Simon R. Green
Blue Moon Rising (1991)
I believe it was Tania who was shocked that I had not read Blue Moon Rising. After all, I love the appalling John Taylor of Nightside, so why hadn’t I read Blue Moon Rising? Especially since I own a used copy of it?
Two not very good reasons. First, I bought it used, and I got a beat-up copy. I try not to break the spines of my paperback books, so you can see how this might bother me a bit. Second, it’s 476 pages. Yeah, it’s only a single book, not a series, but that’s a lot of book to hold, and I find myself more and more reluctant to read larger books, as they often hurt my hands to hold. (I’m looking at YOU Neal Stephenson.) But I finally broke down and read it.
And it was fun!
Rupert is a second son who has been sent out in a quest, mostly to get him out of the way, since his family doesn’t have any money or a kingdom to bestow upon extra. So he sets out with his unicorn to cross the Darkwood to slay a dragon. While there he inadvertently rescues a princess. And discovers that the Darkwood is getting far more dangerous than anyone had realized.
Blue Moon Rising definitely plays with the idea of the fantasy quest adventure. As well as the idea of princesses who need rescued, and who the bad guys in a story really are.
Rupert and Julia are a lot of fun, and the fact the book is set in a magical realm allows him to play around with the idea of what princesses can and cannot do, even if they aren’t doing what is expected of them. In other words, he doesn’t overplay the fact that the princess stands up for herself, which can be a hard line not to cross. She is the way she is, and people may be horrified by it, but that’s just the way it is.
The writing style, although not the Simon Green of the Nightside books (appalling!) is still light and fun. He doesn’t take himself or his story too seriously, which makes the read a fun romp. If you like your fantasy to be serious and with Great Meaning, then you probably won’t enjoy Blue Moon Rising. Otherwise, you may want to check it out, because it’s fun.
Rating: 8/10
Swords of Haven (1999)
Omnibus edition of: Hawk & Fisher (1990), Winner Takes All (1991), The God Killer (1991)
Swords of Haven, the omnibus edition containing the three Hawk and Fisher books--Hawk & Fisher, Winner Takes All, The God Killer--is a very odd book.
The stories are set in a world of magic, where swords and magic are the weaponry of choice. Hawk and Fisher are Captains of the Guard in the city of Haven. However, much of the writing reminds me of a hard boiled crime novel, rather than a slash and hack sword & sorcery novel. Not that there's anything wrong with that per se, it was just... off somehow.
Additionally, I kept seeing Nightside in Haven, which was somewhat jarring. He'd describe something and I'd see in my mind how he'd improved on it in the Nightside. And again, it wasn't a bad thing per se, it just kept pulling me out of the story and into thinking about the Nightside
However, I still enjoyed the three stories. Hawk & Fisher was a locked room mystery / police procedural, only with swords and magic instead of guns and technology. Half the mystery I guessed as soon as the first clue was dropped, the second half was a surprised. As was the outcome of the story--didn't expect things to turn out the way they did, which was interesting.
Winner Takes All was my least favorite of the three stories. Political intrigue and campaigning, as Hawk & Fisher are assigned to guard the Reform candidate. Only in Haven the campaign and election are compressed into a single day. Which is a fascinating idea, except that I kept losing track of time, and I'm pretty sure that unless time runs differently in Haven, things had to have lasted longer than a single day. But still, it was interesting and fun. (And I have to say that Roxanne immediately made me thing of Thieves' World. Of course the character was different, although the tone was about right.)
The third book, The God Killer, was another mystery, and the one that reminded me most frequently of Nightside. Someone is killing the Gods on the Street of Gods, and Hawk & Fisher have to help discover why.
All three books had lots of action, although the last two sometimes bordered on ridiculous amounts of action. As in, how on earth are these people stills standing after so many different battles, amounts of action. But still, as long as you are willing to suspend disbelief, then the books were a lot of fun.
