Nekropolis

I really enjoyed the first book in the Matt Richter series. There are three books in this series, it sounds like the series stopped in the middle (probably when Angry Robot publishing went out of business). This book reminded me a lot of Simon Green's Nightside series which I loved. The setting for this book is very similar in a lot of ways and the different sights and characters you run across are just as strange and creative as they are in the Nightside series.

I love books that throw a lot of crazy and creative things at you quickly and this was one of those. At heart it's an investigative urban fantasy but the setting and our hero (a falling apart zombie ex-cop) really make it something special.

I loved the crazy world, the bizarre show more characters, and the constant edge of snarky darkness throughout. I can’t wait to learn more about Nekropolis and meet more of its inhabitants

Overall this was a very fun and entertaining series and I plan on continuing to read it. I would recommend to fans of gritty and darkly humorous urban fantasy. If you love Simon Green’s Nightside series you will love this one!! show less

I'll let you guys guess which attracted me to the book first--whether it was the Zombie part or the Private Detective noir part. It was both honestly, but to be fair the Zombie part won me over first. Love me my Zombies!

In a literary world saturated with urban fantasy worlds another one may not seem like such a great thing. Been there, seen that, didn't that just get a movie made from it? Nekropolis though comes off less like its trying to be a fresh new urban fantasy and more like a noir that hey just so happens has supernatural elements! The main character, Matthew (and to be clear I don't often enjoy books with a male first person narrative) is a zombie but that doesn't give him super-advantages (other then immunity to pain and if a show more limb gets torn off he can probably have his friend Papa Chatha patch him up. Maybe. If something doesn't go horribly wrong) and he still has to do things the old fashioned way. Network. Talk to sources. Trail folks and look into the dirty laundry and garbage.

Nekropolis, as a city and book, is dark, dirty and teeming with every nightmare you can imagine and probably a few you haven't dare to. Honani, a genetically modified lyke (shapeshifter more or less), is a massive hulking monstrosity cobbled together from various animals (almost like a Chimera I suppose). Despite this, or maybe in spite of this?, Matthew is a good guy in the classic sense. Helps the down trodden, sets out for justice and doesn't use evil manipulations to get his way (underhanded or sneaky, possibly, but not evil).

As expected in a Noir-esque book there is a femme fatale, but some of her charm is tarnished since though Matthew admits had he been alive she would be a tempting handful, as a dead man...well he can only admire. And admiration isn't as easy to manipulate.

I liked that Waggoner (who I've read previously only once, a short story in Zombie Raccoons and Killer Bunnies called 'Bone Whispers', which creeps me out still) didn't try to make this 'the most unique world ever', but instead tried to add layers to the worlds and creatures that exist already(vampires with holographic eyes playing a twisted board game...).

This was a surprising delight for me that made me glad I took the step to read it. Horror, as a genre, doesn't appeal to me that often, but I don't believe this is really a 'horror' book. It doesn't convey a sense that what Waggoner is writing is meant to give you nightmares and scared of the shadows. Chills perhaps, for a world similar to our own but obviously not our own, but not nightmares. Waggoner uses wit and irony to draw the reader in and engage their attention. Matthew didn't claim to be the smartest, or fastest, or best detective in the world, but he did get the job done and he cared, that's a win in my book.

From what I gathered this was once a novella length story (back in 2004 or so), then it got expanded to the current book it is and is the first in a planned trio of urban fantasy novels.

Once you finish the book, and before you start Dead Streets, check out this short story set between the two books "The Midnight Watch" show less

Mostly, I have only Past Carol. to blame. You see, I realized my TBR list had over 600 books, over four years of reading if I ever tried to get through it. As I try to actually make these things functional, I was going through removing books that no longer appealed. I don't know what I was up to in 2011, but I sure was frivolous about adding books. Necropolis was one of those 2011 reads, and one I could have done without. While I'm often looking for a new take on urban fantasy, this was MadLibs: Magickal Private Eye edition. You want regular edition, use noir private eye words (Mafia, mansion, gun, doll, etc). Magic edition, use supernatural ones (Lord, castle, holy water, vampire, etc).

