Swords of Haven

Swords of Haven (1999) Simon R. Green
Omnibus edition of: Hawk & Fisher, Winner Takes All, The God Killer

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

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