Customer Reviews

The Gatekeepers #4: Necropolis

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Anthony Horowitz does a great job with the 4th book in the gate keepers series. I have enjoyed all of his books so far. This books leaves you with a cliff hanger and I hope the fifth book comes out soon so I can know what happens to all of the gate keepers. I would recommend this book but make sure you read the first 3 books before this one so you do not spoil the other books.

The fifth Gatekeeper, Scarlet, is paying no attention as she crosses a street in Dulwich, trying to get across to her friend Aidan. It's too late when she sees the van bearing down on her, and she's struck. But at the last possible fraction of a second before impact, she's shoved to safety by an unknown man who runs away before she can thank him or identify him.

From that moment on, Scarlet's life is turned upside down. In NECROPOLIS, the fourth installment in Anthony Horowitz's The Gatekeepers series, we finally come to know the fifth and final Gatekeeper. Unfortunately for her, she is being actively pursued by the Old Ones. Even more unfortunate, her father works for the Nightrise Corporation, the shadowy front group of the Old Ones.

Enduring their own trials and tribulations in South America, Matt and the rest of the Gatekeepers realize they must get to Scarlet before the Old Ones do, for all five are needed to win the war being waged. They make their way to England only to miss Scarlet by mere inches as she is whisked away to Hong Kong with her father.

The Nexus, protectors of the Gatekeepers, convene and agree that Matt and the rest must journey to Hong Kong and retrieve Scarlet. As they make their way and encounter deception to thwart their plans, Scarlet is imprisoned beneath the Needle. With the aid of the Triads, Matt and Scarlet prepare to flee the Needle but encounter agents of the Old Ones blocking their path, and the conclusion finds the five dispersed around the world at the precise time they are needed together, for the Old Ones are ready to strike their commanding blow.

NECROPOLIS is easily the best Gatekeepers novel thus far. The introduction of Scarlet Adams, the fifth Gatekeeper, adds a new dimension to the story and really helps to round out the cast. In fact, she doesn't seem out of place, or even new to the story. She simply feels as if she's been there the whole while, lingering in the periphery and awaiting her turn to step out.

Once again, Horowitz brings the characters and the action of NECROPOLIS to life in a style that opens up like a film on the page. The attack on Professor Chambers's home in South America plays out before your very eyes, and his vivid detailing of places and scenes, especially in Hong Kong, make it easy to see the city without becoming too descriptive or overblown.

Horowitz has crafted a story with an incredible pace, one that keeps pages flipping but does not fly so quickly as to outdistance its own suspense. And there is plenty of suspense, literally from the opening paragraph when Scarlet is hit by a van, to the intense closing pages that set up what is destined to be an explosive final book.

--- Reviewed by Stephen Hubbard

I love reading Anthony Horowitz's work. If you read enough of his books--which I have done--you start seeing trends in his writing style. For example, he often alludes to real-life brands for products like guns, cars, equipment, clothing, etc. He also tends to utilize characters with high power in society a lot, which was definitely prominent in the Alex Rider Series. You see that in this series numerous times as well. Another example (I find too many I want to share): Often times, Anthony Horowitz will depict his villains as ugly in some manner, probably to accentuate a character's evil vibe.

It's not that these patterns are bad--I gave the book five stars--I just point these out because an author's modus operandi is a significant aspect of his/her skills. In Anthony Horowitz's case, his modus operandi works marvelously for his stories. Necropolis is no exception. The action is exciting and engrossing, but never tiresome or repetitive. It's fast-paced. It's inventive. It's descriptive, which brings me to another point.

Without spoiling anything, Necropolis is a very suitable title for the book. While reading the book, I found myself amazed at how descriptive and imaginative Anthony Horowitz is able to write. Necro, a Greek prefix meaning death, and polis, a Greek suffix meaning city, combine to form a nightmarish scenario in the book. Anthony Horowitz conveys this nightmare. I could imagine myself witnessing his settings firsthand. This book is also slightly more ominous than the previous ones...you can just tell from the cover. Things are eerie, like straight-out-of-F.E.A.R-the-video-game-eerie. But hey, that's what makes it good.

Don't be looking for too many answers if you read this. There's still at least one book more. He also leaves you with a big cliffhanger as well, but it ends satisfyingly enough so that you're not questioning yourself as to what will happen every minute after you finish. Read and enjoy...it took me about half a day to finish.

I have read this book (and the original it came from, Day of the Dragon), and I have to say . . . it bothers me, as far as details on its setting. It's just . . . wrong about so many things. I can't say much about the tourist trap places I haven't been, but I have lived in Hong Kong, so a lot of wrong details about the city that I know very well stood out to me.