I also think that they would have read differently had I not read the Nightside books first--I wouldn't have spent so much time being reminded of the Nightside, and might not have gotten pulled out of the last two stories as frequently.
But I really did like the characters of Hawk & Fisher. They're jaded and far from perfect, but they're honest to a fault. Which is something you don't always find in police mysteries. Typically the cops are willing to deal with the bad guys. But not so much here. I also enjoyed Fisher being the brawn of the two. Nice twist on the expected fantasy setting, without being noticeably so. (As way of explanation, I can only say that there are some fantasy books feature female swordsmen that go out of their way to make a big deal about the female character being a swordsmen. These books don't, and I really liked that.)
If you haven't read anything by Simon R. Green, I'd recommend the Nightside books as a starting place. I find them a little better written, and a little more cohesive--the tone he uses works, for me, a little better in a modern setting than in a fantasy setting. This isn't to say that I don't recommend these books. Just that I recommend starting with Something from the Nightside, and when you've read all those then come back and read these.
Rating: 6/10
Something from the Nightside (2003)
After The Great Book of Amber, I decided that the requirement for my next book to read, was going to be small and slight. As a 203 page paperback, this fit the bill perfectly.
Something from the Nightside is fantasy written as hard boiled mystery. John Taylor is from the Nightside, but trying to eek out a living in the Real World. Until a woman (it's always a woman) shows up in his office asking him to find her daughter, who appears to have disappeared into the Nightside.
The book was Spenser meets Thieves' World (although John Taylor speaks fondly of Dashiell Hammet) and I have a fondness for both. The Nightside is nasty and and evil, and John is witty and possibly one of the good guys, although possibly not. Interestingly, Simon R. Green keeps describing him as someone who walks the line between good and evil, but really, he comes down squarely on the side of good, without much waffling. The Nightside, however, really does come across as evil. Which must be why I liked it.
The writing was good, the dialogue was snappy, and the story was very interesting. The cover was also almost perfect. Looking at it after finishing the story, they seemed to have captured the character and the place just as they were described. Kudos to Ace for getting the cover just right.
I also noticed random references to other fantasy and mystery charaters and stories, which greatly amused me. It also makes me wonder how many references I missed, for as much as I read, there is so much more that I have yet to read.
However, I did have one major issue with the story. John Taylor keeps talking about how he's out of practice, and that using magic is putting a huge strain on him, yet except for a quick stop, he doesn't bother to rest.
Maybe I'm missing something, but if you keep talking about how what you are doing is straining your body, and how you need to rest, then maybe you should do just that? Perhaps I missed something about their brief rest stop, but that bugged me.
Aside from that, I thoroughly enjoyed the story and am looking forward to the next book in the series.
Rating: 7/10
Agents of Light and Darkness (2003)
In the second Nightside book, John Taylor, back working in the Nightside, but still living in the Real World, is hired to find the Unholy Grail, so that it can be returned to the Vatican.
I really liked this book. We learn a little more about John Taylor and some of the other characters who inhabit the Nightside, and John Taylor learns a few more tidbits about his mother, but the information serves only to increase the mystery.
John Taylor's character was a little stronger in this book, although I am still trying to figure out the limits to his power, and what he can and cannot do. There also did not seem to be any physical repercussions to using his power in this book as there were in the first book, presumably because he is again used to using his powers and working in the Nightside.
Also, he seemed to have come into his own, and has a more distinct voice, instead of sounding like Spenser or some other private detective. Although his own voice is slightly different from the previous book, I like this voice a tad bit better I think.
But the best part thing about this book was the story. I really like the story, where it went, and where it ended up. I also found the idea of an Unholy Grail fascinating.
I still don't understand when anyone sleeps in the Nightside, and I thought that the scene with Cathy Barrett was a bit forced, as if he felt he had to stick her in there, because people were wondering what had happened to her, but didn't really know what to do with her. However, aside from that this was an excellent sequel to Something from the Nightside and I can't wait to read the next book.
