Could have been much better
583386
While the author's spell-checker works fine, she definitely needs an editor or, at least, a proofreader. Practically every page has at least one word that is wrong or misused. She obviously has no idea of the proper use of to/too among many other words (like pray/prey, wither/writhe, bear/bare among several others). Reading this is like driving down a road full of potholes. A very bumpy ride. Still, I found the story interesting and entertaining, though it should have been labeled with a warning for sexual content for those who find such things off-putting. While there was a fair amount of sex, I thought it was rather tastefully done and there wasn't what most would call "bad language." Not one mention of the F-word, LOL! The only thing about the sex that bothered me was that there was no mention or thought of birth control. I suppose it could be explained that they were just too much into each other to think about it at the time, but even afterwards, the heroine never gave it a thought. She's presented as naive, but THAT naive? Late in the story the author presents a couple of new ideas about vampires. I don't want to be a spoiler, so I'll just say I don't find them logical. I think this author has promise, but she isn't ready for prime-time yet.
2965527
This book has some very interesting elements. I love the concept, but the execution is lacking. Things that bothered me:

1. The relationship between the two main characters runs way too smoothly. They never have a fight. Brishen appreciates everything that Ildiko does. They get along wonderfully despite the fact that they are supposed to be from wildly different cultures and not even initially attracted to each other. It didn't ring true for me. Way to much telling us they are from different cultures--not enough showing.

2. Brishen is too affectionate for a man who is not attracted to his wife. He's a good guy, so he would treat her with respect--fair enough--but from the beginning he is touching and hugging and kissing her. Don't tell us he's not attracted and then make his act as though he is.

3. Ildiko is way too good at adapting to a culture where she is generally despised. We are told she has little understanding of the culture, but every step she makes is right. She is still learning the language, but she uses it perfectly. Is the culture really so different? Show. Don't tell.

4. Brishen's mother is supposed to be the horrible, wildly dangerous person, yet Ildiko gets away virtually unscathed with being mouthy and rude. The general impression that leaves is that the mother is just a spiteful old cat without claws. To be honest, right up until the epilogue, I couldn't see what all the fuss was about. Even her sins against Brishen did not seem sufficient to justify his hatred--his alienation, yes, but not his active hatred. Generally children are not so completely alienated that easily from their parents. I think more explanation was needed--or even better some internal conflict. Why wouldn't Brishen want to hope his mother could be better than she is?

5. Too much gratuitous description of sex. I accept that this may be a matter of taste, but having the bulk of a chapter committed to this sort of thing does not add anything to the book for me.

Overall, I wish there had been more showing of conflict and less telling of it.
2400787
I can't recommend this book because most of it is very depressing, and although the magic is imaginative, it is "broken" for most of the story.  Here are my complaints.  If Sanderson had changed the book in the following ways it would have been a much more pleasant read (spoilers):

1) Lighten the gloom.  I would have left the city of Elantris in good shape, the doom only effecting the people, AND it would have been better if those affected by the Sheod could be damaged (dismembered, etc), but the pain didn't pile up.

2) Raodan was just too darned perfect.  Sarene was too, except for being irascible and smug. And their plans for helping the people are too 21st century progressive.  He should have eased off on that. Some feminism and grrl-power in there too that I found irritating.

3) Maybe I missed it but I didn't understand how the Elantrians couldn't have figured out what was wrong with their magic and fixed it.  It is hardly believable that Raodan could, under such a handicap, and they couldn't.  The Elantrians need to have just been disintegrated instantly when disaster struck.

4) I think he was angling for a follow-on book, but the injection of several other forms of magic toward the end was a mistake, I think.  It cluttered things and seemed like something of a deus-ex-machina (for the bad guys).

5) The monks of Dakhor were made too powerful. It would have been enough if they were just very well-trained warriors.

6) The magic was imaginative, but too powerful.  It was either broken or running at full power, easily.  The best magics come in different strengths, and are sometimes elusive.

I could go on (I hate anti-smoking pressure in a fantasy, in fact pipe-smoking and discussion of tabac is one of my favorite pleasures in fantasy novels), but the above changes would have made this a much more pleasant to read book.
306035
Checked it out at my local library. Could have been much better. The story was kinda predictable. Not the worst, it had potential but it just feelsl like they opted for a quick generic story rather than put the time in to come up with something creative.
2849373
This book was interesting, but it could have been considerably better.  Laxer does a decent job of describing some aspects of living in a cult run by Frederick Lenz.  A reader understands Lenz's voluble and contradictory behavior.  But what would have made the book far more useful would have been an analysis by Laxer of how so many intelligent, educated, capable people were sucked in by an increasingly deranged charlatan.  If Lenz had appeared to be truly religious, and consistent in his teachings, his following would have made some sense.  But, given his erratic, contradictory, hypocritical, and disturbing words and behavior, it seems almost impossible that he would have attracted, maintained, and increased an intelligent membership.  Some sort of analysis was definitely needed.  I put down the book feeling as if I had learned facts without understanding reasons.
2222635
I really liked the premise of this book, but the execution of it left much to be desired.
1358880
Let me start by admitting I only made it about 215 pages through this 416-page novel before I gave up. I may eventually go back to it if only because I paid for the novel. I'd rate this 2 and a half stars. I didn't dislike it; it was more that my interest waned as Nekropolis (the city) overshadowed the main character.

