Something from the Nightside

Rating:
Summary: Grim Nightside
Review: If you're hoping to read something similar to Jim Butcher's "Dresden Files" series, stay away from this Nightside! I was hoping there would be a pervading sense of humor (or "humour" for our British friends) in this book. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Everything in "Something From the Nightside" is grim and humorless. Many of the events in this book make no sense at all; and too often Mr. Green uses the literary shortcut of telling us that things are so-o-o frightening in the Nightside that it's better if you don't know about them. Frankly, nothing in this book was chilling in the least. One group that was supposed to instill such fear that one would wet oneself was The Harrowing. Faceless creatures that caused our hero to get weak in the knees. Okay... (I should've bailed out at this point, but I kept thinking it would get better.) The climax of the story was sheer drudgery to slog through. And, oh yes, the characters are barely two-dimensional, which makes caring about them pretty difficult. Needless to say, this reader will not be taking another trip to the Nightside (where I understand nothing is as it seems... ).

Rating:
Summary: You are entering the Nightside - try not to stare
Review: In Something From the Nightside, Simon R. Green takes us on the initial exploration of a fascinating hidden world located far below the civilized streets of London. In the Nightside, it is always 3 AM; people (and other things) come from all kinds of worlds (including fictional ones) and times to indulge in the secret and oftentimes perverse pleasures they can never pursue in their own worlds; and anything and everything is possible - the sight of a fallen angel burning eternally in a blood-sealed circle qualifies as a mundane sight. Native Nightsiders all possess a gift of some sort - oftentimes a deadly one. It's a dangerous place, which is exactly why John Taylor left it five years ago. Now ensconced in the real world of London, he is a private detective of the film noir sort. When a rich dame comes seeking his help in finding her lost daughter, though, he finds himself returning to the secret world he vowed never to set foot in again. John Taylor's natural-born gift is an uncanny power to find things, especially within the confines of the Nightside. If anyone can find the missing girl, he can - whether he can survive long enough to do it, is a completely different matter.

Despite his misgivings, the journey back feels like going home. Little has changed in the Nightside. At Sidefellows bar, Alex Morrisey is still tending the bar (but of course, he is cursed to always remain there); Razor Eddie, Punk God of the Straight Razor and Nightside's most proficient eternal killer, is still coming in for free drinks; Suzie Shooter is still around to shoot first and ask questions later; and young punks still have no better sense than to challenge John Taylor's powers. Taylor's gift can be deadly, and he is soon given the opportunity to prove that five years away have not lessened his powers. The secret of Taylor's childhood and mysterious destiny are fleshed out as the story progresses, but the one thing Taylor has been unable to find is the meaning and significance obviously attached to his life - although he's pretty sure it has something to do with his non-human mother who disappeared after he was born. Some unknown but very powerful someone (or something) has been trying to kill him ever since he was a kid, and the blank-faced, pseudo-beings called The Harrowing soon appear to claim their long-stalked prey. They are just one of several deadly problems Taylor encounters on his mission to find the missing young girl.

The actual climax of the story is a little less satisfying than what comes before, but that's about the only small weakness in this action-packed, fast-paced novel. Green proves himself a master of sly, dark humor in these pages, mixing a sharp wit with sociopolitical satire and plenty of campy hard-boiled detective adventure to create a portal to a wondrously enigmatic world where anything can happen and usually does. While the search for the missing girl remains the center of the novel, the story really shifts to that of the mysterious John Taylor himself, as we learn about his past and - thanks to a Timeslip phenomenon - a cataclysmic future he will supposedly bring about. Messiah-like references to him by the likes of the Brittle Sisters of the Hive raise intriguing questions, questions John Taylor wishes he knew the answers to himself.

The prolific Simon R. Green has created other worlds of great fascination in the fields of science fiction and fantasy, but the Nightside may be his most memorable creation, as it truly takes on a unique life of its own. Something From the Nightside leaves many a door open for Green to continue his dark and highly entertaining jaunts into this fascinating world, and the intriguingly complex life of John Taylor is guaranteed to bring delighted readers along for the ride as long as it lasts - especially if it takes us to more places where plague rats travel in pairs because they are afraid to venture out alone.

Rating:
Summary: fascinating extraordinary world
Review: It's a place where the sun doesn't shine, a locale where past, present and future converge at times. It is where one' darkest dreams and desires are met, a place not of this earth but connected to it so that people travel to and from it. John Taylor lived his entire life in the Nightside, abandoned by his father when he discovered the woman he married wasn't human. John has a gift of being able to locate anyone anywhere and he used that extra sense to help people.

