'The Anubis Gates' by Tim Powers

'. . . They move in dark, old places of the world:
Like mariners, once healthy and clear-eyed,
Who, when their ship was holed, could not admit
Ruin and the necessity of flight,
But chose instead to ride their cherished wreck
Down into darkness; there not quite to drown,
But ever to continue plying sails
Against the midnight currents of the depths,
Moving from pit to pit to lightless crag
In hopeless search for some ascent to shore;
And who, in their decayed, slow voyaging
Do presently lose all desire for light
And air and living company - from here
Their search is only for the deepest groves,
Those farthest from the nigh-forgotten sun . . . '

- From 'The Twelve Hours of the Night' by William Ashbless. Extracted from...


I love this book. I bought it some time ago but have only just gotten around to reading it fairly recently. I should have read it right away, as I'll now urge you to: as soon as I got stuck in and realised how ludicrously enjoyable The Anubis Gates is, the thought that kept returning to me was 'Where the hell have you been all my life?!' That pretty much summarises the simple and heartfelt recommendation I'd like to make on the novel's behalf - books I've had this much fun reading have been few and far between.