ISBN: 0-7564-0009-0 Order from: Amazon.com
A twisty mystery investigation in a Borderlands-like setting, this fantasy features solid characters, but lacks true emotional involvement.
Reviewed by David on November 10, 2002
Genre: Fantasy (Multiple Worlds, Mystery, Politics, Dragons, Elfpunk)
Synopsis: Cleveland is adapting to becoming a gateway city—a city where a portal to the magical realm has been opened. After the riots, starvation and territorial dispute, the semi-autonomous city has calmed down—there are elves on the police force, and dragons owning property.
But the tension coils beneath the surface. When a dragon dies in mysterious circumstances, Kline Maxwell, a reporter, is assigned to investigate. Magic is not Kline's specialty—but politics, a whiff of corruption and secrets, spur him on. Soon, there are powerful and ruthless forces eager to stop Kline. What's scary, is that even those who are helping Kline may not intend him to survive the inevstigation's end.
Full Review: The premise of this fantasy has been used before—Borderlands-type fantasies with a gateway opening in the middle of a modern city (almost always in the US) transforming life and politics—have been published before. This book concentrates on noir-ish exploration of politics, greed and deception. The emphasis is less on the mystery of magic, as in The Last Hot Time, than on the mystery of crime.
The book is full of twists, deadly confrontations and investigative guessing. Despite keeping the reader's attention and intriguing plot, there is little feeling of emotional involvement, and only intellectual fulfillment at the conclusion—not untypical for a noir mystery. The reader is left mostly satisfied, but there is no burning curiousity to read more of this solidly constructed world.
Catalogure Number: 1200
Overall: 5.5; Plot: 5.5; Characters: 5.5; Style: 5; World-building: 6; Originality: 5.5;
Copyright date 2001, Donald A. Wollheim (DAW), October 2001, Mass market paperback, 308 pages
ISBN: 0-7564-0009-0 Order from: Amazon.com