Rating: 8/10
Nightingale's Lament (2004)
In the third Nightside book, John Taylor is hired by a man to find out what has happened to his daughter. She has become a popular singer in Nightside, and he's worried because he has lost contact with her, so following another job gone bad, John takes the case to find out what is happening to Rossignol.
Again, Walker is on the edges of the story, ending up causing more difficulties for John even if that isn't his main goal. Although we briefly see Cathy Barrett, she plays only a minor role as John's secretary, and instead of Suzie Shooter, on this case John gets help from Dead Boy.
What I like about these stories, is that we can see how John solves his cases, and we can also see how things get blown out of proportion by the time tales of those cases hit the streets. Nothing seems too out of the ordinary, until you put it all together, at which point his deeds do seem pretty amazing.
For once John actually has to recuperate from the amount of abuse he takes, although regarding the Somnambulists, one wonders at his performance the second time he deals with them, in comparison with the first. So I am still unsure as to the limit's of what John can do, although I suppose that John is not supposed to know the full limits of his powers, so perhaps it's not too unreasonable.
This story was good, but I didn't like it quite as well as I liked Agents of Light and Darkness. John Taylor is still a much better character than he claims to be, which may be a better explanation as to why some people dislike him, rather than the fact that he is sometimes a jerk. No offense, but he just doesn't strike me as a jerk. At least he hasn't yet. He's willing to make hard choices, yes, but that doesn't make you a bad person, and it doesn't make you a jerk.
So another good book, and again, I can't wait to read the next one.
Rating: 7/10
Hex and the City (2005)
BAH! That was just completely uncalled for! Here I am, enjoying this series, which in many ways reads more like a mystery series than a fantasy series, when WHAM! No longer will the story be wrapped up in a single book. Oh no, now we must have a story that does not conclude in a single book, but carries over into the next book.
And to add insult to injury, book six doesn't come out until February, and the copy available doesn't say "The Conclusion to the Nightside Story" so I don't think that book six is going to finish things either.
The only good thing in all of this is that Simon Green seems to write these books quickly, at the rate of around two a year.
But still. I hate waiting.
However, aside from the non-ending story, like the rest of the series I enjoyed Hex and the City. Good characters, good plot, good storytelling. Oh, and a great cover. Again they got it about perfect, which is always a pleasant surprise.
Like the previous book, Nightingale's Lament, the story starts with a small case that John Taylor is dealing with, and like the previous book, things do not go as he expects. He is then hired by Lady Luck to investigate the origins of Nightside, and case that has interested John Taylor for quite awhile.
Again, John Taylor gets assistance from characters we have not met before. Although he talks about Suzie Shooter, and we again see Alex and Strangefellows, and of course Walker is important in this book, but working with John Taylor we have three new people, all of whom are very interesting. I liked Dead Boy, but I like Sinner, Pretty Poison, and Madman just as well (Though perhaps not Pretty Poison's name so much).
The story was good, even if I did figure things out on my second guess but that wasn't frustrating--it was good to be able to go "I KNEW IT!" (And I won't tell you my first guess, since that will make my second--and correct--guess pretty obvious.)
I have to admit that I also realized something partway through this book. If the Nightside books were a movie, I would REALLY not want to watch them. But for some reason the way Simon Green describes the horrors of Nightside doesn't bother me, and I don't know why. It should. And if someone put these things in a movie, they'd give me screaming nightmares, but here, I'm fine with it.
Well, almost okay. One scene of destruction took place in a library, and I kept thinking, "all that blood is going to be really bad for the books. Hopefully they'll have some magic way to keep it from ruining them."
So, despite the unexpected cliffhanger ending, I enjoyed and liked Hex and the City. I am still enjoying reading about John Taylor's exploits, although I am unsure about the next book and whether the change from collections of exploits to unresolved continuing mystery will change the tone of the books. I may wait a bit before reading the next book. Especially knowing that I'll have to wait until February to read the next installment.
