Fable of Tonight (John Justin Mallory Mysteries) — (1987-2009) Available for download at Audible.com Publisher: It's 8:35 pm on New Year's Eve, and Private Detective John Justin Mallory is hiding out in his Manhattan office to avoid his landlord's persistent inquiries about the unpaid rent. As he cheerlessly reflects on the passing of a lousy year, which saw his business partner run off with his wife, he assumes the bourbon is responsible for the appearance of a belligerent elf. This elf informs him that he needs the detective's help in searching for a unicorn that was stolen from his charge.When Mallory realises the little green fellow is not going to disappear with the passing of his inebriation, he listens to the elf's impassioned plea that the stolen magical beast must be returned to his care by daylight or his little green life will be forfeited by the elves' guild. Join detective Mallory on a New Year's night of wild adventure in a fantasy Manhattan of leprechauns, gnomes, and harpies as he matches wits with the all-powerful demon The Grundy in a race to find the missing unicorn before time runs out!
Available for download at Audible.com
 Stalking the Unicorn
I had a complete blast reading Mike Resnick's Stalking the Unicorn.
It was smart, highly inventive, outrageously funny — led by hilariously wry dialogue — and fun. It was also immensely rewarding, especially getting to see how John Justin Mallory ended up in the other Manhattan, how he became partners with Winnifred Carruthers, his first meeting with the cat-girl Felina and Grundy — “the most powerful demon in New York” — and the clever manner in which he solved the case.
Stalking the Unicorn is a true classic, the kind that will stand the test of time and be just as much fun to read now or twenty years in the future, as it was when the book was first published in 1987. —Robert Thompson
 Stalking the Vampire
AUTHOR INFORMATION: Mike Resnick has won an impressive 5 Hugo Awards, been nominated for 26 more, and is the all-time award winner — living or dead — for short fiction. He has sold 54 novels, more than 200 short stories, and has also edited 50 anthologies. His work ranges from satirical fare, such as his LUCIFER JONES adventures, to weighty examinations of morality and culture, as evidenced by his brilliant tales of KIRINYAGA. The series, with 66 major and minor awards and nominations to date, is the most honored series of stories in the history of science fiction. Some of Mike Resnick's other recent releases include Starship: Rebel (Pyr Books, December 2008) and Kilimanjaro: A Fable of Utopia (Subterranean Press, December 2008).
PLOT SUMMARY: It’s Halloween, and John Justin Mallory’s partner, Winnifred Carruthers, has been so busy preparing for the biggest holiday of the year — in the other Manhattan anyway — that she seems short of energy and pale. Mallory is worried that she’s been working too hard. Then he notices the two puncture marks on her neck...
On this night when ghosts, goblins and other creatures of the night are out celebrating, detective Mallory must stalk the vampire who has threatened his assistant, Winnifred Carruthers, and killed her nephew. With the aid of Felina the catgirl, a vampire who doesn’t act like a vampire, and a dragon that writes hard-boiled private eye stories, Mallory’s hunt takes him all over the place, including Creepy Conrad's Cut-Rate All-Night Mortuary, the Annual Zombies' Ball, the Hills of Home Cemetery, and Battery Park. Along the way he meets a few old friends and enemies, and a host of strange new inhabitants in this otherworldly Manhattan. But as dawn approaches, time is running out on Mallory to find and stop a millennia-old vampire before he can kill again…
CLASSIFICATION: Employing the same formula found in Stalking the Unicorn and the JOHN JUSTIN MALLORY short stories, Stalking the Vampire cleverly and humorously mixes together elements of a hard-boiled detective mystery with contemporary fantasy, campy satire, and dialogue-driven irony. For fans of Simon R. Green's NIGHTSIDE series, Jim Butcher's THE DRESDEN FILES and Mike Resnick.
FORMAT/INFO: Page count is 268 pages divided over thirty chapters, which are denoted by time — Chapter 1: 6:30 PM — 6:55 PM. Brilliant extras include a speech on Stalking the Vampire by Col. Winnifred Carruthers before the Blood Sports Enthusiasts of the Lower South Manhattan; a monograph by Professor Seldon Hari, Chief Curator of the Museum of Unnatural History, on “Debunking the Vampire”; and an excerpt from Scaly Jim Chandler’s Stalking the Vampire. Narration is in the third person, objective, but mainly follows in the footsteps of private eye John Justin Mallory. Stalking the Vampire takes place after Stalking the Unicorn and the subsequent JOHN JUSTIN MALLORY short stories, and is self-contained. August 2008 marked the US Hardcover publication date for Stalking the Vampire, while the book was released in Canada on September 16, 2008. The cover artwork is provided by Dan Dos Santos.
