Stalking the Dragon

A Fable of Tonight

By: Mike Resnick

Narrated by: Peter Ganim

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 no one else will do so. But before he can turn off the lights and lock the door, a panic-stricken Buffalo Bill Brody visits them.

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 miniature dragon takes him to some of the stranger sections of this Manhattan - Greenwitch Village (which is right around the corner from Greenwich Village and is populated by witches and covens); a wax museum where figures of Humphrey Bogart, Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre come alive; Gracie Mansion (which is haunted by the ghosts of former mayors); and the Bureau of Missing Creatures, a movie set where they're filming a PBS documentary on zombies and various other denizens of the Manhattan night.

As Mallory 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, and a host of strange new inhabitants of this otherworldly Manhattan. Aided by a strange goblin named Jeeves, Mallory has only one night to find a tiny dragon that's hidden somewhere in a city of seven million.

©2009 Mike Resnick (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Love the Other Manhattan!

This is the third book Mike Resinck has written about the Other Manahttan, the one along side of ours where magic works, goblins, demons, vampires, etc. Although it is not totally necessary to read/listen to Stalking the Unicorn or Stalking the Vampire first, I do recommend it for maximum enjoyment.

John Justin Mallory has been hired to find Flurry, a "toy" (11 inches at the shoulder) dragon who is the shoe-in winner at The Eastminster Show at Madison Round Garden. In addition, the Grundy, the most powerful and evil demon in the world (and Marlory's greatest enemy) has doubled his fee to find Fluffy because he's a sportsman and doesn't want his Carmeletta to win by default.

The very idea of Flurry is histerical! She's an 11 inch at the shoulder, dragon who eats only elephant shaped chocolate covered marshmellow cookies.

Anyone who has attended a dog. cat or horse show will recognize the behaviors of the owners and breaders of the show dragons.

The mystery is fairly transparent, but one doesn't listen to this kind of parady for the plot. It's the characters and the situations that are so funny from the goblins popping out all the dark alleys to try to sell you something that you don't want to the magic mirror that complains about the room's appearance and his owner's choice of viewing material to his partner Colonel Winnifred Carruthers, the great white hunter (and old lady)to the office cat (a female catperson).

It's great, Resnick paradies the hard boiled detector story as well as most of pulp fiction while taking a shot at the very serious nature of people with their show animals....

The naration is excellent!

FUN, LIGHT LISTEN

THIS IS THE KIND OF BOOK YOU WANT TO LISTEN TO IF YOU'RE BUMMED OUT, IT'S RAINING OUTSIDE ETC. IT DOESN'T HAVE A LOT OF DEPTH BUT THE HUMOR IS GOOD. I LIKED THE BOOK AND THE NARRATOR, BUT IT WON'T MAKE MY TOP 10 LIST.

best story so far

Would you listen to Stalking the Dragon again? Why?

Yes
It made my trip to home shorter

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Yes it made me not want to stop the audio

Have you listened to any of Peter Ganim’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No I have not but would look for more of his works

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes but had to go to work.

Strange but fun

As the title says, a strange but fun little book. A bit Mikey Spillane, some of the characters are somewhat uni-dimensional, but hey, all in all fun stuff.

Funny and exciting

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes because it was a fun story that was humorous but also kept you wondering what was going to happen next.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

The story also had a investigation that was always wondering where the next turn was.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It made me laugh many times with the puns and jokes that Mike Resnik has in the story.

Good, but the jokes are getting a bit forced

Resnick is one of the masters at the tightrope act of humor and fantasy, but here and there a slip is had in this novel. Some of the world building asides were a bit too jarring or the satire a bit forced. A good book and performance, but be aware that sometimes it gets a bit heavy handed in the humor.

Wow, that was awful.

Would you try another book from Mike Resnick and/or Peter Ganim?

I'm not sure the best narrator in the world could have saved this. Good news is that we dont have them anyway. Less than great narration reading terrible prose.

Would you be willing to try another one of Peter Ganim’s performances?

No.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Stalking the Dragon?

Most if not all of it.