Customer Reviews

Necropolis

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

 

 

Xina Marie Uhl's Necropolis goes beyond the usual sword-and-sorcery warmed-over Tolkien fantasy rehashes, delivering characters as nuanced and plots as intricate as Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. The sense of dread and terror in this quasi-Roman Empire (maybe Judea with hints of a Christ figure) city of Eretria, conducting negotiations with their enemy Cyra while plots and counterplots reign, is as persistent as chemical weapons in Iraq, and the political situation is twice as explosive. And amnesiac priest Dru may hold the key...and as in THE LORD OF THE RINGS, an unlikely group of allies faces the ultimate evil, unimaginable peril and destiny in the terrifying Necropolis.

In the epic fantasy adventure NECROPOLIS, a young warrior-priest undertakes a perilous journey to an unknown land, and for his trouble is beaten and imprisoned. He is found and nursed back to health by a young girl, with the help of an embittered prison guard. Meanwhile, a ruler who harbors hatred in his heart sets an unimaginable betrayal in motion. The ruler's hatred has so destroyed his life that he is willing to sacrifice his own son to see himself avenged.

Cyran's ruler sets his plan in motion. The young hostage, Dru, has no memory of why he is where he is, but he is compelled nonetheless to complete the task he has been sent to accomplish. Unaware of his importance in the scheme of things, Dru is befriended by the very people he was sent to destroy. If he succeeds, an entire world of people will be destroyed.

Xina Marie Uhl calls upon her extensive knowledge of ancient history to create the places and people who make up her fantasy adventure Necropolis. With enough characters for a DeMille epic, Necropolis distinguishes itself and its author, by managing to focus on the main characters and allow the reader to get completely caught up in their lives. What at first blush seems to be the climax, turns out to be instead a brilliant double back flip which wrenches the hearts and challenges the minds of the readers, ensuring that Ms. Uhl's excellent book will not be put down until the last page is devoured.

I really enjoyed this book, it's my kind of fantasy! The characters are excellent and the setting sucks you right in until you feel you're living with the characters. I particularly liked the snippets beginning each chapter that give brief glimpses into the history and lifestyles of the people and the city-state-- the author truly breathes life into the place without a droning history lesson. I encourage everyone to step into another time and place and read Necropolis. You won't be sorry!

I loved this book and its characters, including a very loveable dog. The tightly-woven plot twists and turns in a setting made all the more real by the author's background in ancient history, language, and culture. It is a story of heroism and courage, loyalty and love, and always of danger lurking.

In the epic fantasy adventure NECROPOLIS, a young warrior-priest undertakes a perilous journey to an unknown land, and for his trouble is beaten and imprisoned. He is found and nursed back to health by a young girl, with the help of an embittered prison guard. Meanwhile, a ruler who harbors hatred in his heart sets an unimaginable betrayal in motion. The ruler's hatred has so destroyed his life that he is willing to sacrifice his own son to see himself avenged.

Cyran's ruler sets his plan in motion. The young hostage, Dru, has no memory of why he is where he is, but he is compelled nonetheless to complete the task he has been sent to accomplish. Unaware of his importance in the scheme of things, Dru is befriended by the very people he was sent to destroy. If he succeeds, an entire world of people will be destroyed.

Xina Marie Uhl calls upon her extensive knowledge of ancient history to create the places and people who make up her fantasy adventure Necropolis. With enough characters for a DeMille epic, Necropolis distinguishes itself and its author, by managing to focus on the main characters and allow the reader to get completely caught up in their lives. What at first blush seems to be the climax, turns out to be instead a brilliant double back flip which wrenches the hearts and challenges the minds of the readers, ensuring that Ms. Uhl's excellent book will not be put down until the last page is devoured.

Partially disabled in the Cyran campaign, Conyr found employment at the war's end in a city far from the countryside where he was born. The war had robbed him of family, friends, lovers and comrades, and left him to struggle against or drown the memories that still came too frequently, reminding him of all that he'd lost. Amid rumors of new wars and struggles for both power and peace and prophecies of the return of the Old Ones from the City of the Dead, the Necropolis, bringing death and destruction to all, Conyr is indifferent or, at least, numb.

One day Conyr encounters a young man--a stranger yet somehow familiar--being beaten to death by the guards. Silently prompted by a prisoner to pay a debt owed, and yet of his own volition, Conyr deceives the other guards and hides the man, unconscious and close to death, in his own rooms. As others reach out to help, Conyr finds old wounds healing and alliances formed, where he had sworn never to trust again. And, there are plots within plots, as Dru, the young man Conyr saved, turns out to be a foreign envoy and hostage for peace ... and yet perhaps not an envoy of peace, but a tool of revenge in the hands of a previous generation.

Through flashbacks and reminiscences, Xina Marie Uhl paints a new world with bold strokes, depicting competing and cooperating cultures, the nomads, farmers, and city dwellers, rich and poor, magicians and ordinary folks, with detailed accuracy. She shows people as they really are, mixtures of good and bad, with divided loyalties and fears and motivations, weaknesses, and the hidden heroism and courage that find a home in those who dare to love others and justice, even in the face of death. I became totally involved in the characters themselves as well as in the action.

Necropolis is called a "fantasy adventure," but it's a more powerful and complex story than that description might imply. The author has created a colorful tapestry of civilizations and personalities that left me wishing that the book had not ended quite so soon.

The world of Eretria hosts dark characters, and its culture breathes through the story in great detail. The characters, struggling to survive in the harsh backdrop of corruption and imprisonment, emit emotions from the electronic page. The writer braids these elements with gods and legends to create the story of Necropolis.

A must read. I could not put it down. Xina Uhl has such a way of writing , she can make you close your eyes + be there in every detail.

This is an exciting fantasy with fascinating, vivid characters (and a very loveable dog) that you quickly come to care for and worry about. The tightly-woven plot twists and turns in a setting made all the more real by Xina Marie Uhl's background in ancient history, language, and culture. It is a story of heroism and courage, loyalty and love, and--always--of danger lurking. I loved this book, and if you enjoy well-written fantasy or adventure stories, I think you will too.