Drinking Midnight Wine

by Simon R. Green

There is a world beyond the world

It figures. Just when Bradfordian bookshop clerk, Toby Dexter, finally works up the nerve to talk to his secret crush, she darts into an open door. Toby follows, and in that second, everything changes. Though it still looks like Bradford-on-Avon, the town’s suddenly chatty ATM and river mermaids are the first clues that something is quite out of place—namely, Toby. The moment he stepped through that door, Toby entered the magical parallel world of Mysterie.

Our ordinary dimension—the one Toby knew as Bradford-on-Avon—is actually Veritie, a mere shadow of its alter ego, Mysterie, where magic and myth, gods and monsters, living legends and walking nightmares reign. And Toby isn’t the only recent arrival. A cunning and vicious demon—The Serpent’s Son—has returned to Mysterie, accompanied by a malevolent new ally, intent on bringing down both dimensions.

Toby can remain mortal, return to Veritie, and try to convince himself that he had a bad pint of bitter that night. Or he can stay in Mysterie, join forces with his new friends Leo Morn and his Brother Under The Hill, and try to stop The Serpent’s Son. The choices Toby makes will have dramatic consequences for both worlds. It may not be the first time Mysterie’s wars have spilled over into our reality, but if Toby fails, it could be the last.

Simon R. Green, New York Times bestselling author of the Deathstalker series and the Nightside series, brings his trademark wit and inventiveness to his beloved hometown of Bradford-on-Avon, in this charming standalone urban fantasy novel.

Genres: Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Fiction, Mystery, Paranormal, Science Fiction Fantasy, Science Fiction

278 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 31, 2001

About the author

Simon Richard Green is a British science fiction and fantasy-author. He holds a degree in Modern English and American Literature from the University of Leicester. His first publication was in 1979.

His Deathstalker series is partly a parody of the usual space-opera of the 1950s, told with sovereign disregard of the rules of probability, while being at the same time extremely bloodthirsty.

Excerpted from Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Proditor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've seen a few reviews compare this to a comic book, to which I can only say, you don't "get it". That's fine, there is nothing wrong with that, but my belief is that those who loved Deathstalker, don't necessarily get Green's other work. Green's mastery is as a wordsmith. His genius is in the use of character. It's a bit incorrect to say a Norse god gets modern and becomes a Private Detective, it's a lot more accurate to say that a guy who can't find his place in the world (And who also happens to be the great to the 13th or so power removed in lineage from the Norse Gods) finally finds a nitch that works for him. That's what makes Green readable, you can always find something to identify with in his characters. The human condition is prevalent and strong in Green's writing and that is what links you to his characters. Whether that's Jimmy Thunder or his superlative Hawk and Fisher, they all have something that tugs at you. They all have something with which you can draw a parallel. And along the way you get the best banter in the business short of Brust. I wholeheartedly recommend Drinking Midnight Wine to pretty much everyone. Keep an open mind, relax, enjoy.

[Scribblegirl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Full disclosure: except for Blue Moon Rising, most of Simon Green's books leave me cold, no matter how badly I want to like them. The Eddie Drood series is okay, and I might like the Nightside series had I not read Jim Butcher's Dresden Files first, but most of the time, Green's books feel slightly misogynistic & sexist in a 1960's sort of way, and I don't trust him not to do what he did in Shadows Fall, which was to yank the rug out from under me at the end and spin out the literary equivalent of Pam having dreamt the entire season while Bobby was in the shower. Drinking Midnight Wine feels very much like Shadows Fall in tone, so by 1/3 of the way through, I suspected a Shadows Fall kind of ending, and Green didn't fool me. The book starts out fine, but then takes a digression so that Green can introduce a few of the other characters in the book. I almost put it down, but right about the time I was tired of it, he returned to his main character, Toby Dexter...who seemed remarkably lazy and unimaginative from the start, so I didn't really buy it when he suddenly became the guy with all the answers and ready to go to the mattresses to save the girl, the city and the other city, with all its magic inhabitants. There just wasn't enough character development there for me to make a believable leap. Similarly, a few other characters conveniently became other than they had been for most of the novel too, and while Green gave reasons for the sudden changes in behavior, it felt pretty convenient and lazy for the changes to happen, like Green just can't stand to write an unpleasant ending. Which I realize may be the case, given the number of books I've read of his that do 180-degree turns so that everyone can live happily ever after, despite Green spending many, many pages in each of them repeating that happily ever after isn't in the cards. I guess the folly lies in me reading Green and expecting anything different...a lesson I have finally learned. From now on, I will stick to Jim Butcher.

