Deathstalker by Simon R. Green

The galactic empire is ruled by a brutal empress, a woman who terrorizes both the peasants and nobles who bow down to her. She’s the kind of ruler who decorates her palace with the tortured bodies of her dead enemies. Or she brainwashes them, augments their bodies and, as she sits on her Iron Throne, requires them to sit naked at her feet and protect her. Or, if she’s feeling merciful, she summons them to her throne room and, when they board her personal subway car to make the journey, has them gassed. They call her The Iron Bitch. She’s really mean.

One of her most recent targets is Owen Deathstalker, a quiet and studious young man who is the last “Deathstalker,” a lineage with a genetic gift that allows them to turn on a power “boost” when fighting an enemy. Owen wants to be a historian, not a rebel like his father, but the empress doesn’t like what he’s studying. When she strips ... Read More

Deathstalker: Rebellion by Simon R. Green

This review may contain spoilers for the first DEATHSTALKER book, Deathstalker.

Owen Deathstalker, Hazel d’Ark, Ruby Journey, Jack Random, and assorted others are still plotting rebellion against The Iron Bitch who rules the galactic empire. Everyone in this motley group has a different idea about how a galactic government should work, but they all agree that their empress must go, so they begin by hacking into the empire’s bank account and using the funds to instigate rebellions on a few different planets.

Nobody likes the empress, but she still has loyal supporters who protect her. These people are either too scared to cross her, or they are benefiting financially from their relationship with her. Also, there’s been a recent and credible threat of an alien inv... Read More

Deathstalker: War by Simon R. Green

This review may contain spoilers for the first two DEATHSTALKER books, Deathstalker and Deathstalker: Rebellion.

I’m going to have to give up on DEATHSTALKER, which I feel bad about since Tantor Audio sent me the first four books. The first one was okay but they’ve gone downhill since then and are, most egregiously, much too similar to Simon R. Green’s NIGHTSIDE series.

In Deathstalker: War (1997) the rebellion continues. Our heroes are still working to unseat the empress by fomenting rebellion on multiple planets. With a... Read More

Drinking Midnight Wine by Simon R. Green

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 where that s... Read More

Something From the Nightside by Simon R. Green

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 vio... Read More

Agents of Light and Darkness by Simon R. Green

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 Read More

Nightingale’s Lament by Simon R. Green

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 ... Read More

Hex and the City by Simon R. Green

Hex and the City is the fourth novel in Simon R. Green’s NIGHTSIDE series. I’ve been listening to  NIGHTSIDE on audio lately  because I’ve been doing a lot of home improvements, especially painting, and NIGHTSIDE is such an easy read that I don’t ever have to stop and rewind, which is something you don’t want to do when you’ve got paint all over your hands. Audio readers know what I mean.

In Hex and the City, John Taylor is moving on to his next case in the seedy and decadent Nightside where it’s always 3 AM. This time Lady Luck has hired him to discover the origins of the Nightside, something Taylor wanted to do anyway. During his investigation he meets some people/creatures who were fundamentally involved in the establishment of the Nightside. He begins to confirm his suspicion that his own mother, whom he doesn’t even remember, is someone ... Read More

Paths Not Taken by Simon R. Green

Warning: Contains spoilers for previous NIGHTSIDE books. If you haven’t read them, please start at the beginning with Something from the Nightside. Otherwise you’ll be lost.

Paths Not Taken is the fifth book in Simon R. Green’s NIGHTSIDE series. In the previous installment, Hex and the City, John Taylor investigated the origins of the Nightside and discovered that Lilith, his own mother, was its creator. Now, in Paths Not Taken, John and Suzie Shooter travel back in time to discover why and how Lilith created the Nightside. That might help them figure out why she now wants to destroy it and how they might be able to stop her.

The best part of Paths Not Taken, as usual, is the setting. This time it’s fun to learn what the Nightside was like throughout history, not just by being told, but by actually going... Read More

Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth by Simon R. Green

In Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth, the sixth novel in Simon R. Green’s NIGHTSIDE series, John Taylor and Suzie Shooter have just returned from the past where they discovered the origin of John’s mother, Lilith, and witnessed the birth of the Nightside. Now that they’re back in the present, they are determined to stop Lilith from destroying what she created and remaking the Nightside in her own image.

First they must rescue John’s secretary, Cathy, who has been kidnapped. Then John wants to raise an army that they hope can stop Lilith, but he’s haunted by visions of a future where he has destroyed the Nightside and his friends, so he decides to travel forward in time to get some answers. Perhaps if he knows the future, he can change it.

Besides the future, the other interesting places John visits include the cellar of Strangefellows, Rotten Row, ... Read More

Hell to Pay by Simon R. Green

Hell to Pay, the seventh novel in Simon R. Green’s NIGHTSIDE series, takes a turn in tone. For the past few installments John Taylor has been dealing with his mother, Lilith, who brought an epic war to the Nightside. Now the war is over and there’s a power vacuum. Jeremiah Griffin, a rich powerful immortal man, plans to fill the void. During his machinations, though, his granddaughter disappears, having apparently been kidnapped. Griffin needs John Taylor, the man who can find anything, to get her back. This is normally an easy thing for Taylor to do, but something seems to be blocking his power. Now John has to do his job the hard way — by pounding the streets and looking for clues. That isn’t easy, but it is interesting, because Griffin’s family, who are all suspects, have a lot of secrets to hide.

