Joe Golem and the Drowning City

A Novel

By: Mike Mignola, Christopher Golden

Narrated by: Robert Fass

Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

Mike Mignola, the acclaimed creator of Hellboy, and number one New York Times best-selling author Christopher Golden present a dark fantasy adventure featuring their occult detective in Joe Golem and the Drowning City.

An AudioFile Magazine Earphones Award-winning production!

In 1925, earthquakes and a rising sea level left Lower Manhattan submerged under more than 30 feet of water, so that its residents began to call it the Drowning City. Those unwilling to abandon their homes created a new life on streets turned to canals and in buildings whose first three stories were underwater.

Fifty years have passed since then, and the Drowning City is full of scavengers and water rats, poor people trying to eke out an existence, and those too proud or stubborn to be defeated by circumstance. Among them are 14-year-old Molly McHugh and her friend and employer, Felix Orlov. Once upon a time, Orlov the Conjuror was a celebrated stage magician, but now he is an old man, a psychic medium, contacting the spirits of the departed for the grieving loved ones left behind.

When a seance goes horribly wrong, Felix Orlov is abducted by strange men wearing gas masks and rubber suits, and Molly soon finds herself on the run. Her flight will lead her into the company of a mysterious man, and his stalwart sidekick, Joe Golem, whose own past is a mystery to him, but who walks his own dreams as a man of stone and clay, brought to life for the sole purpose of hunting witches.

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press

©2012 Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden (P)2020 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

“This outstanding audiobook improves upon its solid print version. If the book is a B-movie horror story, Robert Fass's narration makes it an Oscar-worthy movie. Fass has a gentle, genial tone that is effectively at odds with the horror tale he is reading. The story is dark, but his voice is light, and the contrast is alternately shocking and soothing.” —AudioFile Magazine, Earphones Award winner

Cool setting, flat characters, weak plot

I enjoyed the setting, the characters were initially compelling, but the plot grew increasingly convoluted and the spotty was ultimately less than satisfying. Kind of fun, but not my favorite purchase.

I'd do 3.5 stars if I could

The setting is interesting. The story felt a little all over the place. It spent a good deal of time setting scenes and spent little time on action scenes so it seemed to jump around in an odd way, kinda like a comic book, or tv show.
Minor Spoiler ahead:




The story has a "not ending", meaning that it ends in a way the sets up a sequel and barely resolves the main plot.