[Kati · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of Green's "Nightside" series but I had to drop this book. It's a stand-alone story that has nothing to do with Nightside but it still feels like Nightside - just without the Nightside. It's bordering on a carbon copy. Also, the story is told from various POVs and unfortunately, that causes it to drag on. If Green told it just from the POV of Toby, the first guy we meet, the plot would have been much tighter, I think. Also, Toby was the only character that caught my interest and when Green dropped him for like 40 pages right after his introduction...

My recommendation? Go and read Green's "Nightside" if you want something entertaining.

[Vickie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every once in a while I will read a stand-alone book that doesn't belong to a series, but I wish it did. This was one of those. A satisfying ending, but I would like to hang out with the characters for a while longer.
It's a neat premise, a town that resides in both the real world [Veritie] and the other [Mysterie]. And it's a fight of good versus evil, a man thrown into the battle rather against his will. But he rises to the challenge. He thinks outside the box and is smarter than he credits himself.
I liked this one a lot and can definitely recommend.

[Mark Helliar · Rating 4 out of 5]

If your a fan of Simon R. Green's, Tales of the Nightside series, then you will enjoy this book. It has Angels and gods, hero's and villian's with death in all it's most unpleasant forms lurking around every corner. ( sound familiar ) He even mentions the Walking Man a number of times. Its was a good read

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was fascinating to read this, if only to see where the Nightside stories came from - it's clear that this was Green's first dabbling into that style of prose and world-building, and those are some of my favorite popcorn reads.

This was a simple story, and the plot is mostly resolved by (fairly literal) deus ex machina, but it's also a wonderful example of an everyman hero, and the world-building is exactly the sparse but beautiful style that I love - Green can do more to build backstory with a name and a half sentence than most authors can in an entire chapter.

So - a bit lighter and fluffier than I had anticipated (though there are some scenes that are not for the faint of heart), but all in all a beautiful lesson in the ancestry of a series I love.

[hotsake (André Troesch) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5
Well written as expected by Simon R Green, and entertaining as well but there was only a short story worth of story here that stretched out to over 300 pages.

[Carro · Rating 3 out of 5]

I first read Drinking Midnight Wine years ago and have just re-read it. It is a one-off book of Simon R Green's, not part of any larger series and was written before the Nightside Books.

It has something in common with the Nightside books - in that it dips into a parallel universe with great powers - some evil, some good - but all dangerous just due to their extreme power. I've read quite a few of the Nightside books, but in some ways prefer this one. It is warmer, quirky and just for a change is not set in London. There is a lot of urban fantasy set in London, and I have read and enjoyed many such books, but a change is good.
This book is set in the small Wiltshire town (check it is Wiltshire) of Bradford-on-Avon - which it so happens I used to know well as I lived near it for a few years. The town is picture book - golden stone cottages up a steep hillside, curving river in the valley, old stone bridge across the river and a cute little station with another golden stone building as the station house. One of the first things that happens is there is a fight between two powers, and the station is blown up. It is really hard to imagine Bradford-on-Avon and explosion in the same universe. Its just such an unlikely place to be a nexus for otherwordly powers and the pivot for the fate of the world.
It did add enjoyment for me that I could picture the streets Green was describing and their re-assignment to other worldly characters and having a howling "thing" in the little building on the bridge was also amusing - after the number of children that have yelled into down the years or tried to leap out and surprise their friends.

Anyway, onto the book. I think the greatest strength, which occasionally is a weakness, is the ordinariness of the main character, Toby. He really is an ordinary human, and doesn't have or develop any special powers. Everyone around him has various srength and powers, but he has nothing.
One of the underlying themes of the book is free will. So this is not as the Nightside books are, an ongoing saga of someone with connections to a darker world, but the one-off adventure of a fairly ordinary bloke who decides to follow a gorgeous woman as she steps through a doorway into a parallel world. About two thirds of the way through the book I got a little bored as Toby, the ordinary man, was still largely following around after the powerful, gorgeous woman. That is what I meant by a weakness in the book. However it all rallied and there was a big fight at the end.

