The premise of the book drew me in. It seemed like it could be right in the vein of books I enjoy. I found quite the opposite. Not fond of the book.

The first Major glitch I found: the author tried to write out the accent for a Germanic character, changing the v's and w's around, plus a few other things. That proved more distracting than good,

Additionally, I found this to be a very SLOW moving plot. Too much toying around. I kept begging them to pick up the pace.

When you're sitting at a doctor's office and you willingly turn off the book reader to watch the TV, there's something wrong with the book. Marking this one as a serious DUD! ( )

A decent story that's some approximation of urban fantasy, only without much urban. The premise was interesting, and I always appreciate Nye's work. That being said, it's one of her older works and it shows - having read her more recent books, it's noticeable how her characterisation, dialogue and writing in general has improved.

I must confess I wasn't particularly keen on the protagonist; he felt like a bit of a Mary Sue at times. Although he's portrayed as slightly hapless and more enthusiastic than sensible, the fact is he always succeeds. He's clever; charming in the blathering, over-friendly, ingenuous way that Irish-derived characters often end up being written; attractive to at least two or three women; gets away with constant boundary-pushing and rule-breaking; talks himself out of trouble whenever necessary; and outwits formidable opponents. He can sway student commitees with ease, outwit thugs, and everyone likes him. His original rather mad theory about Little People turns out to be basically true. The one person who dislikes him throughout the book (apparently to a large extent because Keith takes every opportunity to challenge and one-up him, making Keith rather a troll; love rivalry is also involved) conveniently turns out to be an actual villain rather than simply a rival or someone who finds him annoying. In fact, at one point I'd put the book down and was seriously considering whether I could face picking it up again to read about more of Keith.

Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy the book - the section where they finally thwart their enemies is very gratifying and there are some great touches (like the latex). I'll probably read the rest of the series, especially since I got them as a set. However, Nye's later work is noticeably stronger and better-developed in my view. In particular, I think you could draw a comparison between Keith and Thomas Kinago of the "Imperium" series, who are fairly similar sorts, and see how much better-written Kinago is. ( )

I felt like such a geek reading this book (for the W&M alumni book club), especially since I enjoyed it. While set in Illinois, I couldn't help imagining the Sci-Fi club at W&M enjoying and participating in the actions of the book. Worse, the dialogue is flat and the characters are one-dimensional. The author even includes biased digs at librarians and union members. Why did I enjoy this silly book again? Brain candy goes a long way. ( )