Black City Saint
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
For more than sixteen hundred years, Nick Medea has followed and guarded the Gate that keeps the mortal realm and that of Feirie separate, seeking in vain absolution for the fatal errors he made when he slew the dragon. All that while, he has tried and failed to keep the woman he loves from dying over and over. Yet in the fifty years since the Night the Dragon Breathed over the city of Chicago, the Gate has not only remained fixed, but open to the trespasses of the Wyld, the darkest of the Feiriefolk. Not only does that mean an evil resurrected from Nick’s own past, but the reincarnation of his lost Cleolinda, a reincarnation destined once more to die. Nick must turn inward to that which he distrusts the most: the Dragon, the beast he slew when he was still only Saint George. He must turn to the monster residing in him, now a part of him...but ever seeking escape. The gang war brewing between Prohibition bootleggers may be the least of his concerns. If Nick cannot prevent an old evil from opening the way between realms...then not only might Chicago face a fate worse than the Great Fire, but so will the rest of the mortal realm.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Knaak's entertaining urban fantasy, set in Chicago about 50 years after the Great Fire, Nick Medea, aka Saint George, guards the Gate between the human world and the land of Feirie and does some ghostbusting on the side. When Nick meets Claryce Simone, the most recent incarnation of his long-ago love Cleolinda, she leads him to William Delke, a powerful man who is much more than he seems. Soon Nick is dodging Delke's goons and creepy creatures from the realm called the Wyld while trying to keep the Gate from collapsing altogether. The 1920s Chicago setting is nifty, and it's hard not to like Nick. This capable hero shares his body and consciousness with a dragon he slew centuries ago, whose powers he can call on. Nick's shape-shifter sidekick, Fetch, is irresistible, but Claryce doesn't do much more than follow Nick around, and her insistence that she come along coupled with her passivity once she's included makes her more annoying than compelling. Nonetheless, Nick's adventures are fast-paced and fun, and urban fantasy fans will enjoy the inventive setting.
