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Nightside Omnibus #1
Into the Nightside
509 pages, Paperback
First published August 7, 2008
3 people are currently reading
277 people want to read
About the author
Simon R. Green
312 books3,209 followersSimon 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
June 26, 2014
Ok I will admit that this is an omnibus edition of the first two books I once I picked it up I discovered I had already read the first book.
Anyway what to say about this book without giving the story line away - ok all that I say here you can glean from the back (and no doubt promo work of this book) but it appeals to me because, its a play on the reason London, I city I have a love hate relationship with, its about smart mouthed quick thinking private detectives - I cannot resist a well written gumshoe story, and it has the supernatural which for me basically means anything goes. Put in to this mix some original characters, some fun dialogue and something pretty much going on every page makes this for an addictive read and one I really really enjoyed - so much so that I made sure I have the rest of the nooks (I think there are 12 in the series with a number of them collected as double volume omnibuses)
So if you want something to read which does not make your head hurt and yet has lots of twists and turns this book is a pretty good place to start.
Anyway what to say about this book without giving the story line away - ok all that I say here you can glean from the back (and no doubt promo work of this book) but it appeals to me because, its a play on the reason London, I city I have a love hate relationship with, its about smart mouthed quick thinking private detectives - I cannot resist a well written gumshoe story, and it has the supernatural which for me basically means anything goes. Put in to this mix some original characters, some fun dialogue and something pretty much going on every page makes this for an addictive read and one I really really enjoyed - so much so that I made sure I have the rest of the nooks (I think there are 12 in the series with a number of them collected as double volume omnibuses)
So if you want something to read which does not make your head hurt and yet has lots of twists and turns this book is a pretty good place to start.
April 29, 2015
Imagine Harry Dresden loose in a Neil Gaiman-style world, and you'll have some idea of what's going on in the world of the Nightside.
And "Into the Nightside" introduces us to the first two fantasy-noir adventures of Simon R. Green's strange, creepy other-London. The first book in here starts a little shakily, but once Green finds his footing the story rolls along with a few slow spots, theological fast-and-looses, and the occasional moment that is just too weird for words.
John Taylor fled the Nightside years ago, and set up shop as a PI in London, using his special talent (finding things) to eke out a living. But when wealthy Joanna Barrett hires him to find her teenage daughter, Taylor finds himself leading her into the Nightside, and acquainting her with the terrifying, often gruesome chaos that dwells inside it.
Then they accidentally step into a timeslip, and John finds himself facing a ruined, dead world. Worse, it turns out HE was the one who did it, many years in the past. Tormented by this possible future, John must find the girl who was lured into the Nightside -- and hope that the area doesn't get blown up first.
Amidst strange angel rumors, John Taylor is hired by the Pope's undercover representative, Father Jude. The Vatican wants to hire Taylor to find the Unholy Grail -- the cup that Judas drank from at the Last Supper. Think the One Ring in cup form. So John and Shotgun Suzie prowl through the Nightside, into devil S&M clubs and neo-Nazi halls -- but the angels and demons have landed in the nightside, and will rip it to shreds to find the Grail.
The first half of the first book is basically an introduction to the horrors and wonders of the Nightside. Even if Simon R. Green had no writing ability whatsoever, the world he conjures in the Nightside series would be worth the read -- dripping with darkness, eccentricity and utterly twisted fantasy-noir humor. And boy, is it fun.
But after that, Green's mystery stories get solidly entrenched into a nice noir groove, although it usually takes him awhile to get the plots moving. His writing has a dark, wry snappiness, with plenty of solid dialogue ("Suzie doesn't know the meaning of the word 'fear.' Other concepts she has trouble grasping are 'restraint,' 'mercy,' and 'self-preservation'") and tongue-in-cheek occurrences like the buried ghost of Merlin.
The generically-named John Taylor is a good noir hero too -- he's got a very mysterious past and a lot of people out for his blood. The first book unfolds a devastating possible future, and the following stories give more hints about who his unknown mother is, and how he could be such a threat to the entire world and everyone in it.
Some of the other characters are not quite what they seem, but Taylor bumps into some endearingly bloodthirsty characters (like Razor Eddie and Shotgun Suzie. Guess what they do for fun) and occasionally someone halfway normal like Taylor's teenage secretary.
"Into the Nightside" brings together the first two Nightside books, and takes readers into a grotesquely fascinating world full of everything you don't want to dream about. Despite a few bumps in the road, it's a nice, dark read.
