The Art of Arrow Cutting: A Novel of Magic-Noir Supence

Stephen Dedman

Tom Doherty Associates, Feb 15, 1999 - Fiction - 288 pages

If he'd known all the trouble following her, itinerant photographer Michelangelo "Mage" Magistrale would have thought twice about helping the beautiful, distressed woman at the bus station. In return for a ticket she gives Mage what she says is the key to her apartment, but he quickly discovers that it's much more: it's a key to any door, to any place, to incredible power--and there are people who will stop at nothing to possess it.

Suddenly Mage is on the run from Calgary to Los Angeles, under constant attack from ninja, Yakuza thugs, and terrible creatures ripped from Japanese mythology. His only hope is to discover the secret of the key and master its power--to learn the art of arrow cutting--before he comes to the inevitable confrontation with the dark forces pursuing him.

What people are saying

THE ART OF ARROW CUTTING

User Review  - Kirkus

In Australia writer Dedman's first novel, drifter-photographer Michelangelo ``Mage'' Magistrale runs into beautiful blond Amanda Sharmon in a small Canadian town. Mage lends Amanda some money; she ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - shevek - LibraryThing

A dull, fatally Calfornian-cutesy exercise in wish-fulfillment. Not only is the protagonist basically omnipotent - he's omnipotent in a boring way that works against any faint inklings of suspense. Unless it's just that I don't find him as cool as the author clearly does.

About the author

Stephen Dedman is the author of the novels Foreign Bodies and The Art of Arrow Cutting. The latter was a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award for Best First Horror Novel. His award-nominated short fiction has appeared in most major genre magazines, including The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Asimov's, and SF Age, as well as such highly regarded anthologies as Little Deaths, The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, Dreaming Down Under, and Centaurus. A collection of his short work, The Lady of Circumstances, was published in 1999. He lives in Perth, Australia, and is currently working on a third novel of magic noir.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Art of Arrow Cutting: A Novel of Magic-Noir Supence; Volume 1 of The Art of Arrow Cutting
• Author: Stephen Dedman
• Edition: reprint, revised
• Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates, 1999
• ISBN: 0312868324, 9780312868321
• Length: 288 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / Fantasy / Contemporary