunctuated, unrhymed hippie drivel. Very pretentious though... So Blaylock and I decided we could write stuff that would be way more pretentious and portentous but totally nonsense. And so we started and I would write a line and pass it to Blaylock. He'd write a line below mine and we'd pass it back and forth 'til we had got to the end of the page and the person who saw his line would be the last would make sure to tie it up. And then we cooked up a name for him. I said the last name should be one of those two syllable, two word things... Mitford, you know. And so one of us came up with "Ash", the other came with "Bless" and our friend William was sitting right there, so we took his first name.

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Both Powers and Blaylock have used the character (or his poetry) in many of their own books, and he has even begun to be mentioned in books by other authors as well.

The best info I found on Tim Powers is on http://www.theworksoftimpowers.com/
The section relating to William Ashbless were especially interesting, with the first page being a historical account of him, and the second being information on the creation of the character and the resulting books, events, and miscellaneous bits that have come about as a result.

So, what are other peoples reactions to The Anubis Gates? Did you like it as much as I did? Have you read any other books by Powers? What did you enjoy, and was there anything you disliked?

Hope you are not feeling neglected, CL. Everyone is probably just caught up in the April Fool's fun.

I'll finish the book tonight, and promise to engage in scintilating conversation tomorrow.

Bam! Ground Floor on my first ENWorld Book Club participation

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Anyway, I thought The Anubis Gates was great. I also often have problems with the way time travel is wrapped up (or not..), and was pretty well satisfied this time around, especially with the paradoxical 'so who wrote all of Ashbless' stuff?' question. Kinda like the universe won't let a dangerous paradox happen - or, (even more interesting) that the 'loop' of events we saw happened as a result of 'previous' actions or loops and was the only way that things turned out stable. Perhaps Doyle really wrote those lines in an alternate history that was erased as people went back and forth and changed its course even as they remembered some bits from it? That scenario just screams to be used in a game... if it could be done right.

Powers' writing was great - quick and light when needed, but stopping every now and then (and this is probably what I enjoyed the most) for a supremely bizarre and contorted look at one scene. There were points where I had to stop and just think for a moment about some greatly described situation that just popped off the pages. I also read this work mostly at night, and some parts were nice and spooky

Oh, and I guessed pretty early that with the coming body switches blondie was going to end up as Ashbless. The descriptions were pretty close most times. From there it wasn't a huge leap to realize that either Doyle or Coleridge would end up in him, as he had to be a poetry guy. Still quite fun though.

-spacemonkey

Oh, and sawfages I love that olde-timey spelling
Oh, and elementals, gotta love them elementals. Really good portrayal as well, though I'm not sure why the fire ones liked toys so much..

Finished it last night. Great choice, CL, and again a book and author with which I was not familiar. That is becoming the best part about the Book Club, for me at least. I am being exposed to authors and works that I might never have read otherwise.

I too had concerns with the time travel working out. But when done well, as here, it makes for a very fun story. I just love the sense of satisfaction when all the elements fit into place, and all the loose ends are attended to. For a while, I was afraid that the Ka was going to get to become Ashbless, and that would have been disappointing. Instead, it worked out perfectly.

Another element that is often not handled well is body-switching. How does the author refer to character A when he is in the body of character B, especially when character B is still around, in the body of character C? This is a challenge, to make the text flow without constant lengthy explanations such as "Dog-faced Joe, now in the body of Doyle, walked up Doyle, now in the body that would become known as Ashbless." Again, Powers handles this well, knowing when to explain, when to use a transitional name, and when to start referring to the character by his new name.

The use of history and historical figures was interesting. I wish I knew more about some of the characters used, and which were entirely fictional rather than based on actual persons. Somewhere in my memory is an account of a mysterious jumping man, but I can't find anything on that so far. I need an Annotated Anubis Gates. The link about the background behind the Ashbless character was interesting too. A google search turned up a good bit more along those lines, but I have not had time to dig through it all yet. Glad I did not look at any of those links before finishing the book, as many contain spoilers right away when they begin describing Ashbless.

