This is the first book I’ve reviewed in Simon Green’s Nightside series and, in fact, the first book I’ve read by Mr. Green. I was totally blown away as it was one of the best dark fantasies I’ve read in quite a long time. This great book has elements of dark fantasy, horror, sci-fi, mixed with a little mystery and a generous sprinkling of humor. Now, that may sound like the book wants to be all things to all people but the elements work very well.
The Nightside is a kind of alternate world buried deep in the heart of London. It is a place much bigger that the supposed one square mile it rests on. It’s always 3 am in Nightside. That’s how the denizens like it. In the Nightside everyday people mix with creatures of myth and legend. Vampires, ghosts, ghouls, sorcerers, demons, and things far more terrible can be found living in Nightside. There are many unique being in the Nightside such as Jennifer Sorrow, Razor Eddie, The Collector and others. Watching over the Nightside is the Authorities, mysterious beings of great power that police…loosely…the Nightside.
John Taylor is one of them; a private investigator that has a special gift for finding things. John can find virtually anything or anyone with a magical/psychic talent. Jack is contracted by the Vatican itself to retrieve a powerful artifact–The Unholy Grail–the cup that Judas drank from at the Last Supper…an artifact so evil and powerful that it could bring Armageddon to the world. But The Vatican is not the only ones searching for the grail. All the great powers in the Nightside want it.
Add to all of these great powers who want the Grail, so does Heaven and Hell. They both send legions of angels and demons into the Nightside which even the Authorities cannot stand up against. Without much subtlety the angels begin killing anyone who dares get in their path. John Taylor’s unique power makes the angels aware of his presence and makes him vulnerable; he decides to use old-fashioned footwork to find the grail, enlisting the aid of Shotgun Suzie to help. John and Suzie quickly find themselves caught squarely in the middle of a battle between all of Nightside’s great powers along with Angels from above and below. And just under the surface of all this is the mystery of Jack’s mother who NO ONE wants to talk about and the only thing that causes Jack to be unable to control his emotions over.
This is just a terrific book. Green creates some of the most fascinating creatures of power you’ll ever meet. Razor Eddie is a skinny, pale, smelling of death power who uses an ivory handled razor to dispatch anyone in his way. Then there is Alex Morrissey, owner of Strangefellows, the oldest bar in the world whose ancestor is the Great mage Merlin.
Witty and darkly humorous, with doses of dialog brimming with sarcasm, Green creates fantastic, more-than-human characters who have distinctly human frailties. In Nightside, he’s manifested a wonderful yet terrible place that you’d want to visit but never want to live there.
– TIm Janson
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