- Tsim Sha Tsui is just not "shabby." It's as big city, as glitzy, as Central. Twenty years ago, it may have been smaller, but these days, it's huge and glitzy and touristy. LOTS of shopping. LOTS of hotels. LOTS of expensive tourist things.
- What is all this nonsense about the Star Ferry being the given way to cross to the mainland? There's this thing called the MTR. (Which is never mentioned. Which is a huge problem for me.) The Metro Transit Railway is the way most people cross from island to mainland, as it's quicker. The Star Ferry is cheaper, but it's not the preferred way to get across the bay for most people, except poor people and tourists who want the experience.
- Hong Kong has some of the best public transportation in the world. Why is it never mentioned? And don't mean just the MTR stations, which are all over the place. I don't mean just the new airport, which is a wonderful, well-spread-out, beautifully-designed place. I mean the double-decker buses. I mean the air-conditioned smaller buses that cost more but go more quickly. I mean the Octopus cards that everybody uses to pay for these things. I haven't lived in Hong Kong for over ten years, yet even *I* used Octopus cards constantly to get around, my last four years living there. If Scarlett is in modern Hong Kong, she would have an Octopus card, and she would be using it constantly.
- Why would crossing to Macau be such a good idea? And by boat even? Why not just take the KCR (the train) up to mainland China, if she needs to get out of the country? It's faster, there are far more crowds to get through, and there are far more people using it, which means she could disappear more easily.
- Stanley Market is not "Stanley Village."

I kind of get the impression that the author did his research (perhaps visiting the city?) about twenty years ago, and has not been back since. Since Hong Kong is technologically savvy and looooooooooves new innovations (like the omnipresent Octopus card, for instance), it is nothing like it must have been in the 1980s. Everything gets torn down and rebuilt regularly. It's a crazy, busy, sprawling city.

All this could have been forgiven, annoying enough as it is. But . . . there's a critically plot-important thing.

The dragon. Which is a typhoon 10. Which is supposed to destroy the city. Which is supposed to be what a typhoon 10 would be if it ever hits the city.

(Bangs head on keyboard.)

Okay. I have lived through two typhoon 10s. So has practically everybody who's lived in the city for more a handful of summers. They're a big deal, yes, but hardly cataclysmic. There's at least one every five years. They happen regularly.

Typhoon 6 means elementary schools close. So do some stores. (There are usually six to eight of these in a year.) Typhoon 8 means they close secondary schools, colleges, and all stores. (There are usually one or two of these in a year.) Typhoon 10 means they order everybody to stay inside and close the airport. (There is usually one of these every few years.)

I have been outside during a typhoon 10. I have *landed in an airplane* during a typhoon 10. (Long story. You're not supposed to. It's dangerous.) So . . . it's a big deal, yes. It's a really heavy storm that you'd be crazy to go outside in the middle of. But cataclysmic? Destroying the entire city? No. No. No. And *no.*

New Orleans was destroyed by the equivalent of a typhoon 10. But it wasn't built to withstand these. Hong Kong is. It is *specifically* built to withstand these crazy storms every few years. Which it does, on a regular basis. Trees fall over. Landslides cover the country park roads. Power lines get buried. Water gets shut off. Everything goes dark for one or two days. But buildings breaking apart? Flooding destroying everything?

. . . Come on. Research is a GOOD thing.

(Sigh.) I wanted to like this book. I really did. It's a reasonably compelling series. But when it messes up the setting by so many basic things . . . it just pulls me so totally out of the story. And it makes me really question whether the author did a good jobn with *any* of his settings.

I like the idea of the author's series. I'm so glad he's finally finishing it. But does he actually research settings more than shallowly? This really makes me question it.

I had a bias against Anthony Horowitz because I think his Alex Rider books are just terrible. With a teenage super-duper James Bond, involved in ludicrous plots, the books are almost insulting to the reader. Don't care how "reluctant" a reader you have, the books are unredeemable.
But then you get the Gatekeepers series. A good plot that keeps evolving, interesting and reasonably developed characters, well paced action, suspense and tension. Where did this come from?
I could see a teen getting very involved in this series, and the books are well-written enough that I would certainly encourage him to keep going. (That said, and I feel a little guilty about this advice, if you can't get your hands on books 2 and 3, that's O.K. This book 4 summarizes the action from those two well enough that you can jump into it right from Book 1. But, or course, you'll miss some fun reading if you do that.)

Four years after the first GATEKEEPERS novel released, Anthony Horowitz returns to his sometimes fantasy, sometimes science fiction, sometimes horror series for young adults. It's been a wait for fans of the books, but now Horowitz delivers the next chapter in this thrilling series with astounding pacing, plotting, and a finish that ranks among his absolute best.