I did like this book for the occasional cracks about the world and people's motivations, the inventiveness of the array of powerful and less powerful beings and their falabilities. A lot of time and imagination was spent on this book, the world building and the world twisting - as in how Bradford-on-Avon was changed for the story.

[Fantasy Literature · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simon R. Green lives in Bradford-on-Avon in real life, and I'll wager a guess as to how Drinking Midnight Wine came to be written. I think Green has met some eccentric folks and seen some weird places in the time he has lived in that town, and so it occurred to him to make up magical explanations for them, and build a fantasy novel around them.

Green does a great job of creating engaging characters and vivid scenery. Our hero is Toby, a thirtysomething bookstore clerk who loves books and the pretty lady on the train, and hates exercise and mornings. We also run into the lady-on-the-train herself, aloof Gayle, and her half-crazy sister Luna, both of whom are more than they seem, as well as a minor Norse god, a reluctant werewolf, a gossipy yet mysterious gypsy called the Waking Beauty, and a colony of hippie mice. They are set in a town ... Read More: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the first Simon R. Green book that I read. It isn't what I would say is his best work ever, but it was enough to get me to read another one of his books.

[Pop Bop · Rating 4 out of 5]

A "Nightside" Sort of Riff

There are a few different sorts of Simon Green books, and you can like one branch, (say, the "Nightside" books), while not caring much for another branch, ("Deathstalker" or "Secret Histories"). This book is in the Nightside style, right down to the bright line between the real world, (Veritie), and the overlapping but distinct magical world, (Mysterie). More to the point it has the same narrative style, quasi-random plot, deus ex machina resolutions, repetition of key concepts and phrases, and aggravatingly vague foreshadowing. But I either like or at least tolerate the weaknesses of Nightside and so they weren't going to bother me here.

Our hero is an everyman, which is a change from Green's usual magically gifted hero. There is an explicit love interest who is actually central to the plot and action rather than just a sidekick, which is also change. But we still have a super powerful villain who needs to be stopped by a ragged band of misfits, surprise special guests, and lost demi-gods. As always, (and I get a kick out of this), there are teasingly vague and exaggerated references to unnamed "Powers and Dominations" and the like, references to dark histories that bear no relevance to the plot, and strange digressions and one-off bits of low comedy.

The book has a casual feel, tuned to irony and sunny sarcasm, which is fine. This isn't serious stuff and it would be no fun at all, (actually downright tedious), if Green tried to take it seriously. Lots of clever and witty dialogue. Great one-liners from characters who arrive and disappear in the space of a single page. Lots of inside jokes and sly throwaway lines. There is also more attention paid to mood and setting, and the book is especially effective at moving us back and forth through the real and magical dimensions of Veritie and Mysterie. Green's characters are never crisp types, but rather are often haunted, moody, indistinct and a bit lost. You get that here in spades, especially as characters travel from Mysterie to Veritie and back. That adds a certain weight and depth to the banter, the antic plotting, and the occasional silliness. These characters can catch you unawares. Unlike in the Nightside books there are a few earnest monologues about things like love and duty, and there is surprising sympathy for our tormented villain. All of that said, though, mostly the tone is more along the lines of "that blowed up good!".

So, I enjoyed this a great deal, mainly because I admire how well Green does this sort of book, and because I enjoy his touch and his light and witty approach to myths, monsters, and nightmares.

[Thuhuynh1794 · Rating 2 out of 5]

The premise was interesting but the execution was just poorly done. Everything was there, the bookstore owner, mysterious woman, the Greek - Norse mythology, the usual end-of-the-world crisis, and yet I have never read such an anti-climatic climax. I don't find it satisfying at all. Really you don't go create an intricate antagonist such as Hob a child of a heinous crime, the Serpent/ the Sun violently assaulting the Moon queen and let him die that easily, being killed by the power struggle between his godly parents. Honestly, I feel bad for him.
What's more, the two main characters, Toby and Gail, were just so flat. He's the typically "chosen one" and she the immortal who 'has been through it all' and still wanted to be 'human'. What put me off was their relationship. It is utterly unconvincing, this supposedly 'love' between them. They barely knew each other. He knew nothing about the girl and somehow after just the first day of talking to her, he was willing to give up his life for her? I still don't understand what their roles in the story were and I'm too lazy to re-read the whole thing. One thing I'm sure is that with all their powers and setting-up, he being the focal point something and she - the mighty Goddess, Gaia the Mother Earth, they were still pretty useless in the fight.