_____ (Plain name) Richter has just finished his show more latest case successfully but with some damage to his _____(body part). ___ (name) stops by his _____ (health practitioner) for repairs and discovers he has limited time remaining. As he's dragging himself home, a beautiful and sheltered ____(description) woman requests his help recovering _____(lost object). The woman's father is a powerful member of the _____ (social group) and she wants to return the ____(lost object) without him being any the wiser. Initially skeptical, ___ (plain name) agrees, hoping he can use her connections to repair his own situation. Together they sneak into her father's _____ (opulent dwelling) to investigate where the _____(lost object) was stored. There is no sign of forced entry, leading ___ (plain name) to suspect that someone related to the family is responsible. There are also some fine grains of white crystal left at the scene, leading them to suspect a ____(illegal drug) user. They head to a ____(occupation) informant, then a nightclub the user is known to frequent, only to be violently accosted by ____(group of people) en route. At the nightclub, they conveniently get information from a friend, who just happens to ___ (activity) at that club. They will also have to go to a ___ (drinking establishment) and a ___ (place for sex acts) in order to further their search.

The plot was boilerplate noir with more deus ex machina than a game of Sims. At virtually every point, there is a device/conversation/person that provides the couple with the next step. Most frequently, it is people who Matt has helped before, who decided to provide extra assistance strictly because they all appreciate what a great ol' guy Matt is (this is used at least four times--generalized spoilers--driver, information, information, driver, entrance to the palace). There's an arbitrary attack on Matt and Devona that serves as a neon 'bad-guy-HERE' sign.

What makes this 'original' is the setting of an alternate-dimension world where Earth-dwelling 'Darkfolk' decided to make their home. Necropolis as a city is hazily imagined, more along political lines than anything else. The most detail is lavished on our zombie P.I.'s undead state (but not how it happened), followed by vampire habits. Otherwise there are shifters, known as 'lycs,' and a variety of beings that may or may not have four limbs and involve gene manipulation. While sentient bugs, a bartender with only a skull on a corpulent human body, and a preying-mantis type bug that can't wait to have sex with a human-looking female sound potentially interesting, mostly it isn't. They all act like normal people in monstrous avatar forms. It's all very weird, especially when these various beings are oogling and pinching Devona's butt. It really does have a Mad-Libs sensibility of using one noun in place of another without much world-building or integration behind it.

Add a somewhat sophomoric writing style, and it just wasn't enough to sustain my interest. Note that for some odd reason an area library decided to shelve this as 'horror.' Most empathetically not. Straight up private-eye fantasy. It most reminded me of [a:Simon R. Green|41942|Simon R. Green|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1224555729p2/41942.jpg]'s Nightside series and [a:Glen Cook|13026|Glen Cook|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1207159752p2/13026.jpg]'s Garrett P.I. series; if you enjoy those works, this may work for you. I honestly have no idea what 2011 Carol. was thinking, but I wish she'd stop wasting my time. show less

3 1/2 stars

Matthew Adrion, former Cleveland police detective, spends his copious time doing favors for people, solving everything from petty crimes to murders. Though he tries to deny it to others and himself, being a detective is an occupation which gives him meaning and something to do other than moping around his apartment. What makes him truly unique, however, is that he's Necropolis's first, and so far only, self-willed zombie. He has a unique perspective on both life and (un)death and though he tries to come across as crusty, underneath the greying flesh, he's got a good heart.

Necropolis is home to the Darkfolk, people, demons, monsters and other critters out of myth, legend, fairytale, and nightmares: vampires, lycanthropes - show more known as lykes -, demons, witches, necromancers ... The city is made up of six sections, five sections making up the outer ring of the city in the shape of a pentacle with the central section being the spoke of the wheel where Father Dis lives. Each of the sections is separated by a river of green fire, but linked by bridges and ruled by a separate entity who represents each of the races living in Necropolis.