Cthulhu's Librarian said:

I also loved the portrayal of the seedy side of Londaon in the 19th century, with beggar guilds, gypsies, and the Romantic poets. The character of Horrabin was fascinating, and the ancient magic and it's effects on the sorcerers who used it was great. The little details like the spring soled shoes and stilts to show the abandonment of the earth for magic, bring much to the story and give a very evil feel to these characters.

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CL, you summed up my favorite part of the book perfectly. I liked many of the later portions, and learning how it all came together, but this early part of the book, once the time jump was out of the way and it was established that Doyle would be there for while, was the part I enjoyed the most.

HAZY REMEMBRANCE SPOILERS ALERT












I haven't read AG in years, this I freely admit. I read it once, due to all the celebration that surrounded it, and found myself vastly disappointed.

The whole mobieus-strip time-travel story felt more "clever" than anything else, an author showing off how tricky he can be rather than actually seeming compelling or real. In the end I found that aspect boring.

The characters were annoying as none of them were well developed. Each one spoke in exactly the same manner as all the others (with the exception of the thief who used the the Punch-n-Judy squeeker) and word choice seldom varied; this seemed especially odd as the draw into time travel was, apparently, the love of a poet. One would believe that that more of the time travelers might have a more poetic turn of phrase, at the least, or that the Egyptians might have a more archaic dialect.

The only change-up in language occured with the Rookery, and this is a place where I really have to take Powers to task. We have Dickens. We have other authors of the period. Why is Powers so determined to have the slang reflect that latter part of the 19th century and early 20th century, rather than the first half? For someone who is dealing with time travel one would assume that the author would do some serious study of the period he is sending his characters back to, especially if it is going to be a major part of the plot. I love a lot of Victorian/Edwardian literature and so have grown used to some of the variations in lingo.

For me, Powers is an author too full of himself. I read through this book, The Drawing of the Dark, and On Strange Tides. After the third book I told myself I would never read Powers book, primarily due to his very flat characters and convoluted plots. It was only under a lot of pressure that I read Last Call. I was amazed and surprised just how great that books was, especially after my previous experiences. I would highly recommended it for a future official read.

JoeBlank said:

Somewhere in my memory is an account of a mysterious jumping man, but I can't find anything on that so far.

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You're thinking Spring-Heel Jack, first seen in London in 1838 and sightings of him continued into the early 20th century, I believe. Other elements of his description include a black cape, a lantern on his chest, claws, the ability to breathe flame, and sometimes a weird skullcap. Also inspiration for the Jumping Jack/Blood Fiend in the Menace Manual. Similar entities to Jack have been seen in the US and South America.

Is that it? 3 readers, and one reader from several years ago?

Cthulhu's Librarian said:

Is that it? 3 readers, and one reader from several years ago?

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I'm still in the middle of reading it. I'll probably post next weekend.

Wombat said:

The characters were annoying as none of them were well developed. Each one spoke in exactly the same manner as all the others (with the exception of the thief who used the the Punch-n-Judy squeeker) and word choice seldom varied; this seemed especially odd as the draw into time travel was, apparently, the love of a poet. One would believe that that more of the time travelers might have a more poetic turn of phrase, at the least, or that the Egyptians might have a more archaic dialect.

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Are you sure you are not misremembering, based on some of the other Powers books you have read? I don't have specific examples in front of me to cite, but I found most of the main characters to have distinct voices and personalities. That is why I said above that I never had any trouble telling which character was in which physical body.

In particular, Doyle, Jacky, Coleridge, Joe, Romanelli and Romany all were easily identifiable and well-developed, in my humble opinion.

Andrew, thanks for reminding me of Spring-Heel Jack. I'll have to reread that section of the book after refreshing my memory.

I've got about 20 pages left and will finish it tonight but I'm off to the Scarborough Faire this weekend and won't be back until Monday night. I'll discuss MO then. Happy Easter!