The concept for Nekropolis is original and inventive, but the execution felt crammed with too many creatures and world-building details that overwhelmed the main plot: Zombie detective helps half-breed vamp-human offspring of Dark Lord locate missing object.

Matt Richter is a likeable character, less downtrodden than your typical noir-PI, but somewhat less "fleshed-out" so to speak, because of his lack of emotions, explained in the novel by virtue of the fact that zombies lose their human sensations and emotions after death. This makes him difficult to relate to. Matt's description of events often reads very dry because he is emotionally indifferent to events occurring to and around him.

Devona, the half-breed vampire who engages his services to locate a missing magical object from her father's collection, is annoying. And somewhat unbelievable. She is the bastard daughter of a powerful Dark Lord born and raised in a Halloween-Horrortown where all manner of evil creatures live and dwell, and her reactions are often reminiscent of a spoiled teenager. Naivite in a world where creatures openly commit heinous acts of violence on a daily basis just doesn't seem realistic.

Meanwhile, at any given moment during the investigation, Matt and Devona are randomly attacked by various bizarre creatures that serve no apparent purpose other than describing the electic pantheon of scary creatures who live in Nekropolis. One or two of these would have been enough, but the overload was enough to make me lose track of the original purpose to their investigation. I had to keep reminding myself what they were supposed to be doing as they escaped each new confrontation.

Often, the dialogue was cliche, particularly for villains who attacked them. (There are so many, I cannot recall names.) Overall, I think this novel could have benefitted by "trimming the fat" and paring down the story to its bare bones. This would have placed more emphasis on the characters than the world they are inhabiting.

I had high hopes for this story, but sadly, it was too dry to hold my interest. I prefer sharply-written urban fantasy with crisp dialogue and well-developed characters. Sadly, Nekropolis didn't qualify. I may return to this author after subsequent novels to see if the writing improves. I still love the idea of this story, but the writing just isn't there yet.
368560
Not bad, but could have been better. I realize this type of scenario would naturally include violence, but this was a bit more gruesome than I prefer. I could also do without such an odd assortment of characters. A weak, sort of wimpy, gay kid gets paired with a girl who can destroy any boy with her self defense training, and a buff exchange student from Germany who takes a back seat to both of them. I may take a look at book 2, but that will probably be it if it doesn't get better.
4512157
The novel was written in mostly bare conversation style, and I would have appreciated much more narrative and description. It felt incomplete, although the conversation was mostly well done -- and sometimes it was too ping-pongy. People don't talk in complete paragraphs. Also i would have loved much more drooling over the setting.

I was kind of dismayed when the murderer turned out to be someone not encountered until the climax. More tasty clues are needed.

Also i was expecting just a cozy mystery but it was larded with anti-drug rhetoric and prosy moralizing with a liberal dose of religion. My fault, I guess, for not reading the reviews first, but I felt I was misled by calling it a cozy mystery. Like many of those the amateur detective lead character annoyed me by doing stupid pushy, dangerous things. Her sheriff lover should have been a stronger character and reacted more huffily to this. It would have made a better story arc for the two to still be dangling at the end of the book, so the romance could continue to the next in the series. Instead it was a sugary wrap up.
3082450
I recently got my hands on a used copy of this book as I am an avid fan of The Dark Crystal. I have to say that I was disappointed. This book delivers on some fronts but lacks in others.
It does have some good points. Probably the best part of this book is how it details the thoughts and political machinations of the various Skekses. We get into their minds and can tell just how they're trying to undermine each other's power and how they detest each other. We get some great insight on this front.
However, the book lacks on almost every other front. Often we get vivid description of events that aren't pivotal, but many events that are come across as sparse and rushed. The shocking thing is that the Skekses are better developed than the gelflings. Their scenes come alive, but the scenes with Jen and Kira are often flat and dull. The ending was awful. I wasn't expecting a big explanation of the urSkeks, but Smith rushed it horrendously. We get about a page or two between the healing of the Crystal and the last sentence.
All in all, get this book if you're a big fan, but don't expect too much out of it. It feels like a late draft that got rushed into production due to time constraints. The movie was MUCH better than this poorly-written novel.
2767990
This series could have been so much better than it was. The story had potential, but it was just too scattered  about and a bit messy. A real let down.
2706585
The biggest problem with this story is that we expected a whole lot more in way of the story.  The synopsis said "even little creatures can have big adventures." When I downloaded this book, there were only a few reviews, all positive, and they all talked about going on 2 quests (this apparently is poor writing, now I think the reviewer meant 2 guests) and adventure.  SPOILER- when the story ends with meeting the queen, the kids were very disappointed.  While they enjoyed the trip to the queen, they were waiting for the adventures to start.  End SPOILER