He finally got sick of lies, betrayals and mistrust of those who would turn from friend to foe in the blink of an eye. He left the Darkside and set up shop as a private detective in mundane London and for five years etched out a living, safe and secure. One day Joanna Barrett comes to his office asking for help in locating her runaway daughter in the Darkside. Unable to refuse a damsel in distress, John travels to the Darkside, a place he's secretly happy to have a reason to return to because it is home and so very much alive.

Cross the X files with The Twilight Zone, add a pinch of The Outer Limits and a dash of Eerie, Indiana and one might have a glimmer of an idea what the Darkside is like. Simon R. Green has written this fascinating little gem that makes people want to walk on the wild and visit his extraordinary world. For though it is the focus of darkness, the Nightside has packets of goodness, which means that those who want to can defeat evil anywhere.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: I want sequels from the Nightside
Review: John Taylor is a Private Investigator. He works out of a run-down section of London. One day a beautiful woman walks into his office to hire him to find her runaway daughter. That's what John does; he finds things. He has a real talent for it.

John is being hired because other sources have said he is the one who could find the daughter. She might be in a place called the Nightside, a strange area of London where it is always 3AM and those you run into may not be completely human.

John fled the Nightside five years earlier and only a very large check has made him agree to go back.

As the investigation moves to the Nightside, we learn that there is more to John than we may know. A lot of tough things and people are really very scared of him.

The investigation progresses and we see a very interesting new world where the rules are different. John cannot locate the daughter right away, something very powerful seems to be blocking his power.

On the other hand, we find out that John is the son of a man and a strange woman who was not entirely human. She disappeared when he was young and the father committed suicide when he discovered what she was. But John is in the dark as to who she was. His talent for locating things is his only clue.

The investigation culminates in an unpredictable and satisfying way. But while the investigation is over, there are still plenty of hints that there will be future sequels. I for one look forward to them.

Rating:
Summary: just a little bit like Douglous Adams
Review: Ok, it is more grounded. I truly think Adams fans would enjoy this though I think it would be an overstatement to say the reverse....

This is a compact little masterpiece of a book (and that is coming from someone who usually complains about flaws in the writters craft). Brilliant!

It is really funny and filled with solidly 100 lines that could be used as a basis for other books! A must read....

Rating:
Summary: Nothing is ever what it seems
Review: Old-school private detective and finder of lost things, John Taylor, is a product of the Nightside. A square mile of Hell hidden in the middle of London, Nightside, is full of magic, misfits, and mystery and is a place Taylor has sworn he'd never return. But then, like in all private eye stories, a beautiful woman steps into the picture and changes Taylor's mind.

Joanna Barrett is a rich business woman and a single mother whose daughter has runaway to the Nightside. She needs Taylor's help and is willing to pay, but the one catch is she insists on going in with him. As the two of them search for her daughter, Taylor's old enemies come out of the shadows and his old friends try to show him the light.

The one rule of surviving in the Nightside - Nothing is ever what it seems.

Simon R. Green's "Something from the Nightside" reads like an old pulp detective novel set in the Twilight Zone. Fast paced and full of surprises, I found the book to be wonderfully entertaining. A great cast of characters - John Taylor the offspring of a drunken father and a not quite human mother, Shotgun Suzie, a bounty hunter who likes to blow her way out of every situation, and Razor Eddie, a ruthless killer who works for the side of good and can't be killed. If you enjoy the macabre and the bizarre with a little pulp thrown in for good taste, you'll love "Something from the Nightside".

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Summary: The Nightside is where monsters and myths come alive
Review: Something From The Nightside by Simon Green will delight fans of detective novels and alternate universe science fiction who are seeking something a little different to read. John Taylor is an expert on finding lost things - thanks to his alternate reality experiences in the Nightside. A runaway teen daughter seems like a simple case for his talents - until he discovers she's run away to the Nightside, where monsters and myths come alive - and where Taylor must return home to win his case.

Rating:
Summary: A Compelling Tale
Review: Something From the Nightside is a fantasy detective story. It is a pastiche of the Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe and Lew Archer style and is both a satire and a tribute to the genre. The detective lives in his cramped office in a seedy London neighborhood, with a lawyer's office on one side and a dentist's on the other. The door has a frosted glass window with flaking sign, marking "Taylor Investigations", and a bullethole. On a very wet and dark evening, the investigator is listening to an angry creditor on the phone when a good looking dame comes in to hire him.

