Something from the Nightside

Something from the Nightside (2003) Simon R. Green

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

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