Agents of Light and Darkness, The Nightside bk 2, Simon R. Green

Like film noir? Well, how about neon noir? This is the world of the Nightside. The dark reflection of London. Where all your dreams and desires, virtues and vice, damnation and enlightenment can be found, for a price. This is also where PI, of a sort, John Taylor has been recently called back to. Taylor isn't like the PI's you're used to, he's only good at one thing...finding anything...especially if those things don't wish to be found. He uses his third eye, his private eye to see things that others can't or have the good sense not to look for. It's the one useful gift he got from his mother.

The mother that he's never known anything about except that when his father found out she wasn't human, he killed himself by inches with a bottle. The mother that he's been told that if he goes looking for her could bring about the ruination of the world. Not just the Nightside, but the entire world.

Agents of Light and Darkness (Nightside, Book 2) begins in a church of all places. Not that places of worship are that hard to find in the Nightside. Just stroll down The Street of the Gods and you can't swing a dead cat without hitting one. This church however is nowhere near there probably because it's the only church in the Nightside. This church is older then the Street of the Gods, older then the Time Tower, even older then Strangefellows, the oldest pub in the world. The church is St. Jude's even older than Christianity itself. Dedicated to the patron saint of lost causes, and if there was ever a more fitting saint for the Nightside no one's thought them up yet.

This time Taylor's PI, white knight persona is going to send him on a quest. A grail quest to be exact. Oh no, sorry, not that one. Not the one that Christ drank from at the last supper. The un-holy grail. The cup used by Judas Iscariot which can bring ultimate power with the only cost being ultimate damnation. It seems that if this cup is found by the wrong players a little something called Armageddon will happen. Taylor is commissioned by the Vatican itself, and he figures, "How hard could it be?"

Hard. Quite a number of angels are in search of the cup. From both sides of Light and Dark. The only thing they have in common is their equal disdain for humans. Add to the fact that Taylor can't use his gift without said angels swooping in and and trying to kill him, he reckons some help is needed.

He calls on Suzie Shooter, also known as Shotgun Suzie, and Oh God It's Her Run! As well as Razor Eddie, Punk God of the Straight Razor. With a little help from Alex Morrissey, descendant of Uther Pendragon (On the wrong side of the sheets) and Merlin Satanspawn who is buried in the cellar of the pub Alex owns, Strangefellows.

Oh, and there's also the Speaking Gun. The only weapon ever made that can harm angels.

With dark humour and deft writing Green begins to show the larger story he's telling here. The secondary characters begin to get a back story and the tale of who is John Taylor's mother unfolds. This is a wonderful second novel in the series, and brings us firmly back to the Nightside. Where the laws of physics not to mention reality aren't laws so much as suggestions.

Welcome back.

Agents of Light and Darkness (Nightside, Book 2) receives a rating of Excellent, 3.5 Star out of 4

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Something From the Nightside - The Nightside, Book 1 - Simon R. Green

John Taylor (No, not the bassist for Duran Duran) is a down on his luck private eye. Well, a private eye of a sort. By the his own admission, he wouldn't know a clue if he tripped over one. He doesn't do divorces, insurance work or solve crimes. His knack is the ability to find anyone or anything...for the right price. He's been called a warlock and a magus, a con man and a trickster, and an honest rogue. Clients come to him only when they've exhausted the police and every other investigative agency.

Something from the Nightside (Nightside, Book 1) begins when the very rich, Joanna Barrett walks into his office with a case, to find her missing daughter, Catherine. One of the investigators she hired previously, the same who supplied Taylor's name, says that she can be found in the one place Taylor vowed he'd never go again. The Nightside.

The Nightside is the hidden dark heart of London. The official maps say the Nightside is only a square mile of narrow streets and back alleys. The truth of the matter is that the Nightside is the dark reflection of London and is quite a bit bigger. Holding all of the darkness and evil, the strange and unexpected, it dwarfs London proper. Coupled with those facts and that it's always three AM there, the Nightside is an apropos name on many levels.

Green begins his Nightside series here. Pushing his protagonist (hero isn't quite the word for John Taylor) back to the city of darkness that he grew up in and left to have a normal life. Well, that reason and the numerous assassination attempts upon his person. The majority of the denizens of the Nightside want him dead or worse, and always remember there are much worse things that can happen to you besides just dying there. He remembers that in that dark place you can buy or sell anything for the right price. Those memories course through his own nightmares still. Want to see a fallen angel burning inside of a pentacle of baby's blood? Perhaps a goat's head telling your future in iambic pentameter? How about a dead nun who will show you her stigmata wounds (if you have enough money you can even stick your finger in the holes)? Everything ever feared or dreamed in your darkest nightmares resides here.

Simon Green brings a wholly dark, terrifying and wonderful world to life in Something from the Nightside (Nightside, Book 1). The cast of characters are fully fleshed out and as real as they can be. You'll find yourself falling in love with the darkness that pervades here. It all begins here. Against all your better judgment you'll find yourself not wanting to leave and needing to know what happens next.

This is the first in the Nightside series, and consider yourself lucky that there are 8 more for you to read when it ends. Green's Nightside series begs for a movie version or perhaps a trade paperback. One might even go so far as to say they're Taylor made.

All of your nightmares live here, and they want you back.

Something from the Nightside (Nightside, Book 1) receives an Excellent rating, 3.5 out of 4 Stars but only because this is just the beginning of the tale.