The story continues during events that take place in NIGHTRISE, book three. Things open up with Scarlett Adams, living in England and enjoying a relatively simple life until she stumbles through a doorway in St. Meredith's Church. Transported far from home, Scarlett faces a nightmare: there are men after her and she doesn't know why. All she does know is that they want her alive. Soon everything spins out of control: Scarlett's family is breaking, her life is falling apart, the people around her are dying, and her own will is about to smashed to pieces. Unless Matthew Freeman and the other three gatekeepers can rescue her in time...

NECROPOLIS was a huge undertaking, and it's easy to see why Horowitz waited so long to piece things together for its release. From Peru to England to Hong Kong to Macao and Miami, the story flies the characters all over the map. Horowitz takes a few cues from his horror stories in this one, and really ratcheted up the gore level. A few scenes definitely made me squirm, and other places I was breathless, flipping page after page to see what would happen. His action scenes shine brightly here, and even rival some of his Alex Rider books. Horowitz also seemed to try and make the evil creatures a little more frightening than before. In books two and three when the Old Ones are revealed, they were more comical than terrifying. But in NECROPOLIS, things take a dark, dark turn as the evil seems much more sinister than ever before.

Some sections did plod a bit, such as when Scarlett first arrives in Hong Kong. For about the first fifth of the book, Scarlett's point of view takes over, but then things switch up and start bouncing between Scarlett and Matthew, the main character in two of the previous books (RAVEN'S GATE and EVIL STAR). And Horowitz even experiments with journal entries from Matthew's perspective. The journal sections did jump from the flow of the story, but they worked to give us an inside view of Matthew's thoughts about the things happening all around him. The suspense does build, sometimes too slowly, but the final climax blew away almost every other ending Horowitz has done so far. The final chapter is so perfectly executed and left on such a perfect cliff hanger that I couldn't help but sit quietly in awe after I had turned the last page.

While this book might be just a bit too gory and violent for some readers, fans of Horowitz' previous novels and of THE GATEKEEPERS series will definitely enjoy this penultimate book before the final saga of Matthew Freeman and the Power of the Five.

We move over to London this time to go to Scarlett, the last Gatekeeper! The writer has created a very wholesome character in Scar, she loves sports, is bit cheeky and very confident. As usual, the prose is smooth and you hate to leave this book. I am reading it in bits as I wait for my next cache of books to arrive. Yes, it is that good. I would rather read a "light" book when I reach home after a hard day's work at office. I am not in the mood to read any complicated stuff now!

Another well-written, informational, and captivating series book for Anthony Horowitz "Gatekeepers" fantasy/science fiction books. Already cannot wait for the next book....

I bought this book at the request of a friend. She had read the previous books and liked them. She was so happy to receive this latest one and started reading it immediately.

The first strange event in the life of Scarlett Adams was the day she was rescued from certain death when she innocently stepped into the path of a speeding white van. She would have liked to thank the Chinese man who bravely swooped her out of harm's way, but he disappeared into the crowd.

Scarlett always knew she was adopted. Born in China, she was brought to England by Paul Adams and his wife. Her life was one of excess and privilege, but it was spent mostly with a live-in housekeeper and at her exclusive private school. Both her adoptive parents were busy with important careers, and when they announced they were divorcing, it was sad but not totally unexpected. Scarlett was content to continue attending her private school and living in the house with the housekeeper.

Another odd part of Scarlett's life was the dream she had on a fairly regular basis. Always set in a vast wasteland, it involved a familiar character named Matt. She always felt a strange connection with Matt and the feeling that they would one day meet.

Scarlett's world suddenly changes when she receives a message from her father requiring that she join him in Hong Kong. The message makes her suspicious the moment she reads it, and things become even more bizarre as she boards a plane for the other side of the world. She's met at the airport by people who tell her her father has been called away on important business, but they have been assigned to handle her care until he returns.

Readers of NECROPOLIS will immediately recognize that Scarlett is the fifth member of the Gatekeepers. Matt, Pedro, Scott, and Jamie are the other four talented teens whose duty is to save the world from destruction by The Old Ones. The five are the reincarnations of five who came before them and attempted to save the world in the past.

Anthony Horowitz uses his talent as an adventure writer to create the breathtaking world of monsters and shape-changers bent on the death and destruction of humankind. THE GATEKEEPERS adventures will satisfy even the most hard-to-please readers with bloody battles, last-minute getaways, massive insect swarms, and one double-cross after another.

Readers will now have to anxiously await Book #5 to find out how the adventure is to continue.

Reviewed by: Sally Kruger, aka "Readingjunky"