Simon R. Green

NightSide — (2003-2010) Publisher: John Taylor was born in the Nightside — a city within the city of London where it's always three A.M. and where inhuman creatures and otherworldly gods walk side-by-side. It's the stomping grounds for the lost and missing-and John Taylor is an expert at finding people and things in the shadows.

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Something From the Nightside

I picked up Something From the Nightside on Jim Butcher's recommendation and I enjoyed it for what it was: not high literature, but a fast fun read.

John Taylor is a private detective with a gift for finding things. He takes a case about a missing girl that forces him to confront his past and enter the Nightside. John Taylor has a serious reputation in the Nightside and he thought he had left that world behind years ago. Now it seems he has to return, and he uses his old contacts and his dubious reputation to crack the case.

Simon R. Green does a very good job of giving you the feel of the Nightside. I like the world he created — it's a creative mix of a lot of dark fantasy places we've seen before. Overall the story was fun and fast-paced. The cast of violent self-loathing characters, although colorful, got tiresome after awhile, but there are hints of more depth to come in future volumes.

Green’s writing style in this novel is cliché to the point that it starts to feel repetitive. He successfully recreates the private eye noir style, but at times I just wanted him to stop the constant reaffirmation of the Nightside’s weirdness:

The Nightside is the secret, hidden, dark heart of the city. London's evil twin. It's where the really wild things are….

It's always night in the Nightside. It's always three o'clock in the morning, and the dawn never comes….

You can buy or sell anything in the Nightside, and no-one asks questions. No-one cares. There's a nightclub, where you can pay to see a fallen angel forever burning inside a pentacle drawn in baby's blood.

Everything you ever feared or dreamed of is running loose somewhere in the shifting streets of the Nightside….

You can find anything in the Nightside, if it doesn't find you first. It's a sick, magical, dangerous place….

That’s just from first half of chapter one; repeat similar descriptions ad nauseum throughout the entire book. I get it: the Nightside is a creepy, weird, and scary place. Please move on with the story. I’m hoping that since this is the first book in a series and the setting has now been established, that we can move on from describing what's "in the Nightside" all the time.

Something from the Nightside should provide urban fantasy fans a great way to spend their time. I am definitely looking forward to the next books. —Justin   Comments

Agents of Light and Darkness

Agents of Light and Darkness, the second book in Simon R. Green‘s Nightside, once again follows the almost always abstruse John Taylor, the private detective who is really good at finding things. In Something From the Nightside we learned that John is a former Nightside badass who developed a conscious during his time away from the Nightside and returned to help someone in need. Agents of Light and Darkness follows a similar premise, except on a larger scale. This time it's the Nightside itself that's really in danger. Heaven and Hell are at war and John is stuck in between. He must locate the Unholy Grail before time runs out and the Nightside becomes collateral damage.

I liked Agents of Light and Darkness more than the first book. I always try to read at least two books of a series before truly deciding if I like it or not. In Agents of Light and Darkness, Simon R. Green takes the hyperbole that annoyed me so much from the first book and tones it down a level or two. He spends less time talking about how wild, crazy, and scary his world is and more time developing the characters that so desperately needed expanding.

This is a short book (as are most of the Nightside books) and a very enjoyable read. The pacing is much like the first — fast and fun. There are a ton of cool and colorful characters such as Suzie Shooter, Razor Eddie, The Collector, and many more. I look forward to seeing how these characters develop through the series. If you enjoy a fast-paced urban fantasy, try the Nightside series. —Justin   Comments

Nightingale’s Lament

The Nightside stories are so hard boiled that it’s hard to put in perspective, but I’m going to try anyway: If you took Dashiell Hammett’s corpse, rolled it in batter, then deep fried it till black, you would have a pretty good approximation of what Simon R. Green is going for.

Nightingale’s Lament is the third book in the Nightside series, and follows the same pattern as the previous books do: basically, another case file for John Tayler. This time he’s been tasked to discover the cause of the mysterious suicides surrounding a young singer’s performances. Through the course of the mystery he once again uses his reputation to help him solve the case. And, as usual, Simon R. Green throws some new and fascinating characters into the mix.

With each Nightside installment, Green’s writing gets tighter, and his world gets more exciting. The gritty fast-paced style is really starting to grow on me. Nightingale’s Lament is full of memorable lines, which I’ll call Taylorisms. For example:

"I don't use guns. Never have. They have too many limitations."

“That man could brood for the Olympics, and pick up a bronze in self-pity while he was at it”

"Condiments, Never leave home without them”

Those are just a few of many great quotes. The book’s tone is almost always tongue-in-cheek, but it remains just serious enough to keep the suspense high. Green has something special with the Nightside series. I hope he continues to improve the narrative, and keeps entertaining me for years to come.
—Justin   Comments

The Good, the Bad, and the Uncanny

One of the most memorable settings in all of fantasy literature is Simon R. Green’s Nightside, where it's always 3AM and you can buy everything, including slightly shop-soiled souls if you're willing to pay the price.

In the tenth book of this terrific series, Simon R. Green once again showcases his amazing talent. Fans of the series will be excited to learn that The Good, the Bad and the Uncanny contains the final showdown between our protagonist, hardened PI John Taylor, and the Nightside’s ultimate authority figure, Walker, which comes to a conclusion I enjoyed very much — but I’m not telling.

What's not to like? At times, Green's strength becomes almost a weakness. He has been at this long enough that he can create whole lists of colorful characters doing insane things — and he frequently does. At times, it can become an (admittedly entertaining) distraction from the plot and characters, which are, as always, strong.

While we’re on the subject of minor quibbles, I’ve been distracted throughout the series by Green’s overuse of certain words (such as “appalling”). But you know, there may be a reason I review books. If anyone doesn’t explore the Nightside series because of that, you’re missing out on a real treat. If you are new to the series, I do recommend that you start at the beginning rather than with book ten. You'll be glad you did. —Stephen   Comments