Stalking the Dragon

John Justin Mallory Mystery #3

by Mike Resnick

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.

Genres: Fantasy, Mystery, Urban Fantasy, Humor, Audiobook, Detective, Paranormal

296 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Michael "Mike" Diamond Resnick, better known by his published name Mike Resnick, was a popular and prolific American science fiction author. He is, according to Locus, the all-time leading award winner, living or dead, for short science fiction. He was the winner of five Hugos, a Nebula, and other major awards in the United States, France, Spain, Japan, Croatia and Poland. and has been short-listed for major awards in England, Italy and Australia. He was the author of 68 novels, over 250 stories, and 2 screenplays, and was the editor of 41 anthologies. His work has been translated into 25 languages. He was the Guest of Honor at the 2012 Worldcon and can be found online as @ResnickMike on Twitter or at www.mikeresnick.com.

Reviews

[Finn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book would have worked better as a comic or a graphic novel, or heck even an animated series, but not in its current form.

The characters sure are varied and the story doesn't get boring, but seriously there's more to a story than just continuous dialogue.

[Ema Nmyton · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Worst of the bunch, in my opinion.
The story is dull--even compared to the others--and even the characters are annoying. Especially the Grundy, who could have solved everything easily if he wasn't an idiot. There's also that stupid phone that JJ should have trashed. There aren't even any real stakes here. If John Justin never got involved, no one would have been hurt. Nothing was lost or gained, it’s just a silly side adventure. And if you like that, then you might like it if you can overlook that it’s mostly dialoguing that wastes time with mindless wandering.
If you read the first two books you might as well finish the series, but other than that, I’d skip or read it at the Library.

[Laura Lavender-blackwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well what else besides this is one of the best and wittiest sci fi novels I've read since Jim Butcher. I hope and pray Mr Resnick never closes his chapter on John Justin Mallory. I would probably shrivel up and die if he did. So please Mr Resnick keep me alive for my children sake.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was another excellent story. Mallory has the patience of a saint. Some of the ridiculous went on a bit too long which is why I knocked off a point. Cat girl always has a good part to play. Narrator was excellent!

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Today’s post is on Stalking the Dragon by Mike Resnick. It is the third in John Justin Mallory series. It is 296 pages long including six appendixes and a very detailed author’s information pages. It is published by Pyr. The cover has John Justin standing in the middle of a group of fantastic creatures. The intended reader is someone who is a fan of the first two novels, humor, and urban fantasy. There is no sex but talk of it, there is some language but nothing too foul, and there is only humorous violence. Anyone over the age of 13 should be just fine. It is told from third person close focused on John Justin. There Be Spoilers Ahead.



From the back of the book- 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 that no one else will do so. But before he can turn off the lights and lock the door, he is visited by a panic-stricken Buffalo Bill Brody. 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 tiny dragon takes him to some of the stranger sections of this Manhattan- the Frump Tower; Horrid Hubert’s; Greenwitch Village (which is right around the corner from Greenwich Village but is far more dangerous); a wax museum where figures of Humphrey Bogart, Sydney Greenstreet, and Peter Lorre come alive; and more- and as he 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, a host of strange new inhabitants of this otherworldly Manhattan, and the most unique cell phone in all of fantastic literature. Aided by Felina (the office cat-person), a Samurai goblin, and a zombie name Dead End Dugan, Mallory and his unlikely crew have only one night to find a tiny dragon that’s hidden somewhere in a city of seven million.



Review- I really love the John Justin Mallory adventures for many reasons. They are funny, the plots are fun, and Resnick is a wonderful writer. His sense of dialogue is unmatched by anyone. He parodies the tropes of all genre books. I just love this series. It is fun, funny, and just everything for someone who loves humor well done. Terry Pratchett is king of high fantasy humor but Resnick is of urban fantasy with John Justin. As this one is the third book about John Justin you really need to have read the first two to really get all of the jokes. Resnick still does some world building in this book but that Manhattan is so like our Manhattan that he just fills in the details so you can see the differences between the worlds. There are jokes from the other books like John Justin still betting on Flyaway and losing more money on that horse. So expect more humor and more wonderful writing from the master Mike Resnick.



I give this book Five stars out of Five. I get nothing for my review and I brought this book with my own money.

[Stewart Tame · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is decent light fantasy. John Justin Mallory is a private eye in a fantasy world version of New York, who is hired to find Fluffy, a dragon who is the odds-on favorite to win the annual pet show at Madison Round Garden. Needless to say, there are complications: zombie gangsters, goblin entrepreneurs, evil overlords, vengeful wizards, and a lust-crazed cell phone. Resnick's writing strikes just the right tone. Mallory is flippant, always ready with a wisecrack, but always ready to roll with the punches and generally unfazed by the craziness around him. This is the third book in the series, but I didn't feel that I was missing out on anything significant by not having read the first two. Should appeal to fans of Piers Anthony's Xanth and Robert Asprin's Myth books.

[Chriss · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book was interesting, but this is book three of the series and I'm beginning to loose interest in the satire wrapped in a fantasy thing. There just wasn't enough story in this one to mask Resnick's delaying the plot to fit in social commentary.

Also, this edition was poorly edited. There were wrong pronouns and it was clear they'd run a software for spell checking because there were utterly wrong words. Really takes the kick out of a book when you have to stop reading in order to make sense of a sentence because key words make no sense.

[Suz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I made the mistake of reading this third book in the series second (I don't know if it matters yet), but it is another fun solid fantasy parody, and I very much enjoy it.

This time, our intrepid John Justin Mallory (after becoming a permanent resident of the other fantasy New York) has to find a missing Dragon - the top seed in a Dragon Show (think dog show). Still fun, and I still highly recommend it. I think it may even be better than Stalking the Unicorn.

[Dan Smyth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Comical, fast-paced, absolutely ridiculous, popcorn tale about a detective in an alternate-reality New York City. The range of laughs here, but in the end they just get repetitive. One-trick pony. Same setup over and over. Ending was lacking in funny, which I think for this kind of story is a killer.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

The third John Justin Mallory novel is a quick, fun romp. It's a parody of (as well as an hommage to) the noir private eye novels of the mid-20th century with a Damon Runyon/Thorne Smith flavor. It also connects his Joey Chicago stories to the Mallory universe.

[Kay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very little plot, but quite funny prose and dialogue.

[Kim Parkinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy these books. Definite gumshoe detective meets paranormal. Just what I love!

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best in the Stalking series so far.

[Ted · Rating 3 out of 5]

Its a light-hearted detective farse.

[Donald Armfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great series Mr. Mallory is a funny guy

[Michele bookloverforever · Rating 1 out of 5]

set in an alternate earth reality. a private eye is engaged to find a kidnapped dragon which is supposed to be the favorite to win the Eastminster Pet Show. nonsensical.

[Dirk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hilarious, almost as funny as the discworld series.

[Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute. Probably read more of his.

[Larry · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

[Romana1 · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

[Francine · Rating 1 out of 5]

Every single character tries to one-up everyone else all the time and not one character undergoes a character arc. It gets old fast, which is why it took me so long to finish this book.