Central Park Knight by C.J. Henderson – review

Will dragons prove to be the salvation or the doom of mankind? The slumbering Old Ones are awakening, with the battle lines drawn between two opposing factions: one which would like to see mankind as slaves and soldiers, and one which would like mankind to use war as a sort of tool to carry out a Darwinian notion of survival of the fittest, which would serve to advance mankind and ensure their continued survival and evolution. Professor Piers Knight, a combination of Indiana Jones, James Bond, and the two famous doctors, Doctor Strange and Doctor Who, has the magical resources of the entire Brooklyn Museum to draw from; but will that be enough to aid this modern-day knight who possesses the skills of a Merlin in once again saving the world?

Central Park Knight by C.J. Henderson is the author’s second Urban Fantasy novel in his series featuring the arrogant, witty, magic-using Professor Piers Knight, following Brooklyn Knight. There are some key differences between this book and the debut. For instance, his beautiful summer intern, the red-headed Bridget Elkins, travels back to her hometown of Wolfsbend, Montana, though she gets a job at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan, and I have no doubt we’ll read more about her in future books of the series.

Before she goes, she does assist the good professor defeat a demon/Hell-spawn/god-presence from another dimension that threatens to consume our entire universe. These, to paraphrase a soap opera, are “the End Days of our Lives.” An immense dark cloud that begins over New York City spreads across the entire globe. Professor Piers Knight has consulted all of the ancient magical texts and prophecies he can find, but none contain in them the solution to how to turn back the evil deity and save the Earth. But then, he recalls a quote from Balzac, that helps him to once again prevail:

AN EXCESS OF JOY IS HARDER TO BEAR THAN ANY AMOUNT OF SORROW.

Piers gathers together disparate bands of actors, comedians, jugglers, musicians, and performance artists and has them do their acts at various places of power around New York City. He then collects the joyous energy the performers feel, and the joy that onlookers experience watching them, and stores it in “an ornately carved wooden rod” he has “borrowed” from the museum. It had been used originally by Mayan high priests, who “would use the wand to focus their energies while praying for a bountiful harvest.”

This is a fantastic beginning to the novel, though I was disappointed when I read that Bridget wouldn’t be involved in the rest of the book. I was getting used to reading about her, and thought she was a great foil for Piers Knight to play off of, and there were romantic sparks in the air that hinted at their professional relationship becoming also a personal one. Then, I was hoping that whomever would replace Bridget as Knight’s foil and sidekick would be another lovely, intelligent woman; instead, his new intern is the 17-year-old George Rainert, a brilliant but overweight and lumbering geeky guy.

Still, I tried to hold back my initial misgivings, and I continued reading. Just as Doctor Who always seems to work out despite whoever is the Doctor’s sidekick for each season, I discovered that Rainert turned out to be an equally adept (though sometimes bumbling and socially inept) sidekick for Knight. He develops a kind of hero worship for his new boss, and his self-effacing humor and geeky cultural references help add a lot of interest and context to the novel.

The Old Ones, meaning the dragons (and perhaps other legendary beasts), are awakening around the Earth far earlier than they’d said they would, when Professor Knight first encountered them–prior to the events of both novels, when he was visiting an archeological dig in Pakistan. He wanted to see if he could be the first to get dibs on any artifacts that might be dug up to make a part of the Brooklyn Museum’s collections.

This flashback I thought was pretty interesting, because it helps flesh out Knight’s character and also relates how he met and fell in love with the Chinese woman, Tian Lu, who worked at the dig and plays a major role in Central Park Knight. It also introduces Dr. Malcolm Sneed, another important, albeit secondary, character, who led the dig and who becomes the director of the organization now in charge of keeping tabs on the Old Ones. As well, it dramatically tells of Knight’s meeting with the two dragons who are the main ones depicted in the novel, and how one of them, Virm’robos, gave him “a monstrous gash which ran from his right shoulder diagonally down across his chest to finally disappear behind the left-hand side of his waistband.” The scars he received from this encounter were described in Brooklyn Knight, but how he got them were not revealed, so I really liked reading about it here.

I’ll admit, having dragons be Knight’s antagonists in Central Park Knight strained even my credulous nature, and brought out the skeptic in me. But, C.J. Henderson does a very good job of presenting his case, as it were, for the existence of dragons in our modern world, while also having several of the characters in his novel be somewhat skeptical. In fact, one of the problems in getting the news out about how much of a threat the Old Ones potentially might pose is due to people thinking that there’s no way dragons could exist, and that any photos or videos of them on the Internet had to have been faked. After I read further into the novel, my skepticism gradually faded away, as I became more caught up in the plot and the scheming mechanisms of Virm’robos and Jhou Xui.

Central Park Knight showcases C.J. Henderson’s ability to write some of today’s best Urban Fantasy novels. He’s a talented author, though you might not have heard much about him, because his name falls alphabetically at the bookstores between “Heinlein” and “Herbert,” two of science fiction’s most gifted and beloved iconic authors. Still, he should not be overlooked by anyone who loves this subgenre. Check out Central Park Knight if you’re a fan of Indiana Jones, Doctor Strange, or Doctor Who, or if you just love to read excellent Urban Fantasy novels–you won’t be disappointed!