Today’s post is on Stalking
the Dragon by Mike Resnick. It is the third in John Justin Mallory series.
It is 296 pages long including six appendixes and a very detailed author’s
information pages. It is published by Pyr. The cover has John Justin standing
in the middle of a group of fantastic creatures. The intended reader is someone who is a fan of the first two novels, humor, and urban fantasy. There is no sex but talk of
it, there is some language but nothing too foul, and there is only humorous violence.
Anyone over the age of 13 should be just fine. It is told from third person
close focused on John Justin. There Be Spoilers Ahead.
From the back of the book- It’s Valentine’s Day and
private detective John Justin Mallory is planning on closing up the office
early and taking his partner, Col. Winnifred Carruthers, out to dinner since he’s
sure that no one else will do so. But before he can turn off the lights and
lock the door, he is visited by a panic-stricken Buffalo Bill Brody. It seems
that the Eastminster pet show is being held the next day, and his dragon,
Fluffy, the heavy favorite, has been kidnapped.
Mallory’s nocturnal hunt for the tiny dragon takes him to some of the stranger sections of this Manhattan- the Frump Tower; Horrid Hubert’s; Greenwitch Village (which is right around the corner from Greenwich Village but is far more dangerous); a wax museum where figures of Humphrey Bogart, Sydney Greenstreet, and Peter Lorre come alive; and more- and as he follows the leads and hunts for clues he comes up against one dead end after another.
Along the way he meets a few old friends and enemies, a host of strange new inhabitants of this otherworldly Manhattan, and the most unique cell phone in all of fantastic literature. Aided by Felina (the office cat-person), a Samurai goblin, and a zombie name Dead End Dugan, Mallory and his unlikely crew have only one night to find a tiny dragon that’s hidden somewhere in a city of seven million.
Mallory’s nocturnal hunt for the tiny dragon takes him to some of the stranger sections of this Manhattan- the Frump Tower; Horrid Hubert’s; Greenwitch Village (which is right around the corner from Greenwich Village but is far more dangerous); a wax museum where figures of Humphrey Bogart, Sydney Greenstreet, and Peter Lorre come alive; and more- and as he follows the leads and hunts for clues he comes up against one dead end after another.
Along the way he meets a few old friends and enemies, a host of strange new inhabitants of this otherworldly Manhattan, and the most unique cell phone in all of fantastic literature. Aided by Felina (the office cat-person), a Samurai goblin, and a zombie name Dead End Dugan, Mallory and his unlikely crew have only one night to find a tiny dragon that’s hidden somewhere in a city of seven million.
Review- I really love the John Justin Mallory
adventures for many reasons. They are funny, the plots are fun, and Resnick is
a wonderful writer. His sense of dialogue is unmatched by anyone. He parodies
the tropes of all genre books. I just love this series. It is fun, funny, and
just everything for someone who loves humor well done. Terry Pratchett is king
of high fantasy humor but Resnick is of urban fantasy with John Justin. As this
one is the third book about John Justin you really need to have read the first
two to really get all of the jokes. Resnick still does some world building in
this book but that Manhattan is so
like our Manhattan that he just fills
in the details so you can see the differences between the worlds. There are
jokes from the other books like John Justin still betting on Flyaway and losing
more money on that horse. So expect more humor and more wonderful writing from
the master Mike Resnick.
I give this book Five stars out of Five. I get nothing for
my review and I brought this book with my own money.
No comments:
Post a Comment