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Allison Hurd's Reviews > The Anubis Gates
The Anubis Gates
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by
Allison Hurd's review
bookshelves: sff-bookshelf, own-to-read, fantasy, man-author, sff-2021-challenge
Jul 27, 2021
bookshelves: sff-bookshelf, own-to-read, fantasy, man-author, sff-2021-challenge
It's funny how one work can be read so many different ways. On the one hand, this is an inventive romp through 1600s & 1800s in England and Egypt with magic, the concept of the pre-destination paradox and a whimsical explanation for some of the poetry of the time. On the other, it's tedious, self-congratulatory nonsense that is really excited about giving an elitist, whiny and essentially useless main character his best ever life.
CONTENT WARNING: (view spoiler)
Things to appreciate:
-Predestination Paradox. This is probably one of the better time travel books in that the author took the time to work out how to make the timelines consistent with what's actually happened, and explain how the timeline corrects.
-Poetry in scifi. It's not often, and it could be of interest to fans of Lord Byron.
-Gallivanting fun. If you can get past the uselessness of the MC, there's all sorts of adventures in interesting locations!
Things off which I bounced so hard I bruised my desire to read:
-Does not age well. The g-word for the Roma diaspora is EVERYWHERE and just makes me wince. Also every woman is literally just a sex partner for the men, and all the tired things that just exhaust me thinking how hard so many of us had to just grin and bear if we wanted to read any fiction at certain points in our lives.
-The bad guys. Okay, so they're annoying, especially when they start rhyming, but I also never understood what they wanted, how they started or why, by the time we meet them, their power has waned.
-The good guys. Doyle grated on my every nerve, from his lengthy dissertation on his favorite Scotch, his whinging on a plane about his substandard scholarship and subsequent reviews, his complete lack of survival instinct in a bad situation, the number of times his butt gets saved and he's a total wretch to everyone around him...just man oh man! This guy is a mess! A mess who ends up getting every one of his dreams fulfilled, and a pretty new wife even while he's still dreaming about his former wife's brains all over the highway. Gross. I don't know why he was immune to the effects of the situation that caused his good fortune, either.
-A bit messy. So, some of this might be because of my skipping around a bit once my interest finally gave out. But I felt like we put certain things down and picked new things up and added new named characters and explained things waaay too late.
In short, this wasn't for me, I do not like time travel books, and I'm glad I can delete this off my Kindle now.
CONTENT WARNING: (view spoiler)
Things to appreciate:
-Predestination Paradox. This is probably one of the better time travel books in that the author took the time to work out how to make the timelines consistent with what's actually happened, and explain how the timeline corrects.
-Poetry in scifi. It's not often, and it could be of interest to fans of Lord Byron.
-Gallivanting fun. If you can get past the uselessness of the MC, there's all sorts of adventures in interesting locations!
Things off which I bounced so hard I bruised my desire to read:
-Does not age well. The g-word for the Roma diaspora is EVERYWHERE and just makes me wince. Also every woman is literally just a sex partner for the men, and all the tired things that just exhaust me thinking how hard so many of us had to just grin and bear if we wanted to read any fiction at certain points in our lives.
-The bad guys. Okay, so they're annoying, especially when they start rhyming, but I also never understood what they wanted, how they started or why, by the time we meet them, their power has waned.
-The good guys. Doyle grated on my every nerve, from his lengthy dissertation on his favorite Scotch, his whinging on a plane about his substandard scholarship and subsequent reviews, his complete lack of survival instinct in a bad situation, the number of times his butt gets saved and he's a total wretch to everyone around him...just man oh man! This guy is a mess! A mess who ends up getting every one of his dreams fulfilled, and a pretty new wife even while he's still dreaming about his former wife's brains all over the highway. Gross. I don't know why he was immune to the effects of the situation that caused his good fortune, either.
-A bit messy. So, some of this might be because of my skipping around a bit once my interest finally gave out. But I felt like we put certain things down and picked new things up and added new named characters and explained things waaay too late.
In short, this wasn't for me, I do not like time travel books, and I'm glad I can delete this off my Kindle now.
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Reading Progress
August 21, 2016
– Shelved
August 21, 2016
– Shelved as:
to-read
May 24, 2017
– Shelved as:
sff-bookshelf
November 27, 2017
– Shelved as:
own-to-read
May 1, 2021
–
Started Reading
May 1, 2021
– Shelved as:
man-author
May 1, 2021
– Shelved as:
fantasy
July 26, 2021
–
Finished Reading
July 27, 2021
– Shelved as:
sff-2021-challenge
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by
Charles
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rated it 1 star
May 03, 2021 03:26PM
I started this book with great expectations. Wot I thought.
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That is not encouraging!!
Not getting much traction on this one? (I DNF'd it.)
I had to put it on hold for a library book that came in...I'm gonna give it another attempt once I get through another massive book.
Don't you hate these types of books where you think Whew! Thank goodness it's over!
It is very disheartening. But I'm glad to move on!
Yeah, the clowns underground were the worst. However, reading almost 40-year old, popular, sf is also bound to trigger some cognitive dissonance? A sf reader like you barely existed in 1980.
Good review. You've got more patience than I'll eva have.
There's lots of SF from the 80s (less from the 70s, but still some) that are quite appreciative and careful of people. They might use some terms that have changed recently, but at the time they were quite accepted. I'll forgive use of the g-word a bit because I think most American non-Roma are only just now learning that this is a slur, but misogyny can miss me. I've read works from a century before this was written (and, in fact a millennium before this was written) that do better.Thank you for the compliment, and I doubt it--for example, you put up with me and my know-it-all do-goodery. Quite a talent!
