The City Beneath the Hidden Stars
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
"readers with a taste for madcap fantasy will find something to enjoy." —Publishers Weekly
Drawing on an eclectic mix of influences and based on the myths and history of Zagreb, Croatia, The City Beneath the Hidden Stars is a fantastical story that unveils the wondrous concealed in the mundane and is an adventure not to be missed.
Long ago, the Black Queen once ruled Zagreb in a looming fortress over the city. Her legend lives on in children's games and bedtime stories. Is it truly only folklore? And what harm is death to a queen who supposedly stole secrets from the stars?
When rumors surface that the Black Queen might still be alive and living in a haunted chasm beneath Zagreb's Bear Mountain, it prompts the Star Council to dispatch star daimon Leo Solar to Earth to investigate.
After witnessing a bizarre event at a local music gig, former philosophy student Dario Taubek begins to notice a strange-looking man in a star suit. Curious, he follows him and what he discovers catapults him into a world he never knew existed. A world of magical trams, myths and monsters, celestial beings, and the legendary Black Queen.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The magical and the mundane mix in Kudei's over-the-top debut, which throws together three mismatched and unlikely heroes. Barbara Cilli, the Black Queen, once ruled Zagreb, the White City, with an iron fist, but in the ages since her demise, she's been reduced to nothing more than a bogeyman to frighten children. When a group of schoolmates plays the taboo game Black Queen One-Two-Three, one of them, Stella, is disconcerted to catch a glimpse of a mysterious figure who she becomes convinced is the Black Queen herself. Meanwhile, the celestial Star Council notices signs that the Black Queen might return and sends Leo Solar, a star daimon who was involved with the Black Queen's initial rise to power, to stop her. The third protagonist is a philosophy student turned part-time proofreader, subeditor, and administrative assistant, Dario Taubek, who has a series of strange experiences, including receiving a prophecy about the Black Queen returning. Stella, Dario, and Leo all have parts to play as they race to stop the Black Queen's agents from freeing her. As the haphazard adventure unfolds, Kudei's prose strains a bit too hard to imitate the heightened absurdity of Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams, never quite reaching its target. Still, readers with a taste for madcap fantasy will find something to enjoy.
