A City Dreaming: A Novel

A powerful magician returns to New York City and reluctantly finds himself in the middle of a war between the city s two most powerful witches.

It would help if you did not think of it as magic. M certainly had long ceased to do so.

M is an ageless drifter with a sharp tongue, few scruples, and the ability to bend reality to his will, ever so slightly. He s come back to New York City after a long absence, and though he d much rather spend his days drinking artisanal beer in his favorite local bar, his old friends and his enemies have other plans for him. One night M might find himself squaring off against the pirates who cruise the Gowanus Canal; another night sees him at a fashionable uptown charity auction where the waitstaff are all zombies. A subway ride through the inner circles of hell? In M s world, that s practically a pleasant diversion.

Before too long, M realizes he s landed in the middle of a power struggle between Celise, the elegant White Queen of Manhattan, and Abilene, Brooklyn s hip, free-spirited Red Queen, a rivalry that threatens to make New York go the way of Atlantis. To stop it, M will have to call in every favor, waste every charm, and blow every spell he s ever acquired he might even have to get out of bed before noon.

Enter a world of Wall Street wolves, slumming scenesters, desperate artists, drug-induced divinities, pocket steampunk universes, and demonic coffee shops. M s New York, the infinite nexus of the universe, really is a city that never sleeps but is always dreaming.