Marcus Barber occasionally meets Ancients – beings mortals consider mythological but who are nonetheless real, powerful and…. Well, grouchy. They ask him to do stuff, and he says yes. He doesn’t always WANT to say yes, but the alternative could be death – or worse.
Today, on
e of the nastier Ancients has a job for him – rescue an ice pixie from a collector’s house before she melts. But it’s a day of days. Everywhere he goes, Ancients keep hitting him up for favors he can’t say ‘no’ to, until his dance card is beyond full.
This is sort of a hard-boiled-detective-meets-urban-fantasy that takes itself just seriously enough to get the job done. Plenty of Easter eggs and manic fun, as well as a lot of unresolved story-lines that indicated Marcus will be back. Some of the prose could be stronger, and some of the dialogue, too. But the story and the plot are strong enough to carry the reader through those relative weaknesses.
This is a fine debut novel and well worthy of your consideration.