ANALYSIS: Unfortunately, the previous book, Stalking the Unicorn, set the bar so high that it was almost inevitable for Stalking the Vampire to fall short. Even though Mike Resnick didn't do anything to change the formula — besides updating the time period with cell phones and DVDs — the humor in Stalking the Vampire is a little less funny, the dialogue not as crisp, and the author’s imagination doesn’t seem as creative. In addition, some of the book’s jokes — like Felina’s insatiable appetite and the tenacious merchant goblins — feel a little stale, while the plot itself is lacking in wit and payoff, particularly the unsatisfying resolution to the vampire dilemma.
On the bright side, the novel sports some really great ongoing inside jokes, including Mallory always betting on the horse Flyaway who has now lost 64 times in a row; the references to oversexed secretaries named Thelma or Velma; odd named streets like Lust, Sloth, Death, Despair, Destruction, or Agony; and the relationship that Mallory has with his enemy, Grundy. Even the jokes regarding Felina’s hunger and inconsistent temperament and the goblins trying to sell Mallory such items as underage goblin girls, encyclopedias, children’s aspirin, iced lemonade, or snakes can be amusing at times. The characters are still quirky: Bats McGuire, Scaly Jim Chandler, Aristotle Draconis, Captain Blight, Albert Feinstein. Some of the ideas in the book are really comical, such as drive-by funerals and references to previous Mallory stories. Finally, getting to visit the other Manhattan’s recognizable attractions like the Vampire State Building, Madison Round Garden, Battery Park, Greenwhich Village — and the way they differ from our Manhattan — is always a hoot.
Last, but certainly not least, the satirical elements are as sharp as ever, with Stalking the Vampire poking fun at vampires (Vlad and the Impalers, sonar lessons from Vladimir Plotkin, vampire racism) as well as the billion-dollar romance novel industry, hard-boiled detective fiction, popular culture, and even the book itself:
“My name isn’t Wings O’Bannon, and I never shoot anything that’s more than six feet away,” answered Mallory.
“No problem, I can fix that,” said Nathan. “After all, I am a fiction writer.”
“And you’re really going to write up this case?” asked McGuire.
“More or less”
“Will I be in it?” continued the vampire.
“You’re here, aren’t you?” replied Nathan.
“Could you make me four inches taller and more attractive to women?
“Sure,” Said the dragon. “They call it poetic license.”
“They call it unrealistic exaggeration,” said Mallory.
“Same thing,” said Nathan with a shrug.
“And what do you plan to call this epic?” asked Mallory.
“Stalking the Vampire,” answered Nathan. “Great title, don’t you agree? Surefire bestseller.
“I think it’s been done.”
“Not in this Manhattan,” replied the dragon.
Regarding pop culture, the following is one of my favorite passages in the novel:
“Devolution?” said Mallory. “What is that?”
“Why, the antithesis of evolution, of course,” replied Professor Hari. “Take our children, for example. Seventy-five years ago they listened to the sophisticated jazz stylings of Benny Goodman, and when they spoke of a band they meant Tommy or Jimmy Dorsey’s. Fifty years ago their notion of music was Little Richard and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. Another devolution and they worshipped at the altar of Kiss. And today all trace of music is gone, replaced by something called rap.” He shook his head. “From Beethoven to this in less than two centuries. If that isn’t devolution, I don’t know what is.”
“You’re just choosing one area: music,” said Nathan. “Isn’t that a little too limiting for you to draw such a conclusion?”
“Take any popular entertainment,” answered Professor Hari. “Our taste in humor has devolved from Cary Grant and the Marx Brothers to Adam Sandler and Borat. Our heroes have devolved from John Wayne to Sean Penn. As our actresses’ brains have gotten smaller, their bosoms have gotten bigger. Devolution.”
CONCLUSION: Out of all of the JOHN JUSTIN MALLORY stories that I’ve had a chance to read, including “Shell Game” from The Solaris Book of New Fantasy, and the five other short stories — "Posttime in Pink," "The Blue-Nosed Reindeer," "Card Shark," "The Chinese Sandman," "The Amorous Broom" — that Mike Resnick was kind enough to send me, the previous novel in this series, Stalking the Unicorn is easily my favorite. It’s also, in my opinion, the best of the JOHN JUSTIN MALLORY stories, and compared to that book, Stalking the Vampire comes up wanting in a few key areas such as dialogue, wit and humor. Even so, Stalking the Vampire is still a hell of a lot better than most of the stuff that’s passing for urban fantasy these days, and if I had to choose between the two, nine times out of ten, I’m sticking with Mallory. So here’s hoping that Mike Resnick has many more JOHN JUSTIN MALLORY stories to tell… —Robert Thompson
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Mike Resnick has won 5 Hugo Awards and many other awards in several countries for his science fiction works. He is the father of fantasy and romance author Laura Resnick. You can read some of his short stories at the Mike Resnick website. We'll present here the series of most interest to readers of fantasy. Read FanLit's interview with Mike Resnick.
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