Drinking Midnight Wine
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4.3 • 6 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
There is a world beyond the world
It figures. Just when Bradfordian bookshop clerk, Toby Dexter, finally works up the nerve to talk to his secret crush, she darts into an open door. Toby follows, and in that second, everything changes. Though it still looks like Bradford-on-Avon, the town’s suddenly chatty ATM and river mermaids are the first clues that something is quite out of place—namely, Toby. The moment he stepped through that door, Toby entered the magical parallel world of Mysterie.
Our ordinary dimension—the one Toby knew as Bradford-on-Avon—is actually Veritie, a mere shadow of its alter ego, Mysterie, where magic and myth, gods and monsters, living legends and walking nightmares reign. And Toby isn’t the only recent arrival. A cunning and vicious demon—The Serpent’s Son—has returned to Mysterie, accompanied by a malevolent new ally, intent on bringing down both dimensions.
Toby can remain mortal, return to Veritie, and try to convince himself that he had a bad pint of bitter that night. Or he can stay in Mysterie, join forces with his new friends Leo Morn and his Brother Under The Hill, and try to stop The Serpent’s Son. The choices Toby makes will have dramatic consequences for both worlds. It may not be the first time Mysterie’s wars have spilled over into our reality, but if Toby fails, it could be the last.
Simon R. Green, New York Times bestselling author of the Deathstalker series and the Nightside series, brings his trademark wit and inventiveness to his beloved hometown of Bradford-on-Avon, in this charming standalone urban fantasy novel.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The author of the popular Deathstalker series (Deathstalker War, etc.) offers another wildly fantastic extravaganza bound to please his many fans, even if it won't win him new ones. Toby Dexter, a bored 33-year-old clerk at Gandalf's bookshop in Bradford-on-Avon, becomes an unlikely hero when he follows a woman (the mysterious Gayle, at whom Toby has often gaped during his daily commute) into a doorway she creates by pointing at a wall. Suddenly, Toby finds himself in Mysterie, a fantasy world chock-full of gods and devils and coexistent with Veritie, our mundane world. Gayle warns him that she is beyond mortal love, and is instead preoccupied by a power struggle between Good and Evil with the latter being represented by the Serpent in the Sun, who seeks dominion over everything. Even worse, Gayle says, is that Toby is a "focal point" who will ultimately decide "the fates of people and the world." It's a tall order for a little guy, but Toby's up to it. Magical characters abound and enthusiastically cross the borders between the real and the fantastic: there's the immortal PI Jimmy Thunder, a descendant of Thor; Leo Morn, a bitter and alienated werewolf; the evil Angel, who is restored cleansed; and many more. Green obviously doesn't want to lose favored heroes, so the one loss is Nicholas Hob, son of the Serpent and Luna, Gale's ditsy sister (though Toby himself is shot dead temporarily). Green often pauses to discuss local history, but remembers in time to continue the action and ultimately serves up a happy ending.
