Rating: 
Summary: painfully beautiful
Review: Nekropolis is an excellent novel though painful to read. The story of two misfits wanting to belong is made more powerful by McHugh's minimal prose; the sad emptiness of Hariba and Akhmim resonating in the author's sparse language. Hariba tries to escape her lonely life through "jessing," a chemical alteration of a servant's mind that enhances loyalty to the person they are sold to. She hopes the artificial loyalty will satisfy her needs of acceptance and belonging, but finds it isn't enough. "I learned the sad fact that I couldn't give my life away, that anywhere I went, there I was." Instead, her loneliness lurks under her manufactured happiness, drawing the attention of the harni , Akhmim. The Harni are an artificial intelligence designed to satisfy the needs of humans. Akhmim can't help but respond to Hariba's sadness and in doing so, is impressed upon her. Being able to sense all her unspoken needs, he creates in himself the ideal lover. Beneath his programmed love for her lies his longing for the completion and comfort of others like him, only with other harni does he feel true happiness. These lives of artificial loyalty and love left me feeling empty, unsatisfied and extremely sad. But that is the wonder of Maureen McHugh's books. She creates beauty from despair. Her stark and penetrating prose pierces the reader's bubble of self satisfied comfort and makes them wonder if they are truly happy. Nekropolis is a story you can never forget.
Rating: 
Summary: A Masterpiece
Review: NEKROPOLIS is one of the few novels I've read which I knew was a classic while I was reading it. Incredibly moving and beautiful and human. The austerity of her craft is a wonder to behold. I suppose the cliche is: "A finely polished gem." NEKROPOLIS is a finely polished gem.
Rating: 
Summary: Quick read but where was it going?
Review: Ok I picked up this book because of the Amazon list suggested it to me. Flew through it just this morning but I'm not certain why. There was good character development, gratuitous sex that actually was useful at building that character. But the thing most missing for me was the flavor of the time that the story takes place in the future, I just wasn't brought into that world. I didn't care about the characters because they weren't all that deep. I've another of the authors books I picked up and hope to report back better.
Rating:
Summary: Quick read but where was it going?
Review: Ok I picked up this book because of the Amazon list suggested it to me. Flew through it just this morning but I'm not certain why. There was good character development, gratuitous sex that actually was useful at building that character. But the thing most missing for me was the flavor of the time that the story takes place in the future, I just wasn't brought into that world. I didn't care about the characters because they weren't all that deep. I've another of the authors books I picked up and hope to report back better.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting Concept; Writing Not Srong
Review: The cover states "A Literary novel in Sci-Fi clothing" but, really its the other way around. Characters are not particularly strong. A poor woman's version of Margaret Atwood. The concept: lab-created people and jessed people try to find happiness in a future world should be compelling, but the writing doesn't quite carry it off. This has the look and feel of a pulp novel. It's a little better than that, but it's not "literature".
Rating:
Summary: Great theme--ok plot
Review: This is a hard book to rate because it is not really a "fun" read. It's more like something that you would read for a class discussion. I'll steal someone else's word for it...it is an "unsettling" book.
From reading the reviews, I think that what might irritate people about this book is that the main character is not really that strong. I don't think she is meant to be. Her decision to "jess" herself was one based in a fear of emotion, but also from the a desire to relinquish responsibility for her emotions. She is a "voluntary" slave made so by fear and irresponsiblity--these fears are shaped by personal and cultural experiences.
***possible spoiler to follow***
Akhmim on the other hand was someone who has no choice but to be a slave. He was created for that purpose. Interestingly enough his bond was not of "love" but of slavery as well. Therefore, while she was oppressed, she was also an oppressor. His character was also interesting because he remembers being happiest as part of his "pack" if you will, but he couldn't go back. This is another theme of the book.
***end of possible spoilers***
essentially, this book is meant to make you think...it's not meant to be a light read, or really an enjoyable read. In the end, I think that it does what science fiction does best. Gives us the "what if we could..." and shows how individuals, society and cultures would probably react--and that those reactions might be present here and now.
