ecl@ahuta.UUCP (ecl) (01/02/85)
THE ANUBIS GATES by Tim Powers
Ace, 1983, $295.
A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
This book got a lot of rave reviews, so I was really looking forward to
something special in it. Maybe I was expecting too much. Oh, it's an okay
book, but not up to its raves.
The premise (as best I can explain it) is that Brendan Doyle, a
professor whose specialty is a little-known early Nineteenth Century poet
named William Ashbless, gets involved in a time-travel scheme. Unbeknownst
to him, however, an ancient Egyptian sorcerer is also trying to use the
"time gates" and Doyle soon finds himself stranded in 1810, with the evil
sorcerer hot on his trail. Also involved is a werewolf who can transfer
from one body to another and various other supernatural characters. The
purpose of the werewolf at times seems to be to confuse the reader--several
characters change bodies with him, so it's almost impossible to figure out
who's who. This isn't helped by the fact that some of the characters also
spend time masquerading as other people, or by the fact that the sorcerer is
creating ka's--exact clones--of the main characters. Not only can you not
tell the players without a scorecard, you can't even tell them *with* a
scorecard!
As you might guess, trying to keep all this sorted out detracts from
some of the pleasure in reading the book. There are a couple of other
twists thrown in, but some of what the author seems to expect to surprise
the reader can be predicted well before. (The blurb on the back of the book
doesn't help.) Powers does do a good job of conveying a sense of horror in
Romany's (or is it Romanelli's) underground laboratories and many of the
individual incidents are well-constructed and exciting. It's just trying to
put them together into a coherent story that doesn't work so well.
This isn't the sort of book you can skim through half-asleep before
bedtime. It should probably be read all in one sitting. (To be fair, I
should point out that I read it over a period of two weeks, so perhaps that
was part of the problem.) If you're willing to put in the effort, there is
a lot to like here, but you've really got to dig to find it.
Evelyn C. Leeper
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