Customer Reviews

Stalking the Dragon: A Fable of Tonight (John Justin Mallory Mystery)

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4 star:		(2)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

And John Justin Mallory is on the case.

The leading contender in the Eastminister show has gone missing. The owner has hired John Justin Mallory, his partner Winifred Carruthers, and their usual tagalongs, Felina the cat person, a new character just wants John Justin to hold her and punch her buttons, the dragon's gremlin handler, and others. To complicate things, the Grundy, the most powerful demon on the East Coast has involved himself and hired our hero to find the dragon too.

Resnick's Manhattan is a lot livelier than ours (and that's saying something), even when the undead are involved. Goblins hawking anything they can from any ally, pet chimeras, elephant taxis, and other fantastic bits fill the backdrop to a fast paced but other worldly mystery. In the end, John Justin solves the case and goes head to head with the Grundy.

This one wasn't quite as lively as the first two in this series. As John Justin spends more time in the other Manhattan, the extraordinary becomes mundane. Despite this, it was an excellent tale with a light-hearted spin on a fantasy hard-boiled, noir mystery.

Great reading fantasy mystery.

E.M. Van Court

Another satisfying John Justin Mallory adventure.
This time the decidedly odd crew is out to find a kidnapped (dragonnapped??) miniature show dragon named Fluffy.

Things would go so much faster if the street goblins selling totally useless junk would get out of the way and people would stop trying to put bullets into Mallory.

With The Grundy paying the tab, a zombie collector for a bookie, a fat candy lover, a horny cell phone, a martial arts goblin, and the always hungry Felina in tow, Mallory travels to such famous New York locations as Frump Tower and the Vampire State building. (Well, famous in THAT New York).

Mallory's deadpan wise cracks make the trip interesting, and the story has some strange turns down some weird streets in a New York that's been turned about a bubble and a half off kilter.

In Manhattan, many folks look forward to the Eastminster Dragon Show. The favorite to win the Best in Show award at the competition this year is Fluffy the toy dragon. However, on the eve of the event, someone abducts Fluffy.

Private investigator John Justin Mallory still struggles with adjusting to a New York City unlike the one he comes from as the mythos do not live in his birth Big Apple. He is hired to find and rescue Fluffy in time for the show. Accompanied by his staff Felina and Jeeves, Mallory investigates the snatch even as time is running out on Fluffy making an appearance let alone be ready to win

The third Mallory in a rather different Manhattan is a jocular urban noir (see STALKING THE UNICORN and STALKING THE VAMPIRE) because of Mike Resnick's lampooning of the city starting with the Eastminster Dragon Show and a trip to "Greenwitch Village". The investigation is a lighthearted and engaging tour of an alternate Manhattan. Although the plot is lighthearted Fluffy fun thin, fans will enjoy Mallory and his team as they are STALKING THE DRAGON to rescue the toy dragon in time as the show must go on with or without the star.

Harriet Klausner

Was cute in the beginning but soon became tiresome and repetitious. A lot of the banter reminded me of George Burns and Gracie Allen.

They went to many places looking for and not finding the dragon. It was always the same routine walking in and coming out of these places. The con goblins. The ever hungry cat-thing and everything scared to death of John Justin's cat-thing, all she had to do was raise her little paw and extend her claws. Over and over and over.

An amusing enough book, and a decent enough mystery, but it annoyed from page 1 to the end. People in a fantasy universe still have to behave in a reasonable way for their universe. To pick on one chapter, in chapter 11, a store owner tries to sell a customer who wants one pound of hamburger 80,000 pounds of diplodocus. Why? No rational reason; apparently it was supposed to be funny. John Justin Mallory (the detective) then goes and threatens the shop owner for information, despite the fact he's supposed to be a contact and you reward contacts for bringing you information. At least you do if you want them to work for you again.

In fact, and this really stuck in my craw, John Justin Mallory threatens everyone he comes across, to the point of invading businesses with a cover charge by force. There's no persuasion or flattery; the one time it really fails, he calls on the Grundy as a threat. However realistic it may be in the setting, and I have a hard time believing that any cheap PI and his cat-girl could get away with it, it's sort of disturbing, especially as the book presents him as hero.

To top this off, the ending is anti-climatic; Mallory has to show Fluffy in the ring, and spends 15 pages in doing it without drama. An appendix full of random in-world stuff is tacked on, giving Resnick a chance to make cheap shots at Democrats and Obama in particular (and really what the hell?), finishing off with a four page bio that makes him out to be the greatest science-fiction author of all time.