Hex and City is a good book, and I recommend it, unless you don't like unresolved stories, in which case you should stop at Nightingale's Lament. At least until a few more books are published.
Rating: 8/10
Paths Not Taken (2005)
Okay. Wow. This book certainly took a different turn. And I'm not sure how much I care for the change. In this book John Taylor is, for lack of a better word, a complete asshole. I was going to say jerk, but that's just not a strong enough word. He is simply not a nice person, no matter how much he tries to justify his actions.
And I'm not sure how I feel about that.
John has decided that he must go back in time to discover how his mother founded the Nightside, to search for a way to stop her, because if he does not, all of the Nightside--and perhaps the world--will be destroyed. With him, he takes Suzie Shooter, who helped John Taylor on previous books, and Tommy Oblivion, Nightside's other Private Investigator.
Unlike the other books in the series, this one is almost straight fantasy. Although he spends a couple of chapters in a small mystery, it's hardly up to the standards of the first few books, which I found a disappointment, as I really liked the mysteries.
Additionally, as I said at the start, John Taylor is not a nice person. We learn that he is actually the one behind some of the tragedies of Nightside, and there is a good reason that many people in Nightside dislike him so much. To be honest, I am not sure if I like him anymore. I suppose only the second book will tell.
The arc of the story also struck me as rather strange. The start of the story seemed unusually light, with a good deal of light hearted humor, while the second half of the story is extremely grim. It's as if the first half was an attempt to make up for how harsh the remainder of the book was going to be. But the lighthearted bits were very good, and very well done. For instance:
Next door to the brothel was a dark and spooky little shop selling reliquaries--the bones of saints, fragments of the True Cross, and the like. Special offer that week was apparently the skull of John the Baptist. Next to it was a smaller skull, labelled JOHN THE BAPTIST AS A CHILD.
If you've been reading along, then this story is a must read. If you're interested in starting the series, this is not the place to start.
Rating: 6/10
Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth (2006)
To be honest, I was less than pleased with the last Nightside book, Paths Not Taken. The story was good, but I had a hard time accepting that John Taylor was really as cold-blooded as he came off. Luckily, Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth returns to the John Taylor of the earlier Nightside books. Still no one you want to mess with, but not a totally cold-blooded bastard.
At the end of the last book, things had pretty much come to a head. John Taylor's mother, Lilith, was back to remake Nightside in her image, and didn't care who she had to destroy in the process. Now John has to over come the converging futures that say that he will destroy Nightside--and possible the world in the process.
With the exception of the 5th book, which just rubbed me the wrong way, the Nightside books keep getting better and better. John's voice is now entirely his own (in the first book he sounded to me very much like Robert B. Parker's Spenser) and the other characters have also developed their own, strong personalities.
And they're still funny.
"You here to cause trouble?" (the enforcer) said, in a voice so deep he must have had a third testicle tucked away in there somewhere.
"Almost certainly," I said.
"Right, lads! said the enforcer, glancing back over his shoulder to address the rest of the street. "Pick up your feet, we are out of here. This is Dead Boy and John bloody Taylor, and we are not being paid nearly enough to take on the likes of them. Everybody round to Greasy Joan's cafe, where we will wait out whatever appalling things are about to happen."
There are so many things I like about these books: the stories, the characters, the fast pace, and the fact that they seem to come out every three months. (Which made up for the fact that the last major story arc took three books to complete.) And the story arc does finish with this book. So one way or the other, things are settled between John Taylor and Lilith.
Although there are lots of gruesome details in this book, I have to say that they were written in a way that doesn't bother me, the person who constantly hides her face at movies. I'm not sure whether it's Simon Green's writing in particular, or the difference between seeing versus reading something horrific. I can tell you, though, that if they made any Nightside movies, I'd definitely NOT watch them.
