Rating: 
Summary: So sad.
Review: I usually love these books . . . this one just couldn'y hold my interest. The story went nowhere, the characters were flat, the love story pointless, and the environmentalism/social commentary was tedious. "The Serpent's Shadow" and "The Fire Rose" were much better books, and I almost wish I hadn't read this one because it makes me leery of reading anything newer by Lackey.
Rating: 
Summary: Not so great, but not utterly awful either
Review: I usually love those fantasy novels that start in a beautiful, pastoral setting in rural Britain. For instance, I love "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" and Harry Potter... so, I was very hopeful for this one.Unfortunately, I found the writing clunky. It just didn't have the charming, lyrical style that I would hope for in this genre. The contrived romance that popped out of nowhere at the very end was disappointing. It seemed to have been added just for the heck of it, I guess because the original fairy tale had one. Still, the book was tolerable and had some good plot elements. I am hoping that I will find another book in this series that will use the elemental master concept and the undines &c. in the context of some better writing.
Rating: 
Summary: While not Lackey's best, still a very very good novel
Review: I was eagerly awaiting Mercedes Lackey's The Gates of Sleep after having read the first two of her Elemental Masters books. While it's certainly among the best fantasy fiction out there, I didn't feel it lived up to the quality of its two predecessors. While it gets off to a good start, the last half of the book is compressed, and it feels as if several key scenes are missing (perhaps by her editors' request). While Lackey is a good enough author that she mostly glosses over this aspect, it's frustrating to finish the book and realize that Marina has no particular motivation for declaring her love for her Prince Charming near the end of the book - she hasn't even particularly spent much time with him. Also, there are marked similarities to The Serpent's Shadow - but that's to be expected, given the similarities in their source fairytales (Sleeping Beauty and Snow White, respectively). However, when this book is good, it's really good. The first half is outstanding, with Marina and her guardians living in a proto-Bohemian Pre-Raphaelite household, shifting to fashionable London after she goes to live with her Aunt Arachne. And one of my favorite parts of this series, the intriguing system of elemental magery, thankfully remains intact. The characters are all well-developed (aside from the hero - I'm ashamed to say I can't remember his name - who is introduced a good ways into the book). The reason I still gave this book 5 stars is because it's still head-and-shoulders above so many of the books out there. While it's not as polished as The Fire Rose or The Serpent's Shadow, it's certainly still a worthwhile read.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, but flawed
Review: If you like "Fire Rose" or "The Serpents's Shadow", you'll probably like this book as it was set in the same universe as those books. In fact, there is the tiniest overlap between "Gates of Sleep" and "The Serpent's Shadow" - primarily in that some characters from "The Serpent's Shadow" are mentioned in this book. Overall, I found this book to be an interesting twist on the Sleeping Beauty theme, but a trifle too similar to "Serpent's Shadow" plotwise, especially towards the end. (and with the repetition of the Evil Aunt theme) Also, like "Serpent's Shadow", the romance aspect seemed a bit forced. In this book, Marina barely knows the hero, yet still manages to fall in love with him. As with some of her recent works, I found the historical information interspersed in the book made for a more solid backdrop, even if the research behind it wasn't perfect.
Also, like some of her recent work I found the characters a bit too one dimensional - the good guys are too perfect and the bad guys aren't very interesting. Plus the actions of some of the characters don't make much sense. When Marina is taken from her guardians by her aunt's lawyers - her guardians don't try to stop it or even warn her about her aunt, which they could easily have done. (and probably should have done much earlier) Finally, like most of her work, I found the book a bit too preachy about her usual topics and lacking in decent male characters. For once it might be nice if she included a major, interesting and non emasculated male character. (who wasn't the villian)
Rating:
Summary: A "lacking" tale from Lackey
Review: Let's keep this simple: Ms. Lackey is one of my favorite writers - this is NOT one of my favorite books. The FireLord and Serpent's Shadow were well-crafted novels with compelling characters. Their basis in well-known fairy tales was more implied than plotted point by point. The GATES OF SLEEP has neither of these strengths. The story follows the fairy tale slavishly through most of the book, along with all of a folk tale's plot weaknesses. The character of Marina (I'm amazed she wasn't call Rose or Aurora.)is too air-headed and passive through most of the book to be appealing to me. The relationship with her 'prince' is thin, very thin, almost non-existant thin. This is fine for a fairy tale but not a fantasy novel. Admiration turns to love for the hero all too quickly and I can't recall when or why Marina loves him. The fact that he is an elemental master is so serendipitous as to be a very silly plot device. Are Elemental Masters behind every bush and shrub in England? The "evil fairy" was the greatest disappointment because the character showed the most promise. A female 19th century industrialist destroying her work force for the power they can provide her?!? What an opportunity for a new kind of evil! But Lackey fails to capitalize on a great concept and we never really understand why or entirely how "Madame" commits her crimes. Marina's parents and the "good fairies" are amiable non-entities, for all their supposed powers. Instead of confronting "Madame" with her curse and enlisting the other Masters in the effort, their only response is to hide the poor child away. Okay for a fairy tale but this is unlikely in the Elemental Master universe that Lackey has created up to this book. Wait for the paperback or buy this used from other disgruntled readers if you must have it.
