A city dreaming - bookrastinating.com

295 pages

English language

Published Feb. 8, 2016

ISBN:: 978-1-68245-038-3
OCLC Number:: 944933942

M is an ageless drifter with a sharp tongue, few scruples, and the ability to bend reality to his will, ever so slightly. He's come back to New York City after a long absence, and though he'd much rather spend his days drinking artisanal beer in his favorite local bar, his old friends-- and his enemies-- have other plans for him. One night M might find himself squaring off against the pirates who cruise the Gowanus Canal; another night sees him at a fashionable uptown charity auction where the waitstaff are all zombies. A subway ride through the inner circles of hell? In M's world, that's practically a pleasant diversion. Before too long, M realizes he's landed in the middle of a power struggle between Celise, the elegant White Queen of Manhattan, and Abilene, Brooklyn's hip, free-spirited Red Queen, a rivalry that threatens to make New York go the way …

M is an ageless drifter with a sharp tongue, few scruples, and the ability to bend reality to his will, ever so slightly. He's come back to New York City after a long absence, and though he'd much rather spend his days drinking artisanal beer in his favorite local bar, his old friends-- and his enemies-- have other plans for him. One night M might find himself squaring off against the pirates who cruise the Gowanus Canal; another night sees him at a fashionable uptown charity auction where the waitstaff are all zombies. A subway ride through the inner circles of hell? In M's world, that's practically a pleasant diversion. Before too long, M realizes he's landed in the middle of a power struggle between Celise, the elegant White Queen of Manhattan, and Abilene, Brooklyn's hip, free-spirited Red Queen, a rivalry that threatens to make New York go the way of Atlantis. To stop it, M will have to call in every favor, waste every charm, and blow every spell he's ever acquired-- he might even have to get out of bed before noon. Enter a world of Wall Street wolves, slumming scenesters, desperate artists, drug-induced divinities, pocket steampunk universes, and demonic coffee shops. M's New York, the infinite nexus of the universe, really is a city that never sleeps-- but is always dreaming.

5 editions

Lazy_Cat reviewed A city dreaming by Daniel Polansky

Skipping Through Time With An Immortal Drifter in NYC

5 stars

I will preface this review that I am a huge fan of Daniel Polansky, so it will be biased in his favor.

M is an ageless, misanthropic wizard, living in NYC for about a year, and just trying to keep his head down--unfortunately the universe has other plans for him.

Do you like surreal stories? You'll probably love A City Dreaming, which dances on the line between abstract art and compelling storytelling. The stories themselves--the shape of things, the characters generally, are pretty well grounded in reality. The world building, and specifically, the magic of the world, is where things get trippy. Sometimes beautiful, sometimes abhorrent, always strange, the magic in A City Dreaming will challenge readers and reward the ones willing to wrap their minds around it. And the way New York City is portrayed is a mirror of that strange, surrealist world running parrellel to reality.

…

I will preface this review that I am a huge fan of Daniel Polansky, so it will be biased in his favor.

M is an ageless, misanthropic wizard, living in NYC for about a year, and just trying to keep his head down--unfortunately the universe has other plans for him.

Do you like surreal stories? You'll probably love A City Dreaming, which dances on the line between abstract art and compelling storytelling. The stories themselves--the shape of things, the characters generally, are pretty well grounded in reality. The world building, and specifically, the magic of the world, is where things get trippy. Sometimes beautiful, sometimes abhorrent, always strange, the magic in A City Dreaming will challenge readers and reward the ones willing to wrap their minds around it. And the way New York City is portrayed is a mirror of that strange, surrealist world running parrellel to reality.

M as a character is somewhat hateable, somewhat relatable, and very very funny. The people he surrounds himself with (willingly and unwillingly) are often people you might know or have heard of in reality, taken to their extremes.

Each chapter is a month in M's life, and each story is largely disconnected from the ones before (though the connections M has with other characters are the enduring lines that stretch between chapters, a setup I highly enjoyed.)

This one goes on the favorites shelf for me.

Lazy_Cat

rated it

Dec. 3, 2016

Subjects

Magic
Fiction

Places

New York (N.Y.)