In 1802, a failed attempt by the magicians to summon Anubis opens magical gates in a predictable pattern across time and space.

He plans to meet and befriend William Ashbless, a wealthy poet that Doyle has studied profusely, in order to gain a benefactor.

Doyle eventually returns to 1810, but is kidnapped and taken to Muhammad Ali's Egypt, where the magicians' Master tempts him with resurrecting his dead wife if he will tell them the secrets of the time-gates.

[5] Colin Greenland reviewed The Anubis Gates for Imagine magazine, and stated that "Power's manic, macabre imagination paints London as a lurid carnival of sinister gypsies, vicious clowns, beggar tyrants, werewolves, ghouls and eyeless things that scuttle in the sewers.

He supplies room for the reader to participate; to delve into each clearly delineated wonder, to turn it over in his or her own mind with full confidence that the author has honestly drawn the lineaments of the whole scene being presented.

"[8] A 2006 review at SFReviews.net gives the novel 4.5 out of 5 stars and says, "Tim Powers' masterpiece remains, over 20 years after its first publication, one of modern fantasy's most dazzling acts of the imagination.

There have been other novels in the genre about time travel, but none with The Anubis Gates' unique slant on the material, nor its bottomless well of inventiveness.

Powers draws from everywhere: speculative quantum physics, ancient Egyptian mythology, Romany lore, history and classical literature.

He wrote, "The main virtue of the book is its unique and imaginative setting, a 19th-century London filled with deformed clowns, organized beggar societies, insane homunculi, and magic," but found the plot "difficult to understand... especially in the completely baffling climactic sequence.

"[13] The novel was adapted for the stage and directed by Ruth Pe Palileo, and the stage-play premiered on August 16, 2014, at the ExCel Exhibition Center in London, England.

The original cast featured Johnny Miles as Brendan Doyle, Ariana Helaine as Jacky Snapp, Timothy Cummings as J. Cochrane Darrow and Dr. Romany, Jake Taylor as Amenophis Fikee, Horrabin the Clown, and Lord Byron, and Geo Nikols as Steerforth Benner.

[16][17] Javier Olivares has stated that the novel was one of the main inspirations for the Spanish television show El Ministerio del Tiempo, which he co-created.

[18] Andy Lane has stated his Doctor Who novel, All-Consuming Fire, was "[his] attempt to emulate" Powers' Anubis Gates.