Fans of the NIGHTSIDE series (who, I guess, are the only ones who would actu... Read More

The Unnatural Inquirer by Simon R. Green

John Taylor has been hired by The Unnatural Inquirer, the gossip magazine of the Nightside, to find a stolen DVD that allegedly contains a recording of a transmission from the afterlife. His investigation will take him all over the Nightside where we’ll encounter old and new friends (and enemies).

The Unnatural Inquirer is the eighth book in Simon R. Green’s NIGHTSIDE series. If you’ve read all the previous books, you know what to expect here and, depending on your tastes, that’s either a good or a bad thing. If you just want to hang out with John Taylor and his friends in the Nightside, The Unnatural Inquirer will probably please you. It’s got everything we expect from a NIGHTSIDE book — a fast-moving romp through a decadent parallel world with some of the strangest people and creatures you’ll ever meet.

Unfortunately, as I�... Read More

Just Another Judgement Day by Simon R. Green

If Simon R. Green can get away with recycling his NIGHTSIDE stories and presenting them as new ones, I should be able to get away with recycling my reviews of them. So, here is my review of Just Another Judgement Day which is a copied and pasted and only slightly altered review of the previous novel, The Unnatural Inquirer:

John Taylor has been hired by The Unnatural Inquirer, the gossip magazine of the Nightside, THE AUTHORITIES to find a stolen DVD that allegedly contains a recording of a transmission from the afterlife KILL SOMEONE. His investigation will take him all over the Nightside where we’ll encounter old and new friends (and enemies).

Read More

The Good, the Bad, and the Uncanny by Simon R. Green

I just don't even want to spend the effort to write a real review of this book. The NIGHTSIDE series, which started out so well, has become a joke. With each recent installment, Green repeats the same formula used before. Even the same words! For details, please see my reviews of the previous two novels, The Unnatural Inquirer and Just Another Judgement Day. Honestly, I wouldn't have even picked up The Good, the Bad, and the Uncanny if I hadn't already purchased it (and the rest of the novels) when it was on sale at Audible. That'll teach me. The audio production and narration by Marc Vietor is excellent, though. Read More

The Bride Wore Black Leather by Simon R. Green

The Bride Wore Black Leather starts off with John Taylor walking along Nightside’s streets on the way to his office, a place he rarely goes. At first I thought that Simon R. Green was taking his time because this is the reportedly the final NIGHTSIDE novel. As the chapter progressed, though, I realized that John Taylor the character was saying farewell, as he leaves behind one aspect of his life and moves into unfamiliar ones, first as Nightside’s new Walker, or agent of the shadowy Authorities who run the place, and secondly as a husband and father. Nightside, where it’s always three a.m., where dimensions, realities and timelines intersect and collide, where for a price you can have your heart’s desire or your worst nightmare and they are often the same thing, will never be the same for John after tonight.

... Read More

The Monster's Corner: Stories Through Inhuman Eyes edited by Christopher Golden

FORMAT/INFO: The Monster’s Corner is 400 pages long and consists of 19 short stories. Also included is an Introduction by the editor Christopher Golden, and biographies of all of the anthology’s contributors. September 27, 2011 marks the North American Trade Paperback publication of The Monster’s Corner via St. Martin’s Griffin. The UK version will be published on the same day via Piatkus Books.

ANALYSIS: The New Dead was one of my favorite books of 2010, so when it was announced that Christopher Golden was putting together another horror-themed anthology, I couldn’t wait. Like The New Dead, Read More

Oz Reimagined edited by John Joseph Adams

Oz Reimagined is a collection of tales whose characters return as often, if not more often, to the "idea" of Oz as opposed to the actual Oz many of us read about as kids (or adults) and even more of us saw in the famed MGM version of the film. As its editors, John Joseph Adams and Douglas Cohen, say in their introduction: "You might not even find yourself in Oz, though in spirit, all these stories take place in Oz, regardless of their actual location." And actually, I personally found my favorites in here mostly to be those stories that did not hew too closely with Baum's characters or plots, but instead took the characters and skewed them, or sent them down a different path than the yellow-bricked one. Though as is often the case with anthologies, I found the collection as a whole a mixed bag, its stories evoking reactions varying from distaste to "meh" to "interesting" to "now that was cool."
... Read More

Magic City: Recent Spells edited by Paula Guran

Things you should know:
1. This is a reprint anthology. If you read a lot of anthologies in the field, you will probably have read some of these before. I had read three, though two of them were among the best ones, and I enjoyed reading them again.
2. It still has some worthwhile stuff in it, especially if you're a fan of the big names in urban fantasy (Jim Butcher, Carrie Vaughn, Patricia Briggs) and haven't read these stories before.
3. It isn't just "urban fantasy" by the usual definition (our contemporary world plus the supernatural). There's a sword-and-sorcery story from Scott Lynch, an... Read More