Father Dis established Necropolis as a haven for all those fleeing from the Earth dimension, especially as humans began spreading across the planet in ever greater numbers. Though technology from the home dimension is supposed to be anathema, there are plenty in Necropolis who are more than willing to experiment with mixing and matching tech with magic. This leads to such hybrids as the pathetic vampires known as the Red Tide gang who, each time we see them, are more tech than Bloodborn (as vampires are known in Necropolis). Magic is the main source of power in Necropolis, however, and it is both a source of power and tension between the key players of the city.

For his part, Matt is just a zombie trying to make a living by trading favors for people. All he really needs to survive are maintenance spells to keep his body from falling apart. When we meet him, however, he's just received the worst news a zombie cop can get: the spells are losing to entropy and it won't be long before Matt will be nothing but a pile of dusty bones.

The news, while depressing, does not stop Matt from accepting one more job when the dhampir Devona, the daughter of Galm, one of the rulers of Necropolis, comes to him for help in tracking down the Dawnstone which has gone missing from Galm's collection. The Dawnstone holds both danger and hope. If used at just the wrong time during the great Renewal ceremony, it could devastate Necropolis and all who live in the city. For Matt it means chance to stop his imminent demise while helping a lady out of a jam. In the process, he discovers a new friend, the betrayal of another friend, the origin of a particularly nasty drug and that underneath his numb flesh he can steal feel hope.

Well written and enjoyable, Necropolis as a city is a fascinating one and as a book full of memorable characters, like Lazlo, the taxi driving demon who almost always shows up when Matt needs a ride (his style of driving reminds me of Moe Shrevnetz from The Shadow movie), and Papa Chatha, an hoodooian among others. Even Carl (Kolchak: [b:The Kolchak Papers: The Original Novels|996660|The Kolchak Papers The Original Novels|Jeff Rice|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348509902s/996660.jpg|982153]) gets named checked in this book as a paranoid claiming there are Watchers all over the city. show less

20 Words or Less: A lackluster urban fantasy that fails to offer empathetic characters almost as often as it fails to be funny.

Rating: 2.5/5 stars

Pros: Interesting setting with potential for future stories,

Cons: Poorly written humor, inconsistent “rules”, lack of protagonists to empathize/identify with

The Review: Angry Robot Books is pushing 4 launch titles. Moxyland was spectacular. Nekropolis? Not so much. Urban Fantasy is very hit-or-miss with me. The characters have to be heroes I can cheer for and the author has to have a certain narrative style that distinguishes the story from the sea of paranormal dreck out there. Unfortunately, Tim Waggoner doesn’t deliver with his characters or in his delivery.

Matt Richter. Private Eye. show more Zombie. I’ve read paranormal fantasy with wizard protagonists, vampire protagonists, and exorcist protagonists. This is my first zombie. What’s so special about a zombie?, you might ask. Nothing much besides dulled senses and an increased attention span. They don’t feel pain, they don’t breathe, and they apparently don’t have emotions or a libido. Except that they do. When it’s convenient for the story or necessary for character development. Also, Waggoner repeatedly (and I mean repeatedly) hits you over the head with the fact that zombies can’t smell, can’t taste, and can’t feel. Yet Matt has no problem with seeing or hearing. If there’s one thing that bugs me more than anything else, it’s internal consistency and logic within a story. I wouldn’t have a problem if Matt was a zombie whose only quirk was a lack of pain receptors. Just don’t set up the rules and break them a page later.

I also was irritated by Waggoner’s tone and the lack of consistency in his writing. At times, the story flowed extremely well and the pages flew by. At other times, there was a pun or an attempt at humor that was so painful that I had to set the book down in disbelief. Here’s just one example:

I found myself blasted across the street and through the front window of Les Escargot, a gourmet restaurant run by giant snails. The food's suppossed to be great, but you wouldn't believe how slow the service is. - Pg 229

If you are trying to create a city of darkness, malice, and evil, where everything humans are afraid of resides, don’t make it so pedestrian. It’s takes itself too seriously to be campy and it takes itself too lightly to be scary or suspenseful so it ends up being neither.

