The Anubis Gates

Cover of first edition (paperback)
Author	Tim Powers
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Time travel fantasy novel
Publisher	Ace Books
Publication date	1983
Media type	Print (Hardcover & Paperback)
Pages	387 pp
ISBN	ISBN 0-441-02380-0

The Anubis Gates (1983) is a time travel fantasy novel by Tim Powers. It won the 1983 Philip K. Dick Award and 1984 Science Fiction Chronicle Award and is regarded as one of Powers's best works.^{[citation needed]} Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Tim Powers at the Israeli ICon 2005 SF&F Convention Timothy Thomas Powers (born February 29, 1952) is an American science fiction and fantasy author. ... For other uses, see Country (disambiguation). ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Time travel is a concept that has long fascinated humanity—whether it is Merlin experiencing time backwards, or religious traditions like Mohammeds trip to Jerusalem and ascent to heaven, returning before a glass knocked over had spilt its contents. ... Look up Fantasy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary For other definitions of fantasy, see fantasy (psychology). ... A publisher is a person or entity which engages in the act of publishing. ... Ace Books is the oldest continuing publisher of science fiction & fantasy novels, founded in 1953 by magazine publisher A. A. Wyn. ... Hardcover books A hardcover (or hardback or hardbound) is a book bound with rigid protective covers (typically of cardboard covered with cloth, heavy paper, or sometimes leather). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... “ISBN” redirects here. ... See also: 1982 in literature, other events of 1983, 1984 in literature, list of years in literature. ... Time travel is a concept that has long fascinated humanity—whether it is Merlin experiencing time backwards, or religious traditions like Mohammeds trip to Jerusalem and ascent to heaven, returning before a glass knocked over had spilt its contents. ... For other uses, see Fantasy (disambiguation). ... Tim Powers at the Israeli ICon 2005 SF&F Convention Timothy Thomas Powers (born February 29, 1952) is an American science fiction and fantasy author. ... The Philip K. Dick Memorial Award is a science fiction award sponsored by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society, and named after science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. ...

Plot summary

In 1801 the British have risen to power in Egypt and suppress the worship of the old Egyptian gods. A cabal of magicians plan to drive the British out of Egypt by bringing the gods forward in time from an age when they were still powerful and unleashing them on London, thereby destroying the British Empire. In 1802, a failed attempt by the magicians to summon Anubis opens magical gates in a predictable pattern across time and space. The Union Jack, flag of the newly formed United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. ... Egyptian mythology or Egyptian religion is the succession of tentative beliefs held by the people of Egypt for over three thousand years, prior to major exposure to Christianity and Islam. ... A cabal is a number of persons united in some close design, usually to promote their private views and interests in a church, state, or other community by intrigue. ... otheruses|Magician}} The Enchanted Garden of Messer Ansaldo by Marie Spartali Stillman: a magician makes his garden bear fruit and flowers in winter. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... The British Empire in 1897, marked in pink, the traditional colour for Imperial British dominions on maps. ... --69. ... For other uses, see Anubis (disambiguation). ...

In 1983, ailing millionaire J. Cochran Darrow has discovered the gates and found that they make time travel possible. Darrow organizes a trip to the past for fellow millionaires to attend a lecture by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1810. He hires Professor Brendan Doyle to attend and give expert commentary. One of the magicians, Doctor Romany, happens to spy the time travelers and kidnaps Doyle before he can return. Doyle manages to escape torture and flees back to London, now trapped in the 19th century. Year 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1983 Gregorian calendar). ... Time travel is a concept that has long fascinated humanity—whether it is Merlin experiencing time backwards, or religious traditions like Mohammeds trip to Jerusalem and ascent to heaven, returning before a glass knocked over had spilt its contents. ... Samuel Taylor Coleridge (October 21, 1772 – July 25, 1834) (pronounced ) was an English poet, critic, and philosopher who was, along with his friend William Wordsworth, one of the founders of the Romantic Movement in England and one of the Lake Poets. ...

Doyle joins a beggars guild and meets a beggar named Jacky. He plans to meet and befriend William Ashbless, a wealthy poet that Doyle has studied profusely, in order to gain a benefactor. Doctor Romany scours the city for Doyle with his legion of murderous beggars, led by the clown-magician Horrabin. At the same time, Doyle discovers that Darrow has remained in the 19th century to search for Dog-Face Joe, a body-swapping werewolf, in hopes of bribing Joe into granting him a healthy new body. Doyle himself becomes targeted by Joe, receiving the poisoned body of Darrow's former bodyguard, but manages to cure himself of the poison before dying. William Ashbless is a fictional poet, invented by fantasy writers James Blaylock and Tim Powers. ... For other uses, see Werewolf (disambiguation). ...

In his new body, Doyle realizes that he himself is the historical Ashbless. He copies down Ashbless's poetry from memory and deduces his own future from his study of Ashbless's life. Using this knowledge, he continues to thwart the magicians' plans. After Romany discovers a gate to the 17th century, Doyles follows Romany through and stops his attempt to change the past. Meanwhile Darrow successfully contacts Dog-Face Joe and organizes a deal in which Joe will provide Darrow with healthy bodies and allow him to live forever.

