Home Alone 2: Lost in New York meets a homeless woman tending to pigeons at Central Park, which frightens him. Kevin goes to the Plaza Hotel, where he uses Peter's credit card to check in. Meanwhile, the "Wet Bandits", Harry and Marv, have traveled to New York City after escaping during a prison riot and now call themselves the "Sticky Bandits". On Christmas Eve, Kevin visits a toy store where he meets its philanthropic owner, Mr. E.F. Duncan. Kevin learns that the proceeds from the store's Christmas sales will be donated to a children's hospital, and provides a donation. As a token of appreciation, Mr. Duncan offers
City at the End of Time while others felt that the characters were underdeveloped and the story was difficult to follow. "New Scientist" described the first half of the book as "a gripping, original tale", but complained that in the second half Bear over-complicates the story with "too many ideas, images, mythologies and distractions". "City at the End of Time" was nominated for the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 2009. "City at the End of Time" is about the Kalpa, the last city on Earth, one hundred trillion years in the future. The novel's backstory describes