Waggoner’s titular city, Nekropolis> is certainly a strange one. Advertised as “Tim Burton does Sin City from a Coen Brothers script”, I would say its more Beetlejuice meets Discworld, minus Terry Pratchett’s gift for humor. Vampires, werewolves, demons, ghouls, sorcerers, alchemists, ghosts, zombies, and everything else you can imagine (and some things you couldn’t). The city is interesting and well concocted (at least when Waggoner lays off the jokes). It could (and will) support multiple Matt Richter adventures. There is plenty to do in Nekropolis and Waggoner introduces us to dozens of characters and creatures, some of which work better than others. However, while the world itself is incredibly diverse, it's also significantly flawed in the fact that's lacking any sort of relatable character. The main plot revolves around the destruction of this extra-dimensional city and it’s sinful residents. I simply didn’t care if a bunch of bloodthirsty monsters die. And Matt? He’s already dead. The closest thing to a sympathetic character is Matt’s “love” interest who is 50% human, 50% vampire and 100% the stereotypical librarian type who doesn’t know her own inner strength until she needs to save the day. And I was rooting for the chiranha (that’s a cringe-inducing Chihuahua-Piranha hybrid) to eat her.

To be fair, this is only the first book in a series. Storm Front, the debut novel in The Dresden Files, is definitely the worst book in the series. The difference here is that Storm Front was Jim Butcher’s debut novel whereas Tim Waggoner has written over ten and it doesn’t show. There is an abundance of dialog tags, sloppy character exposition, and deus ex (how do you say coat in latin?). At one point, an informant character actually trades Matt some information in exchange for his origin story which Matt conveniently supplies in an out of place flashback chapter. At another point, yet another informant asks him word for word, “How do you feel about being a zombie?” These are certainly relevant details but the methods Waggoner employs to communicate them are lazy at best and amateur at worst. Waggoner also resorts to the Jacket of Bottomless Pockets that Richter must have stolen from the early Harry Dresden novels. He just always seems to have the perfect solution to every problem to the point where it begins to stretch past my willing suspension of disbelief. Not to mention that the vast majority of characters seem to be best friends of Matt’s that are more than willing to help out. This is surprising given that he is a passionless zombie who has lived in the city for less than two years. It’s the friendliest bunch of homicidal deviants I’ve ever read about.

I realize that I have been nitpicking the book a lot and honestly the book isn’t all bad. The world building in Nekropolis is fantastic and could easily support future Matt Richter stories. There are stretches were the writing is fluid, the characters are interesting and the plot is dynamic. But there are also a lot of stretches where those things don’t happen, and unfortunately, those portions really ruined the story for me. Maybe it just wasn't for me, maybe I just didn't "get it", I'm not sure. If you are a hardcover paranormal fantasy junkie, give this a try. Otherwise, just go read Moxyland again. show less

I enjoyed this book much more than I had expected to, there seem to be so many books out now where the dark and magical creatures live in a dimension just next to our own and this looked like it would just be one more of those.
However I found I quickly got engaged with the characters, the world and the mystery. The pacing was excellent and at no point did the story lag or feel forced, every charter fit, their motives and reactions felt appropriate and real and while the author worked at making the world as a whole feel real, he also did a great job of making it clearly other instead of just trying to make it a twisted version of ours.
I am hoping this becomes an ongoing series as I am looking forward to reading more.

This was a good read, and I'd like to continue with the other two books that follow. It was not quite as light/humorous as the cover & blurbs made out, but it definitely had its chuckle moments, as well as having some deeper thoughtful elements, and I really enjoyed it. It was a fresh new twist on the trite old vampire/zombie/scary things cliches, and Waggoner did a good job at making this new world of his. The writing wasn't always the greatest: there were times it was a little too much tell, not enough show; but the characters were excellent with depth and backstory and emotion, the story/plot interesting, and overall it's certainly worth the read.