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Eurgh. DNF. Two things made me lose patience. At the start of the book, there's a note from the author saying to go read the prequel first to get the most out of the book. Friends, she was not kidding. This book talks blithely about events from its prequel that I am quite confused on this was ACTUALLY the publishing order.

The other thing is that when a protag repeatedly flagellates themselves over a tragic event (especially one in which they had no real control over) it gets really tiresome, really fast.

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.

Agnes Aubert's life running a cat shelter is turned on its head after a magical duel in the street wrecks several buildings, including her own.

This was very good Cozy Fantasy fare. I quite enjoyed it! I've always enjoyed Heather Fawcett's prose, and was able to sink into the story easily. The characters were memorable and enjoyable as well. I also sometimes enjoy a book where there's some fantastical world building but the point of view character is just a normal person.

Book 3 of this series is just filled to the brim with stuff like this. It's not subtle, and that's not a complaint. It's very much a product of today.