Neither thumbs up nor thumbs down for The Anubis Gates
When I first started this book I was so happy: finally, a well-written and exciting steampunk classic! But then it went on…and on…and on. It was never bad. Powers is a good writer, and a smart guy. I am deeply impressed by the way he weaves the various time streams together. Nevertheless, there was something missing. The book is 385 pages of plot point after plot point: Doyle is chased by bad guys, Doyle is attacked by bad guys, Doyle is captured by bad guys, Doyle escapes, Doyle chases bad guys a little, repeat ad nauseum. There’s no character development; no gripping suspense; no humor, except incidentally; no romance; no wisdom; no magical turns of phrase; nothing that makes the book anything more than “clever.” In short, it was a book whose only flaw was that I kept looking to see how many pages I’d read since the last time I looked. And to me, that means I can’t recommend it.
It was an odd little parade that descended four flights of stairs and walked a hundred yards down a subterranean corridor that could have been pre-Roman – the hunched dwarf Dungy limping along in the lead, carrying a flaring torch over his head, followed by two men who frog-marched between them the chintz-curtain-robed Ahmed, whose face behind the false beard and mustache and walnut stain was gray with fear, and Horrabin, bent way over forward to avoid brushing his hat against the roof stones, bringing up the rear on his stilts.
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