Rating:
Summary: Strong characterization in this story
Review: Marina has spent her life in an old farmhouse in rural Cornwall with her wealthy parents, growing up to be a free thinker in turn-of-the-century England. But she's more than unusual: she and her parents have mastered magic and despite all her skills Marina finds there are still mysteries about her abilities and life which suddenly come to an unexpected head. Strong characterization in this story.
Rating: 
Summary: A great read - but not quite the usual standard
Review: Marina Roeswood has grown up in a cottage with her "aunt" and "uncles" - she has never known her parents, and she has never known the reason why they left her. Just before her eighteenth birthday tragedy strikes and she is sent to her family home and the aunt who will rule her life until she is twenty-one. Marina has the potential to become an Elemental Master of Water, but only if she receives the training she needs. In a final battle between good and evil her fate will be decided once and for all. I love Mercedes Lackey and have been reading her books for years - borrowing them from the library when they are first released and then buying them in paperback form. I always find that you can totally immerse yourself in the worlds that she has created and I wait eagerly for each new offering. However, in the case of "The Gates of Sleep" I found myself left feeling slightly disappointed with the novel. If it was written by someone else it would have been different - but this is Mercedes Lackey and I expect a lot from her work because she has delivered so much in the past. Marina is a wonderful character and you get to learn so much about her as the story builds in the beginning. You also get to know the lives of her "aunt" and "uncles" fairly well, but the other characters are rather flat and two-dimensional. As others have noted here I want to know what caused the massive rift between Arachne and her family - surely being born without magic can't be that bad, and how did she first touch the dark magic? I also felt that the climax was almost too fast, it moved at a breathtaking pace and was almost lost in the complexity of the novel before it. Regardless of all that I have said above I did enjoy this novel and still recommend it. I enjoyed an afternoon buried in its pages, but unlike the "Fire Rose" and "Serpent's Shadow" I will not spend the next year waiting on the edge of my seat for the paperback to come out so I can fill the gap in my collection. If this book leaves you feeling a little unsatisfied then try some of the Valdemar books by Mercedes Lackey or one of the other books of this type because you wont feel disappointed by them.
Rating:
Summary: Undines and Sylphs and Fauns--Oh My!
Review: Mercedes Lackey uses the tale of Sleeping Beauty as a jumping-off point for The Gates of Sleep, the story of Marina, an elemental mage of water and her coming-of-age in Edwardian Cornwall and Devon. As in The Fire Rose (set in turn-of-the-century San Francisco) and The Serpent's Shadow (Victorian London), mages and Masters of Earth, Fire, Water, and Air battle against ceremonial magicians of the Left-Hand path, with fairy-tale-esque results. It's no surprise to anyone that Evil is conquered by Good in a Lackey novel--the author's artistry is in the drawing of identifiable characters in very realistic settings. Historical details provide such down-to-earth context for the appearance of undines, sylphs, fauns and the like that the whole story becomes believable. One of Lackey's best--an absorbing read.
Rating:
Summary: Wow!
Review: Misty did it yet again with this book. I'm a huge fan of hers, and I have a shelf in my room that can easily be considered a shrine to her. She takes a classic story and creates something that I would not have expected. It is definitely worth anyone's time to read, I only wish there was more!
Rating:
Summary: Strengths and Weakness's
Review: Ok, let's begin. lol i have been a fan of mercedes lackey's work for a long time, and i have loved almost every single thing she has written. the book Gates of Sleep, was very well written, and she made the world of Marina come alive with its own life, as well as the life of the creatures of the supernatural realms. you could see the sunsets, and hear the birds in the forest. that is one of the things i love about misty, the descriptions that she gives. other people i've read don't like the descriptions, but i do. i like that she forms the world of her characters in my mind to the point i can feel the warmth of the sun as it comes through the cottage window while the cook makes breakfast. in this book the character Marina is a strong willed, 'country cousin' who is kept in ignorance as to her past, and potential future. her guardians are warm, caring, and very protective individuals who have not tried to stifle her in a box, but tried to give her wings upon which to fly, albeit limited distances. the story line i feel, though following sleeping beauty has its own twists and turns, as it's in our world. this is not to say that i felt the book was the best i've ever read by her, so far nothing, by her or another author, has moved me the way that the Last Herald Mage series did. the romance was, as many feel, rushed. she 'suddenly realized' she loved someone that she had been friendly with. that i simply felt was a major weakness in the book. the fact that the guardians never tried to warn her about her aunt, seems like a weakness, until one remembers, that this is based on Sleeping Beauty. the three fairies didn't tell Aurora, so naturally the three guardians didn't either. Marina at least knew her parents were alive somewhere. i did like the battle between Arachne and Marina, reminded me of the Sword in the Stone battle between Merlin and Madame Mim. Overall, 4 stars, as Misty still, to me, has the power to transport me to the world i'm reading about, and make the characters live and breathe in my mind. the romance angle i think was a weakness in the plot, that detracted from near the end.
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