[Kristi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read a lot of urban fantasy, but I've somehow managed to miss reading anything by Simon Green until now. It's nice to come across a stand-alone book and be able to enjoy a story in its entirety without a long line of sequels clamoring for your attention. It's not a perfect book; Green tends to repeat himself frequently, as if chapters were written several months apart and he forgot that he already described something the exact same way previously, and characters and descriptions go on a bit too long. But, when the story finds its groove, the dialogue is snappy and snarky, the action hums along, and all the great elements of fantasy--old gods, divided worlds, and hapless humans caught in-between--are there to hit all the right notes.

[Scott Shjefte · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ah, small talk, setting the stage was a bit of a drag at the beginning. Then love came into the story but was too one-sided to be interesting. Many a lore was told but somehow not quite enough to make the story sing. There were a few quotes I liked that I added to Goodreads quote list: “The past is what we make of it, if we know what's is good for us"; and “Every wall was covered with shelves, packed tightly with books on every subject under the sun, and a few best unmentioned in polite company.”

[Jim Dodd · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good book. If you like Christopher Moore, Neil Gaiman, or Chuck Palahniuk you'll enjoy it. It is a fantasy filled with dark, irreverent humor with just a smattering of clever human insight.

I could not give it more then 4 stars because the book dragged at times. It was like the author was not sure where they wanted to take the story. I would chalk this up to experience, but the author has written literally dozens of books. Also, I felt like the climax and conclusion were too simple.

Overall a fun read, with some clever humor.

[Shawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A writing style that reminded me of blended Neil Gaman and Douglas Adams, this fanciful tale summons many of the old folklore of humanity to tell a similar but nonetheless new story. I enjoyed it quite a bit and found the pace compelling. I did feel like the end of the book rushed up on me and everything was resolved rapidly, but it's a nitpick in an otherwise fun read.

[Derrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great story. It just flowed and I enjoyed the whole ride. Amazing to me it didn't appear to get any notice. It was a bit 'heady at times, but if I didn't ponder or base anything in reality, then it worked well. I didn't enjoy the very ending of the story, but not like it was a bad ending. I wish there were more stories in this universe for sure.

[Alexander Collas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Green is one of my favorite authors. He has a few tells but even those are fine once you know about them. The Nightside series introduced me to him and it is a world I still miss. This book lives up to his others and is well worth the read.

[Edward Denton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Antique store find! Pleasantly surprised by this story having never heard of the author. Another world, invisible but right next to us, or at least, right next to Toby Dexter. Very creative world and characters. I will probably read seek out more of his work.

[Andy2302 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Toby Dexter follows a beautiful woman through a door that should not be there. It opens to a different version of his town, one of fantasy & horror. Gayle the beautiful woman helps him navigate as his true purpose there is revealed.

[Tiffany · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book lost me half way through. The main characters love sickness got the better of me and a few strange creatures were introduced that did not click with me.

[Nathan Woll · Rating 3 out of 5]

Better than Nightside or Secret Histories series because it's one book, so you don't have to read the same book over and over again. But yeah, it's Simon Green. It's pretty good.

[Randi Addicott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting world building and major characters.

[Gary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful

[Tomasz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mostly an extruded cellulose product, Generic Urban Fantasy, subclass - myths of the British Isles. A few bits elevate it beyond that status, but quite a few elements drag it back to mediocrity, too.

[Caomhghain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderfully zany plot, gloriously convoluted characters, improbable setting lovingly envisaged (Bradford on Avon for god's sake). Plus largely well written.

[Brenda · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book bored me. I can't remember why, I'm so far behind on posting here.

[Kimberly Lewis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointed
Dreary. It is different from the Drood, Nightside series.

[Ian Kinder]

DNF, may try again later.

[Ken Bruss · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although none of the Nightside characters appear in this book it definitely had that feel to it, as a befuddled, lovesick mortal encounters angels, werewolves and minor demigods for hire. Fun read