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 and complained that Bear rushes through the story too quickly and does not dwell long enough on locations like the Kalpa to make it memorable. He said that the flight to the future of Ginny, Jack and Daniel "gets a touch Frodo-in-Mordor at places". Writing in a review in "Asimov's Science Fiction", science fiction and mystery author Peter Heck called "City at the End of Time" a "big, sweeping, heavily symbolic tale", and "one of Bear's most ambitious". He said that while the story could have focused more on the future city, "in the end, the plotlines come together, and