kaufman@uiuccsb.UUCP (01/14/84)
#N:uiuccsb:15500016:000:2253
uiuccsb!kaufman Jan 13 11:02:00 1984
(Feel free to send comments, replies, questions, etc. to:
Ken Kaufman (...!uiucdcs!uiuccsb!kaufman) )
The blurb on the back cover of "The Anubis Gates" by Tim Powers calls it "A
time travel novel you'll never forget". Although it may not be unforgetable,
it is a powerful, well-written and thoroughly enjoyable book combining histor-
ical fact with a wild sci-fi/fantasy plot.
The book begins by describing a bungled attempt by sorcerors in 1802 to
loose the Egyptian gods on Great Britain in order to destroy Britain and
Christianity and to bring Egypt back to world dominance. What does result is
a series of gaps in the fabric of time and space through one of which a person
can step and come out of another.
Cut to 1983 when the pattern of these gates has been discovered. A tour
is set up (at $1,000,000 a head) to go back to 1810 London for a few hours to
hear Samuel Coleridge speak. Enter Brendan Doyle, an expert on English poets
of the period (especially one William Ashbless), who is serving as resident
Coleridge expert for the group. When the party is about to return to the
present, Doyle is abducted by some gypsies who saw the group materialize, and
prevented from returning.
Doyle finds himself not wanting for enemies, among them the magicians
who are still trying to alter the course of history and a vicious mass-killer
known as Dog Face Joe. The story remains suspenseful as he and the other
protagonists escape from one crisis after another, in the process not altering
events to come.
*** UPCOMING: POSSIBLE SPOILERS ***
Powers puts a lot of twists into the plot and, in dealing with the
paradoxes of time travel, uses a philosophy reminiscent of the Star Trek epi-
sode, "Assignment: Earth" --- one can not actually alter the course of history,
for in consciously doing so, the person is actually already a part of history.
Memorable Moment: Doyle is wandering stranded through 1810 London when he hears
a familiar tune being whistled. After a moment, he is shocked to realize that
the melody is none other than "Yesterday" by the Beatles. Like a madman, he
goes running through the streets shouting out the lyrics and getting hundreds
of strange looks from passers-by.