As I’ve mentioned here before, I have been exploring graphic
novels lately, delving into those in a wide variety of story types. So, I
plucked City of Light, City of Dark
by Avi and Brian Floca off my shelf, where it had been sitting for a long time.
It’s a fantasy story set in the real-life world of New York City.
The book starts out with a fable-like backstory of
mysterious beings called Kurbs, who are the owners of both the island of
Manhattan and the power to control light and dark. As the story goes, humans
are just renting the island from the Kurbs, and in order to maintain power and
light, they must perform a ritual once a year, by noon on December 21, to
discover a small subway token that holds the power that the Kurbs have hidden.
Responsibility for this awesome task was given to a woman and has been passed
down from mother to daughter for generations. Basically, all of this is
something of a fable to explain why the light (i.e. length of days) continually
decreases from June through December, until December 21 when it begins to grow
again.
Every fable and fantasy has its bad guy, and here, that is
Thor Underton, a neon sign artist whose creations grow ever bigger, requiring
more and more power (yes, here, the quest for power is literal). Underton is
desperate to find the Kurb’s source of power so that he can build the biggest
neon light creation ever. He is aided by his meek assistant, Theodore Bitner.
Having rescued Theo from the streets when he was young, Underton has a lot of
control over Theo, who would do anything for his boss. Theo is sent to follow
the young woman whom Underton believes to be the current one responsible for
searching for the special token, but Theo falls in love with the beautiful
Asterel and marries her.
From there, the story continues, with an epic battle between
Underton and Asterel, with the power-hungry man trying to get the magic token.
By mistake, a young boy named Carlos finds it, and ends up in the middle of
this struggle, along with Theo’s daughter, Estella. It’s a classic good vs.
evil fantasy tale, with Underton becoming more and more evil and developing
special powers, and the reader rooting for the kids to keep away from him and
save the day (literally).
It’s a good story, even though fantasy isn’t a favorite
genre of mine. It’s creative, with interesting characters, and the black and white illustrations
are expertly drawn by Brian Floca. My one quibble with the story was that Theo
made some decisions to side with Underton, against the wife whom he loved,
which didn’t seem realistic to me. I know – it’s fantasy not romance! But I still like my
human characters to act in believable ways. Other than that one small
complaint, it’s an action-packed, intriguing story that should be enjoyed by
fantasy fans of all ages.
186 pages, Graphix (imprint of Scholastic)
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