If you've been reading the Nightside books, this is one you definitely don't want to miss. If you have not yet read a Nightside book, I highly recommend starting with Something from the Nightside and reading through. These are short books, and they're a lot of fun to read. Despite all the awful things that happen.
For what it's worth, I also love the covers of these books. They're general enough that they don't give anything away, yet they still manage to portray the general feeling of the book.
And once you're finished Sharper than a Serpent's Tooth, then you can go here, and read the news from August 2005. (This link does not contain spoilers, per se, but information within will give you a good idea of how this story will resolve.)
Rating: 9/10
Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth (2006) Simon R. Green
To be honest, I was less than pleased with the last Nightside book, Paths Not Taken. The story was good, but I had a hard time accepting that John Taylor was really as cold-blooded as he came off. Luckily, Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth returns to the John Taylor of the earlier Nightside books. Still no one you want to mess with, but not a totally cold-blooded bastard.
At the end of the last book, things had pretty much come to a head. John Taylor's mother, Lilith, was back to remake Nightside in her image, and didn't care who she had to destroy in the process. Now John has to over come the converging futures that say that he will destroy Nightside--and possible the world in the process.
With the exception of the 5th book, which just rubbed me the wrong way, the Nightside books keep getting better and better. John's voice is now entirely his own (in the first book he sounded to me very much like Robert B. Parker's Spenser) and the other characters have also developed their own, strong personalities.
And they're still funny.
"You here to cause trouble?" (the enforcer) said, in a voice so deep he must have had a third testicle tucked away in there somewhere.
"Almost certainly," I said.
"Right, lads! said the enforcer, glancing back over his shoulder to address the rest of the street. "Pick up your feet, we are out of here. This is Dead Boy and John bloody Taylor, and we are not being paid nearly enough to take on the likes of them. Everybody round to Greasy Joan's cafe, where we will wait out whatever appalling things are about to happen."
There are so many things I like about these books: the stories, the characters, the fast pace, and the fact that they seem to come out every three months. (Which made up for the fact that the last major story arc took three books to complete.) And the story arc does finish with this book. So one way or the other, things are settled between John Taylor and Lilith.
Although there are lots of gruesome details in this book, I have to say that they were written in a way that doesn't bother me, the person who constantly hides her face at movies. I'm not sure whether it's Simon Green's writing in particular, or the difference between seeing versus reading something horrific. I can tell you, though, that if they made any Nightside movies, I'd definitely NOT watch them.
If you've been reading the Nightside books, this is one you definitely don't want to miss. If you have not yet read a Nightside book, I highly recommend starting with Something from the Nightside and reading through. These are short books, and they're a lot of fun to read. Despite all the awful things that happen.
For what it's worth, I also love the covers of these books. They're general enough that they don't give anything away, yet they still manage to portray the general feeling of the book.
And once you're finished Sharper than a Serpent's Tooth, then you can go here, and read the news from August 2005. (This link does not contain spoilers, per se, but information within will give you a good idea of how this story will resolve.)
Rating: 9/10
Hell To Pay (2006)
I am quite fond of Simon R. Green's Nightside books, although the Nightside itself would probably be offended by the use of the word fond. John Taylor is a private investigator in the Nightside, an alternate city within London where it is always night, and anything you can imagine--and many things you don't want to imagine--exist.
Nightside is rebuilding after the events of the previous book, Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth. However, not only does the physical place need rebuilt, the entire power structure of the Nightside was destroyed, and although Walker is still in charge, no one is suer how.
The power struggles within the Nightside, however, are only the backdrop for the story. John Taylor has been hired to find the granddaughter of the Griffin, an immortal who would like control of Nightside to eventually come to him. Griffin's granddaughter has disappeared, and he wants John Taylor to find her--no matter the cost.
The first thing I have to recommend about Hell to Pay is that Simon R. Green has returned to completing a story arc within a book. There are still loose ends and threads--such as the power structure of the Nightside--but the main story arc--the disappearance of Melissa Griffin--is completed. This is one of the reasons I liked the Nightside books in the first place. It's nice to read a fantasy story that is contained within a single book.