And "Into the Nightside" introduces us to the first two fantasy-noir adventures of Simon R. Green's strange, creepy other-London. The first book in here starts a little shakily, but once Green finds his footing the story rolls along with a few slow spots, theological fast-and-looses, and the occasional moment that is just too weird for words.
John Taylor fled the Nightside years ago, and set up shop as a PI in London, using his special talent (finding things) to eke out a living. But when wealthy Joanna Barrett hires him to find her teenage daughter, Taylor finds himself leading her into the Nightside, and acquainting her with the terrifying, often gruesome chaos that dwells inside it.
Then they accidentally step into a timeslip, and John finds himself facing a ruined, dead world. Worse, it turns out HE was the one who did it, many years in the past. Tormented by this possible future, John must find the girl who was lured into the Nightside -- and hope that the area doesn't get blown up first.
Amidst strange angel rumors, John Taylor is hired by the Pope's undercover representative, Father Jude. The Vatican wants to hire Taylor to find the Unholy Grail -- the cup that Judas drank from at the Last Supper. Think the One Ring in cup form. So John and Shotgun Suzie prowl through the Nightside, into devil S&M clubs and neo-Nazi halls -- but the angels and demons have landed in the nightside, and will rip it to shreds to find the Grail.
The first half of the first book is basically an introduction to the horrors and wonders of the Nightside. Even if Simon R. Green had no writing ability whatsoever, the world he conjures in the Nightside series would be worth the read -- dripping with darkness, eccentricity and utterly twisted fantasy-noir humor. And boy, is it fun.
But after that, Green's mystery stories get solidly entrenched into a nice noir groove, although it usually takes him awhile to get the plots moving. His writing has a dark, wry snappiness, with plenty of solid dialogue ("Suzie doesn't know the meaning of the word 'fear.' Other concepts she has trouble grasping are 'restraint,' 'mercy,' and 'self-preservation'") and tongue-in-cheek occurrences like the buried ghost of Merlin.
The generically-named John Taylor is a good noir hero too -- he's got a very mysterious past and a lot of people out for his blood. The first book unfolds a devastating possible future, and the following stories give more hints about who his unknown mother is, and how he could be such a threat to the entire world and everyone in it.
Some of the other characters are not quite what they seem, but Taylor bumps into some endearingly bloodthirsty characters (like Razor Eddie and Shotgun Suzie. Guess what they do for fun) and occasionally someone halfway normal like Taylor's teenage secretary.
"Into the Nightside" brings together the first two Nightside books, and takes readers into a grotesquely fascinating world full of everything you don't want to dream about. Despite a few bumps in the road, it's a nice, dark read.
November 4, 2024
Both were 3 stars and a bit too episodic for me. Dresden Files still remains the best "detective for the supernatural"-series I've read.
Book 2 explained things as if for the first time. Perhaps the books are not meant to be read in order and you can start where ever you like. It definitely did me no favours reading 2 back to back.
Book 2 explained things as if for the first time. Perhaps the books are not meant to be read in order and you can start where ever you like. It definitely did me no favours reading 2 back to back.
March 8, 2013
Originally published on my blog here in January 2009.
I'm not sure why it is, or exactly when it happened, but the horror genre has changed. Possibly it's the influence of TV programmes like Buffy, which blended horror with other genres and made the scariness less of an integral part of the experience. But there are now lots of these genre crossover books around now, from the really bizarre (say, the chick-lit vampire of MaryJanice Davidson' Betsy series) to this more obvious pairing of hard boiled detective with horror. It is not even unique in choosing that combination, which is also used in the Harry Dresden series by Jim Butcher. In general, these work by taking well known horror ideas (such as vampire lore) and using them more as plot elements than for their frightening qualities. After all, it becomes much harder to be frightening with something as familiar to a modern reader and as frequently satirised as a vampire.
John Taylor is a sleazy private detective with a unique talent: he can find any object. But to do so he must go from the everyday London which holds his office into the Nightside, where his magic becomes a beacon attracting the enemies from which he fled five years earlier. So business is not good. Then a rich beautiful woman asks him to help find her daughter, lost in the Nightside, and he accepts the commission, charging only double his usual rates. Once into the Nightside, the tone changes, and there's much less of the hard boiled detective as the story becomes a more standard fantasy/horror tale, rather like a milder version of Anita Blake in a crossover with Neverwhere.