Doyle is kidnapped and brought to Egypt, where the magicians' Master tempts him with resurrecting his dead girlfriend if he will tell them the secrets of the time-gates. Doyle resists and kills the Master. Meanwhile, Jacky discovers Darrow's secret and kills him along with Dog-Face Joe. Doyle returns to London, where the last magician, Romanelli, kidnaps him, Jacky, and Coleridge. In a drugged stupor, Coleridge frees Horrabin's twisted menagerie of monsters, allowing him and Jacky to escape. Romanelli escapes with Doyle to the underworld, but is eaten by Apep while Doyle is rejuvenated. Doyle meets back up with Jacky and discovers that not only is Jacky secretly a woman, she is his future wife. For the Cypriot football team, see APEP Kyperounda FC. An Egyptian deity wards off the snake-like Apep [1] In Egyptian mythology, Apep (also spelled Apepi, and Aapep, or Apophis in Greek) was an evil demon, the deification of darkness and chaos (isfet in Egyptian), and thus opponent of light...

Decades later, after living out Ashbless's entire life, Doyle goes out to meet his historic date with death. Doyle discovers that his intended murderer is a duplicate of himself that the Master had made in Egypt. Doyle kills the duplicate, thereby supplying the corpse for his death, and boats away into an unknown future.

Major characters

• Brendan Doyle - An English professor at Cal Sate Fullerton, Doyle is still haunted by the motorcycle accident that killed his girlfriend Rebecca. He is a short and unathletic man who is having difficulty getting published. He is fascinated by the enigmatic poet William Ashbless.
• J Cochran Darrow - A famous tycoon who is suffering from terminal cancer. His enteprises have discovered the time gates.
• The Master - The oldest and most powerful magician in the world, now somewhat feeble-minded, the Master plots to rejuvenate magic and restore Egypt by crushing Britain. His unnatural powers make contact with the earth painful for him and his magician followers.
• Amenophis Fikee - A powerful magician, Fikee is the Master's agent in Britain. He leads a clan of gypsies and wears clogs to avoid contact with the ground. After a magical ritual misfires, his mind snaps and he becomes Dog-Face Joe. Any body he inhabits grows fur, but using a body-swapping spell he flees the curse, poisoning his old bodies to prevent discovery.
• Doctory Romanelli - A powerful magician, Romanelli is the Master's agent in Turkey and leads a clan of gypsies to do his bidding.
• Doctor Romany - A "ka", or magical duplicate, of Romanelli created to help Fikee in London, Romany takes up Fikee's duties in his absence. He wears spring shoes to avoid contact with the earth.
• Jacky - Apparently a mustachioed young beggar, Jacky is actually a woman from a noble family who has taken a new identity to search for Dog-Face Joe, who switched bodies with her fiance and caused her to kill him.
• Horrabin - An evil clown who leads a pack of murderous beggars, Horrabin magically maims some of his minions to be more profitable. His "mistakes" become monsters that he locks away in the catacombs beneath his lair. He wears stilts to avoid contact with the ground.

California State University, Fullerton, commonly known as CSUF, CSU Fullerton, or Cal State Fullerton, is a part of the California State University system. ... The image of the evil clown is a recent development in American popular culture in which the playful trope of the clown is rendered as disturbing through the use of horror elements and dark humor. ...

Allusions/references to real people and events

As in Powers's later novel, The Stress of Her Regard, The Anubis Gates features a number of the Romantic Poets as characters. In addition to Coleridge, there is Byron, and the fictional 19th century poet William Ashbless (created by Powers and James Blaylock). Also, the physician who treated Byron for a fever while he traveled in Greece was named Dr. Romanelli. The Stress of Her Regard is a 1989 horror/fantasy novel by Tim Powers. ... Romantics redirects here. ... Byron redirects here. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... William Ashbless is a fictional poet, invented by fantasy writers James Blaylock and Tim Powers. ... James P. Blaylock (born September 20, 1950) is an American fantasy author. ... The poet George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron is often referred to simply as Byron. ...

The novel intertwines a number of real events into the story such as the massacre of the Mamluk beys by Muhammad Ali of Egypt in 1811 and the failed rebellion by James, Duke of Monmouth against James II in the 1680s. Mamluk Flag Eastern Mediterranean 1450 Capital Cairo Language(s) Arabic, Kipchak Turkic[1] Religion Islam Government Monarchy History  - As-Salih Ayyub Death 1250  - Battle of Ridanieh 1517 Today part of  Egypt  Saudi Arabia  Syria  Palestine  Israel  Lebanon  Jordan  Turkey  Libya A Mamluk cavalryman, drawn in 1810 A mamluk (Arabic: مملوك (singular... This article is about the leader of Egypt. ... For the US Federal Agent designation, see Special agent. ... James Crofts, later James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth and of Buccleuch (April 9, 1649 – July 15, 1685), was an English nobleman who was executed in 1685 after making an unsuccessful attempt to claim the British throne, the Monmouth Rebellion. ... James II (14 October 1633 – 16 September 1701)[1] became King of England, King of Scots,[2] and King of Ireland on 6 February 1685. ... Events and Trends The Treaty of Ratisbon between France and England in 1684 ended the Age of Buccaneers. ...

The ship, Blaylock, that Doyle claims he came to England on is named after friend James P. Blaylock. James P. Blaylock (born September 20, 1950) is an American fantasy author. ...