However, having said all that, I personally get a little irritated when a theme overshadows the story and I think that is what happened in this book. Lots of great points to think about, very interesting ideas, very interesting theme. Not so interesting story. She is much more interesting to discuss than she is to read about.
Rating:
Summary: Nekropolis: slavery, prejudice and love.
Review: This is the first book I read from this superb author. Not only is the story beautifully crafted, the situations keep you connected and tense until the end. The book is constructed in five chapters, each narrated in first person by one of the main characters. I will not bore the reader explaining what the story is about (read the other previous reviews), but I will say that the author has found a very unusual, touching and profoundly unsettling way to approach delicate issues, such as prejudice, fear of rejection, genetic engineering of beings and its consequences, social stigma, sex and love among different sub-cultures. It's magnificent in every way, the proof that a good sci-fi book doesn't need a huge amount of complicated paraphernalia to be interesting and powerful, or to keep the reader involved. As a matter of fact, it would be extremelly limiting to classify it as a "sci-fi" book; instead, let me just say it is an incredibly well crafted book, by an undeniably gifted author. A must read for book lovers.
Rating:
Summary: This Is Science Fiction?
Review: This novel may be classified as science fiction, but it is big on fiction and short on the science part. The story is about a young girl who lives in Morocco, sometime in the future, who has been jessed, which basically makes her a slave and obedient to her owners, and a genetically engineered man who has been designed to please his human owners, he is another type of slave. A love story of sorts develops between these two and causes great strife with the family of the girl. This Morocco of the future is full of prejudice and class divisions which adds to the story. My inpression of this novel is that it meanders back and forth between different characters and just does'nt really go anywhere, with no redeeming factor to make it worthwhile. However, I will say that Maureen McHugh is superb at giving this novel lots of human interest details, very emotional at times, and she is also good at describing the settings in which the characters find themselves in. Finally, the ending just kind of faded away, I am not critical of this, but just be aware of it.
Rating:
Summary: True love between AI and human!
Review: Well, I guess it was only a matter of time before somebody had to go and write a "deeply moving" love story featuring a human and an AI, while throwing in for good measure the "tough-break" story of a woman's (in general?) lot in life in the world of Islam. In general, the novel presents a parable of one woman's "jessing" to her master (man in general?) and her struggle to be released from it (the control of her master) in order to "follow her heart " (even if her heart belongs to a life-like AI human replica). But I am being ungracious here. Ms. McHugh is obviously a very talented writer: her sparse but incisive prose makes for enjoyable reading even when the plot-line threatens to become hackneyed or the overall symbolism cloying. Having lived for some time in Egypt, I can sympathize with the humanistic (and gender) issues addressed in this volume. Even so, since I do find these issues of considerable importance, I would prefer to read about them in a more empirical format. Looking at the author's intentions rather than my own personal preferences, however, it is clear that the social issues raised in this volume are well worth thinking about and are seamlessly incorporated into the story. As for the issue of love, the novel displays a certain shift from earlier works concerning AI and emotion: rather than focussing on the AI as such, the work concentrates upon the secondary effects of an emotional mismatch as it comes to bear on the human person. The descriptions of the main protagonist's emotional situation are extremely effective, and seemed in places reminiscent of the brilliant prose of Naguib Mafouz. All in all, a very well-written book. You may not like the story, or simply have reservations about it, but, unlike many Science Fiction works, this one has substance.
Rating: 
Summary: This book is just awful
Review: What a huge disappointment. How many times the heroine weep? Fifteen? Twenty? Nekropolis doesn't really have a plot. It is made up of 5 sections, each written by a different character. Unfortunately, the character selected for the main focal point is a miserable creature of victimhood. See if you can follow this logic: Our heroine's brother is caught having an affair, therefore she decides she is unclean and must sell herself into chemical slavery. And yet, her sister seems to have no trouble finding a husband and starting a family. Several characters make enormous risk/sacrfices for the miserable heroine, but her gratitude, or even her awareness of these sacrifices, is remote. I only read this book because it appearred on SF Site top 10 list for the year. I had already been bored with China Mountain Zhang and Half the Day is Night, I shall not be fooled again. This is an BAD book.
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