The Nightside series is not Green's only crossover of this sort; there is also The Man with the Golden Torc, which (as is obvious from the title) blends horror memes with James Bond. This, and the series which follows, is much less serious in tone than the Nightside stories, though both are amusing in places rather than fully satirical. But enjoy one and you'll enjoy the other. They are too good to be considered a guilty pleasure (unlike Anita Blake, which I find contains far too much dull sex), but not quite good enough to be in my novels of the year. Unusually for the fantasy genre today, Green's novels are quite short, which makes them ideal for an hour long train journey - light to carry, and fun to read.
I'm not sure why it is, or exactly when it happened, but the horror genre has changed. Possibly it's the influence of TV programmes like Buffy, which blended horror with other genres and made the scariness less of an integral part of the experience. But there are now lots of these genre crossover books around now, from the really bizarre (say, the chick-lit vampire of MaryJanice Davidson' Betsy series) to this more obvious pairing of hard boiled detective with horror. It is not even unique in choosing that combination, which is also used in the Harry Dresden series by Jim Butcher. In general, these work by taking well known horror ideas (such as vampire lore) and using them more as plot elements than for their frightening qualities. After all, it becomes much harder to be frightening with something as familiar to a modern reader and as frequently satirised as a vampire.
John Taylor is a sleazy private detective with a unique talent: he can find any object. But to do so he must go from the everyday London which holds his office into the Nightside, where his magic becomes a beacon attracting the enemies from which he fled five years earlier. So business is not good. Then a rich beautiful woman asks him to help find her daughter, lost in the Nightside, and he accepts the commission, charging only double his usual rates. Once into the Nightside, the tone changes, and there's much less of the hard boiled detective as the story becomes a more standard fantasy/horror tale, rather like a milder version of Anita Blake in a crossover with Neverwhere.
The Nightside series is not Green's only crossover of this sort; there is also The Man with the Golden Torc, which (as is obvious from the title) blends horror memes with James Bond. This, and the series which follows, is much less serious in tone than the Nightside stories, though both are amusing in places rather than fully satirical. But enjoy one and you'll enjoy the other. They are too good to be considered a guilty pleasure (unlike Anita Blake, which I find contains far too much dull sex), but not quite good enough to be in my novels of the year. Unusually for the fantasy genre today, Green's novels are quite short, which makes them ideal for an hour long train journey - light to carry, and fun to read.
March 17, 2011
(Original post here: http://drying-ink.blogspot.com/2009/0... )
Another of my forays into fantasy detective fiction, Into the Nightside combines a Deux-Ex-Machina magic system with style and flair compelling enough to drive the reader headlong through what remains of this trilogy. Make no mistake about it: Green's command of the language is equalled by very few.
John Taylor is a detective - with a difference. In the Nightside, a world inside a world, where magic and machinery can stand side by side, a world where anything can be bought and sold, and nobody will bat an eyebrow, John Taylor can find anything. Sounds vaguely like a Deux Ex Machina device, doesn't it? And you'd be right. It is. But Green ameliorates this to the extreme - on John's trail, and able to sense the use of his gift, are the Harrowing (and believe me, they are: for the reader), Taylor's enemies for a reason that nobody knows. Or will tell him.
...But Taylor has left the Nightside, until a wealthy businesswoman calls at his London office with a problem. Her daughter has gone. And in his client's hand, the only clue she's got. And it reads NIGHTSIDE. Taylor's past will pull him back into the Nightside with a vengeance - and not all in this straightforward case is as it seems.
I would have enjoyed Into the Nightside for its purely stylistic merit, but Green takes it a step further: the world is entrancing (though has a slight problem with contrast - where everything is magical, powerful, and can cause inevitable cataclysm, nothing really remains to intrigue the reader by contrast). There's only one real flaw in Into the Nightside, and that is that the circumstances used to ameliorate Taylor's Deux-Ex-Machina-type ability on occasion seem just like that - used, and evidently so. But there's also plenty to like, with Green's well-developed characters, larger-that life (and well-so) world, and almost sympathetic, quasi-antihero that is John Taylor. It's well worth the read.
Another of my forays into fantasy detective fiction, Into the Nightside combines a Deux-Ex-Machina magic system with style and flair compelling enough to drive the reader headlong through what remains of this trilogy. Make no mistake about it: Green's command of the language is equalled by very few.
John Taylor is a detective - with a difference. In the Nightside, a world inside a world, where magic and machinery can stand side by side, a world where anything can be bought and sold, and nobody will bat an eyebrow, John Taylor can find anything. Sounds vaguely like a Deux Ex Machina device, doesn't it? And you'd be right. It is. But Green ameliorates this to the extreme - on John's trail, and able to sense the use of his gift, are the Harrowing (and believe me, they are: for the reader), Taylor's enemies for a reason that nobody knows. Or will tell him.