In this novel, John Taylor is a finder. He doesn't do insurance work, divorces, or solve crime, but he can find anything. It is just one of his talents. Moreover, he is from the Nightside and there he has a third, Private, eye.

Joanna Barrett hires John Taylor to find her daughter. Joanna has already been to the police and the big agencies, to no avail. Now she has come to Taylor as the result of a tip saying that only he could find Catherine in the Nightside. For 50,000 pounds up front and another 50,000 if she is returned, Taylor agrees to find Catherine. However, Joanna has one condition: she is to go along on the hunt.

Taylor begins by entering the Underground; all this is new to Joanna, so he buys the tickets and shows her how to use them to get into the station. Once in, he follows his instincts til he finds a sign in Enochian, an artificial language developed to talk to angels, that points the way to a maintenance closet, where he picks up a phone and says "Nightside". The wall then opens into a tunnel leading to the Nightside of the station, where they catch a train.

At this point, it has become obvious that John Taylor is very well known in the Nightside and not much liked by the majority of the population. However, he is feared; in his words, "I could have been a contender". Enough so that the lowlifes recognize him and back off from confrontations.

This novel is linked to Shadows Fall through internal reference and to the author's other urban fantasy, Drinking Midnight Wine, through its similarities in setting and ambience. However, this one seems to be somewhat of an experiment in the classic American detective style.

... The action in this story will probably fulfill their expectations in that regard, although the main character is still nicely developed. The other characters are only minimally fleshed out, yet much more than cardboard.

Recommended for Green fans and anyone else who enjoys detective stories within an urban fantasy.

Rating:
Summary: John Taylor found me!!! . . . Read it, you'll understand
Review: Something from the Nightside is a wonderfully written fantasy under the guise of a private detective mystery. If you only read the first few pages, you're doing a disservice to yourself. It isn't until John Taylor ventures into the Nightside that we actually experience the true genius of Simon R. Green.

This was my first exposure to the work of Green. I picked this book up after reading a referral from Jim Butcher, author of the Dresden Files. What's funny though is I only read Butcher because of a referral from Tanya Huff, one of my favorite authors. So, ultimately, Huff led me to Green. Funny how these things work sometimes.

Back to the story. Taylor has an unnatural ability to find things, including people. This is what led him to his current profession of private detective. In walks Joanna Barrett. She's looking for her daughter and has exhausted all her leads. She turns to Taylor as her last hope. The only thing that Joanna knows about her daughter's disappearance is that she's ventured into the Nightside. Joanna doesn't know what this is, but Taylor does. He left there 5 years earlier and vowed never to return. He's strapped for cash though, and Joanna seems to be his only prayer. So together, they journey into the Nightside.
And so begins the story.
Green is a very talented author that has mastered the art of creating believable characters and painting a magical scene. This novel incorporates suspense, humor, fantasy, horror and romance, and it does it well. The Nightside is a magical creation and hopefully we will see many more novels in this series.
I eagerly await the next novel, Agents of Light and Darkness.

Rating:
Summary: Didn't like it...
Review: The premise of this series seemed interesting at first. However, I was unable to get into it and, although this novel is only 230 pages long, it felt endless to me. John Taylor is a detective who specializes in finding lost things. He can find just about anything. That is because John was born in a place called the Nightside -- the dark, secretive, preternatural part of London. John had escaped the Nightside and has lived a fairly normal life since then. But when a rich woman asks to find her missing daughter, John is faced with the dilemma of returning to the Nightside. John does not want to revisit his old home, but Joanna has what he needs -- money. Business has been rather slow and fifty-thousand pounds could sort out a lot of problems. Now John must return to the place where your living nightmares come true...

The problem I had with this novel is that the writing is too plain -- the characters are underdeveloped and John's narrative style is wooden at best. Also, the Nightside seemed a little too benign to me at times. With the exception of the last few chapters, the Nightside came across as a ghetto more than a place where monsters prowl the streets. To make matters worse, this novel has zero humor. I want fantasy novels to have some humor and for things to seem normal in a rather bizarre world. Simon R. Green fails to do that. The premise is quite similar to Jim Butcher's Dresden Files, but the execution is not only different, but not as good as Butcher's dark and witty series. I have the second book of this series and I shall give it a second chance. I just hope that it is better than this one.