Vol. 1, “Wake up…” A bright red fire hydrant thrusts up from a striated sidewalk, and behind it, along the diagonal of the curb, a bright yellow no-parking stripe. Scattered about in remarkable profusion are hundred if not thousands of tiny pink flowers, fallen some time ago, pasted to macadam and concrete and rust-flecked municipal paint by long-since rains and unknown steps, but still with some glory left to spend.
Vol. 2, The Dazzle of Day. The sun rises bright but indistinct behind icy clouds over a fog-bound river, girdered bridgework crossing it to the right there, to lose itself in the haze before reaching the other side, and tiny trees lining this side, weirdly sharp against the water gelid and still. Low riverfront buildings below, a hotel, perhaps, some old brick-walled offices, all still bluely dimmed despite the rising brightness.
Vol. 3, In the Reign of Good Queen Dick. High above downtown, towers of white stone and red brick rising above the cars parked on the roof of a grey concrete garage, the glass belvedere atop a bunker of a department store, the treetops lining the streets between and among them, all lit by watery afternoon light, and the darkening rainbow, falling from the blue-grey clouds above.
Vol. 4, —or Betty Martin. The wall of a building, painted with simple flower-shapes in blue on blue, angled away among flat roofs and other buildings in an industrial district under the rising sun. Set between and among the windows along the wall are polished aluminum pots, each with a small green tree planted inside, a tidy vertical copse.
A serialized epic firmly set in Portland, Oregon, only with more sword fights—an urban fantasy mixing magical realism with gonzo noirish prose, where duels are fought in Pioneer Square and union meetings are besieged by ghost bicycles.
thecityofroses.com/books
#Booksky #PDX #FantasyLit #Roses