...But Taylor has left the Nightside, until a wealthy businesswoman calls at his London office with a problem. Her daughter has gone. And in his client's hand, the only clue she's got. And it reads NIGHTSIDE. Taylor's past will pull him back into the Nightside with a vengeance - and not all in this straightforward case is as it seems.
I would have enjoyed Into the Nightside for its purely stylistic merit, but Green takes it a step further: the world is entrancing (though has a slight problem with contrast - where everything is magical, powerful, and can cause inevitable cataclysm, nothing really remains to intrigue the reader by contrast). There's only one real flaw in Into the Nightside, and that is that the circumstances used to ameliorate Taylor's Deux-Ex-Machina-type ability on occasion seem just like that - used, and evidently so. But there's also plenty to like, with Green's well-developed characters, larger-that life (and well-so) world, and almost sympathetic, quasi-antihero that is John Taylor. It's well worth the read.
August 19, 2013
I do love Simon R Green!!
This omnibus contains the 1st two books in Green's Nightside series.
The Nightside, where it's always 03.00, dawn never comes and you can find everything you want, good & bad, for a price, abandon all hope ye who enter, keep a tight hold of your soul and count your fingers on the way out.
Meet John Taylor, a private eye with a gift, hiding out in the real London when a damsel in distress lures him back to the Nightside to find her daughter, but all is not as it seems. Fights, magic, ghost cafes, the oldest pub in England and more, with a great host of characters, funny & sad at the same time. I recommend Mr Green's writings to everyone.
This omnibus contains the 1st two books in Green's Nightside series.
The Nightside, where it's always 03.00, dawn never comes and you can find everything you want, good & bad, for a price, abandon all hope ye who enter, keep a tight hold of your soul and count your fingers on the way out.
Meet John Taylor, a private eye with a gift, hiding out in the real London when a damsel in distress lures him back to the Nightside to find her daughter, but all is not as it seems. Fights, magic, ghost cafes, the oldest pub in England and more, with a great host of characters, funny & sad at the same time. I recommend Mr Green's writings to everyone.
March 7, 2010
I was disappointed by the failure of this book (which is actually one of those 2-in-1 editions) to meet its potential. The Nightside is a very cool worldscape, but I wasn't impressed with the hard-boiled-detective main character. I've come across much more interesting versions of this character type.
There are some interesting elements to the stories, but there are also some pretty lame ones. The most interesting plot thread running through these stories is unresolved at the end. I don't think I'll go looking for sequels, though, just to find out what happens.
There are some interesting elements to the stories, but there are also some pretty lame ones. The most interesting plot thread running through these stories is unresolved at the end. I don't think I'll go looking for sequels, though, just to find out what happens.
January 26, 2013
Simon Green is fast becoming my go-to for lightweight pick-me-up reading.
Love the Secret Histories with Edwin Drood, and this is written in the same accessible style.
Love the premise of a man who can find anything with his gift, even another persons weakness.
The little throwaways to geek culture are all nice too. In Agents of Light and Darkness, I particularly liked the create labelled Antarctic Expedition 1936: Do not open till the Elder Ones return.
All in all a fun read, and I will be reading more of them.
Love the Secret Histories with Edwin Drood, and this is written in the same accessible style.
Love the premise of a man who can find anything with his gift, even another persons weakness.
The little throwaways to geek culture are all nice too. In Agents of Light and Darkness, I particularly liked the create labelled Antarctic Expedition 1936: Do not open till the Elder Ones return.
All in all a fun read, and I will be reading more of them.
September 3, 2012
The first book is terrible. A UK writer trying to write a trashy American crime type thriller set in parallel universe to London. Badly written, completely unbelievable with terrible characterisation and a lame twist at the end. Ugh!
The second book is as bad as the first. I really can't think of any redeeming qualities to it at all. Avoid!
The second book is as bad as the first. I really can't think of any redeeming qualities to it at all. Avoid!
Want to read
August 8, 2009Omnibus of books 1 & 2 of "Nightside" series.
Something from the Nightside (Book 1)
Agents of Light and Darkness (Book 2)
Something from the Nightside (Book 1)
Agents of Light and Darkness (Book 2)
January 17, 2011
i quite enjoyed the first two books in this series and hope to get more :D
Here's my review
http://croftfantasyreads.blogspot.com...
Here's my review
http://croftfantasyreads.blogspot.com...
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