The writing was decent, and the illustrations were very good.  I think we just were led to beleive there was a lot more to the story than there was. So, bottom line, when we're doing bed-time stories, it's hasn't been requested again.
1303102
As a fan of both the LOTU and AIR series, I think this book fell flat.  The basic dynamic could have set up a lot of high drama with fully developed emotions between the characters and a rich plot line for the team, but it just never got there.  A great deal of the world building was left unfinished (even if you *have* read AIR, which shares this world) and just dropped in, expecting the reader to follow along.  There was a lot of unnecessary deus ex machina, like Showalter had some scenes in her head, but rather then flesh them out or tie them together in a comprehensible way, she'd just have a dimension shift here, a kidnapping there, some animal attacks and some black magic all loosely tied together.  Most disappointing were the inconsistencies which the editor didn't catch, particularly those concerning Vika's deafness--she often *heard* and reacted to tone of voice.  While I respect the author's choice for writing a character with this kind of impairment, I think it overly ambitious for someone with hearing to write about a deaf person's experience and write about it well.
4167930
This is an ok book but I feel it could have been much better. I think the story was too long. Way too many situations happening to the lead character. I want to read something that is somewhat plausible even if it's comedy. I also want to read about a woman who isn't a door mat. Yes, she gained some spunk that last part of the book. She wants to conquer her fears but she can't stand up to her mean and abusive family. She doesn't have any self respect. She sleeps with the H even though she feels he's not really into her.
4004692
This film was just OK, could have been so much better!
129129
This book could have been alot better in my opinion. I guess I would have enjoyed it better if reality had not spoilt if for me. Unfortunately, I visited Egypt in Decemmber 2009 and experienced the culture for myself. It was wonderful from an historical perspective, but socially the men were rude and and the women are still treated as second class citizens. Cairo was shockingly dirty and the men it seemed had an aversion to bathing and brushing their teeth. I am not writing this to insult their culture so I hope no one takes offence. Our tour guides were really for the most part foul smelling with bad breath. Having experienced this I could not picture the hero in a romantic light and I had to laugh when the hero was referred to has being deferential to women. This was attributed to his Egyptian upbringing. On what planet is the author living on? But I digress, back to the book. This story as you already realize is set in Egypt. The heroine is an American history teacher who is on sabbatical in Egypt where she is helping to excavate the site of a newly discovered pyramid. The hero Kasim is a professor at the university in Cairo and fellow excavator. When they meet they are immediately attracted to each other, but their romance doesn't progress smoothly because the heroine is obsessed with a dream lover who constantly appears to her in her dreams. I thought the author wasted far too much time focusing on this. I really think this was totally unnecessary to the plot. I honestly think that if I hadn't visited Egypt I might have enjoyed this book alot more. I thought it was o.k but totally unrealistic even though it's a romance. I also wondered if the author had visited Egypt or if she had researched the culture. I noticed the book was published in 2000. I suppose some things might have changed.
3010531
Don't get me wrong:  this novel is not bad, but it could have been better.
Shetterly uses the hard-boiled detective genre to good effect in this mystery/science fiction book.  Unfortunately, he missed a better plot and philosophical/moral discussion (see below).
Chimeras are genetically altered humans, a mixture of human and animal genetic material:  pigs, bears, dogs, among others.  Each chimera "breed" retains some of the characteristics of their animal donor species--strength, enhanced hearing, etc.  Chimeras are accepted in the society in the sense that no one seems to think twice about the ethics of their existence.  They are, however, considered second- or third-class citizens--virtual slaves which fill certain lower level jobs.
When a chimera is framed for the murder of a full human scientist, she searches for the only P.I. that can help her, a sarcastic man with a caustic wit.
The thing that bothered me most was that there was virtually no discussion of the ethical revolution that had to have taken place in the world to get to this point.  In my opinion, the book would have been more interesting if it were set in the earlier timeframe.  How did the religious groups react to the genetic manipulation?  Medical personnel?  Political parties?  Labor unions?  The general public?
Shetterly attempts to discuss the inequality of our current world by using the chimeras and artificial intelligences as an allegory for those that are discriminated against today.  I'm not sure that he fully realized this goal.
Nothing wrong with the book from a general escapist read, but in my opinion, the deeper meaning was somewhat flat.