I am also continuing to enjoy both the stories. They're not necessarily complicated mysteries (if you ignore the fact that they often occur in multiple dimensions) but they're a lot of fun to read. Although really awful things happen and are described (or even more often left to the imagination) the Nightside is a fascinating place to visit--from a distance.
I used my special gift to find the channel control signal and used it to tune every single television screen to the same appalling show. I'd found it accidentally one night while channel hopping (never a good idea in the Nightside, where we get not only the whole world's output, but also transmissions from other worlds and other dimensions), and I actually had to go and hide behind the sofa till it was over. The John Waters Celebrity Perversion Hour is the single most upsetting pornography ever produced, and now it was blasting out of dozens of screens simultaneously.
There was one thing that particularly bothered me. In chapter three, one character is described in a manner that gave me a distinct and specific impression. However, when we come to that character again several chapters later, she seemed a completely different person that was described earlier. In fact, I had to go back and check to make sure it was the same person.
Aside from that one slip, I thoroughly enjoyed Hell to Pay. Sure, I had a good idea as to the culprit. And sure, sometimes it seems like John Taylor is trying just a little to hard. But the series is fun, and that's why I like it. I like reading about all the horrible things in Nightside. I liked seeing John Taylor get himself into and out of situations. And I like the horrible people in Nightside.
I'm also fond of the covers of the Nightside books. They're simple and appealing, and they all look like Nightside books.
If you have not read any Nightside books, and you like supernatural fantasy, then I highly recommend the Nightside series. Although you could start with Hell to Pay, you'll be better off if you start at the beginning of the series, Something from the Nightside and work your way through. It's interesting to watch John evolve, and starting here would give away some of the secrets of earlier books. If you're already a fan of the Nightside, then this is another solid addition to the series.
Rating: 7/10
The Man with the Golden Torc (2007)
Eddie Drood is a field agent for a family that knows more secrets than anyone else, and has magical and mechanical powers that would make mages and mad scientists drool in envy. Unfortunately for Eddie (known on the streets as Shamus Bond) there’s trouble in the family, and that means trouble for Eddie.
Although this is not a Nightside book, I could tell quickly it was a Simon Green book. It had his quirky combination of blood, mayhem, and humor, and his telltale use of the word appalling with appalling frequency. From the title to Eddie’s use name, you could tell it was supposed to be a takeoff on James Bond. Except that the only exposure I have to James Bond is Ian Flemming’s books, and I’m not sure that Eddie Drood reminded me of Flemming’s Bond.
Neither of things are bad, they just are the way they are. I enjoy Simon Green’s writing, and although I do think he tends to overuse the word appalling, it mostly just serves to let me know I’m reading a Simon Green book.
As far as the James Bond comparison… In some ways Eddie does resemble Flemming’s Bond, in that he relies upon his had earned skills, though I didn’t find him quite as cunning as James Bond. But Eddie also has amazing magic and science, which he needs because his enemies can be just as strong as he is.
The story and characters are very much Simon Green. They’re sarcastic and pessimistic, except under the pessimism you’re sure there’s a shiny optimist just waiting to get out. Although the book is not set in Nightside, the world beneath the world we inhabit contains monsters aplenty.
If you like Simon Green’s Nightside books, they you’ll probably want to check out The Man with the Golden Torc if you haven’t already (I waited the year for the book to come out in paperback.)
Rating: 7/10
Books by Simon R. Green:
Nightside: Something from the Nightside (2003), Agents of Light and Darkness (2003), Nightingale's Lament (2004), Hex and the City (2005), Paths Not Taken (2005), Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth (2006), Hell To Pay (2006)
Hawk & Fisher: Blue Moon Rising (1991), Swords of Haven (1999)
Eddie Drood: The Man with the Golden Torc (2007)
