The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers

  The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers focuses on an alternate reality in the early 1800s.  An alternate reality set in Egypt, where time travel is a key element.  Time travel stories are always interesting, but this one was particularly fascinating.  I took an art history class focusing on Egypt, and really loved the Egyptian mythology aspect of it.  I think my interest in Egypt definitely influenced my liking for this book.  Another thing that I liked about it was that it has some fantasy aspects incorporated, such as sorcerers and magicians.  Weirdly enough, the time travel aspect of it reminded me in some ways of one of my favorite books, Stephen King's 11/22/63.  In King's novel, the protagonist is brought back in time to the late 1950's-early '60's and has to try to stop the assassination of John F. Kennedy.  Brendan Doyle in The Anubis Gates also goes back in time and creates a life there, mostly because he's forced to do so. 
  The world that Tim Powers has created in the novel is very different from our own.  There are so many aspects of the novel that seem so exclusive to another reality, such as the time travel previously mentioned, body switching, real magic, and mythology.  Initially, the combination of all these things may make it seem convoluted.  However, Powers' execution of the narrative made it seem more epic than confusing, and it altogether it was very immersive.
 
 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Frankenstein and the Gothic

     Gothic aspects of literature generally focus on the mysterious and supernatural.  In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein , numerous gothic elements are present.  The overall novel has a very gothic tone to it, implementing dark environments, a focus on death, and an obsessed scientist who longs to create life.       Frankenstein  has numerous settings, and many of them are covered by a dark and gloomy sky throughout the novel.  In some scenes, it is even a dark and stormy night.  These themes are relating tot he gothic because what is dark is often seen as mysterious and somewhat malevolent.  The darkness of the sky and surroundings in the novel are a great literary device to not only set the tone, but to also foreshadow dark events that are to come.      Victor Frankenstein's obsession with death and combining parts of dead bodies to bring them to life is also an indication of gothic literature.  Death is quite a mysterious thing, and because the book is so centered around it t
Read more

The Night Circus

  This week, I read The Night Circus  by Erin Morgenstern.  This was by far my favorite story I've read in this class, and may have even made its way up there on the list of my favorite novels.   I'm a huge Stephen King fan, and therefor one can deduct that I'm a big fan of description.  This book had a ton of description, and I really appreciated that.  With this lengthy description came an abundance of imagery.  The imagery in this book was so intense, I really felt like I was immersed in the story.  I felt like I could walk inside the entrance of the circus, smell the popcorn, and see only in black and white with flashes of red splashed in.  It's rare that I find a story's setting more fascinating to me than the characters, but this story actually accomplished that.    Although the idea of a mysterious circus that only comes at night is fascinating, it would be nothing without the characters.  Celia and Marco were interesting characters that did add a lot to th
Read more