Rating: 
Summary: And you thought there was only one Grail
Review: "Agents of Light and Darkness" is another excursion into dark fantasy by Simon Green. It's the second volume in the ongoing story of John Taylor--PI, finder extraordinaire, and denizen of the Nightside. This time, Taylor's job is to find the Unholy Grail (hey, it's the Nightside--no way would it be the Holy Grail) before it can fall into the wrong hands. But his client is not the only one in search of the mysterious and powerful object. Angels of both sides are also looking, and that's not a good thing.
Alternately funny and macabre, the book begins quickly and continues the action at a brisk pace throughout. The same cast of characters are there as in the first Nightside book--Shotgun Suzie Shooter, Razor Eddie, Alix at Stringfellows, and The Collector, plus a few new ones. Although Green is not doing a character study here., we do get a little insight into Suzie, plus a few more tantalizing hints about Taylor's past. My only complaint is that I wish Green had made more use of Taylor's secretary, who strikes me as having both a mind of her own and great potential.
The bottom line is that "Agents of Light and Darkness" is a quick, fun read. If you liked "Something from the Nightside, " you'll probably like this one too.
Rating: 
Summary: Taylor. John Taylor. ;D (spoiler alert!)
Review: *rubs hands together in glee* ok, let's get down to business, shall we? i didn't think green could top 'Something From The Nightside,' but i was wrong. Agents Of Light And Darkness is an edgy mix of noir and fantasy that's so engaging that when you get to the final sentence you want to yell, "no! more, more!" the character suzy shooter is fleshed out in appealingly gritty and straightforward style in the midst of a war between...well, the agents of light and darkness, duh. we watch as taylor's reputation preceeds (and exceeds) him, get treated to some of the less tangible aspects of his powers, and meet some of the Nightside's usual suspects, such as Merlin Satanspawn and Jessica Sorrow the Unbeliever, as John quests for the Unholy Grail, finally finding it in the Collector's collection on the moon, guarded by feline fembots (of course! how obvious! why didn't he think of that before?). but the show's not over till the fat lady sings-taylor still has to figure out who, exactly, he should hand the unholy grail over to...when the angels from Above and Below haven't exactly impressed him with their brilliance. and then there's the client, 'jude,' to consider, because the client is always right...and you might be surprised to know, it was his to begin with. to top it off, suzy shooter meets her match-the speaking gun-and we are given yet another tantalizing hint about taylor's mother, the only person he knows who must be scarier than he is. buy it, read it, share it with your friends and family and strangers you meet on the street...well, don't go that far. Then while you're waiting for the next adventure, try P.N. Elrod's The Vampire Files.
Rating:
Summary: Taylor. John Taylor. ;D (spoiler alert!)
Review: *rubs hands together in glee* ok, let's get down to business, shall we? i didn't think green could top 'Something From The Nightside,' but i was wrong. Agents Of Light And Darkness is an edgy mix of noir and fantasy that's so engaging that when you get to the final sentence you want to yell, "no! more, more!" the character suzy shooter is fleshed out in appealingly gritty and straightforward style in the midst of a war between...well, the agents of light and darkness, duh. we watch as taylor's reputation preceeds (and exceeds) him, get treated to some of the less tangible aspects of his powers, and meet some of the Nightside's usual suspects, such as Merlin Satanspawn and Jessica Sorrow the Unbeliever, as John quests for the Holy Grail, finally finding it in the Collector's collection on the moon, guarded by feline fembots (of course! how obvious! why didn't he think of that before?). but the show's not over till the fat lady sings-taylor still has to figure out who, exactly, he should hand the unholy grail over to...when the angels from Above and Below haven't exactly impressed him with their brilliance. and then there's the client, 'jude,' to consider, because the client is always right...and you might be surprised to know, it was his to begin with. to top it off, suzy shooter meets her match-the speaking gun-and we are given yet another tantalizing hint about taylor's mother, the only person he knows who must be scarier than he is. buy it, read it, share it with your friends and family and strangers you meet on the street...well, don't go that far. Then while you're waiting for the next adventure, try P.N. Elrod's The Vampire Files.
Rating:
Summary: Forget your cherubic little charming angels...
Review: ...these angels are vengeful and dangerous. They've come from Above and Below, invading the Nightside, looking for the Unholy Grail--the cup from which Judas drank at the Last Supper.John Taylor, private eye extraordinaire--who can find anything at all--is hired to find the Grail. The catch: the angels are looking for anyone with any connection to the holy cup, and are willing to do whatever it takes to get information from them. And yes, there really are things worse than death... Taylor is joined by an incredbile ensemble of charactors, including: Shotgun Suzie, a woman whom you really DON'T want to meet in a dark ally at night; Razor Eddie, Punk God of the Straight Razor; Belle, a deadly, genuine woman--more or less; the Fourth Reich, consisting of a couple dozen (...); the Demon Lordz, a clan of extremely minor demons; the Collector, who has a warehouse full of objects from the past and future; Merlin Satanspawn, the infamous wizard, long deceased; and many, many other. This is, if I am correct, Simon R. Green's second forray into the Nightside--a seedy hidden section of London, where it's always three a.m., and at least a couple inhabitants are human. The Nightside novels combine sci-fi, horror, mystery, and superb detective fiction into compact but fast-paced reading. They are perfect for a summer day, lounging about; or on a dark night--they'll keep you up better than x amounts of coffee. John Taylor is a classic character, combing traits from every major fictional private eye, and yet remaing incredibly unique. Simon R. Green has a gift; here's your chance to partake of it.
Rating:
Summary: Forget your cherubic little charming angels...
Review: ...these angels are vengeful and dangerous. They've come from Above and Below, invading the Nightside, looking for the Unholy Grail--the cup from which Judas drank at the Last Supper. John Taylor, private eye extraordinaire--who can find anything at all--is hired to find the Grail. The catch: the angels are looking for anyone with any connection to the holy cup, and are willing to do whatever it takes to get information from them. And yes, there really are things worse than death... Taylor is joined by an incredbile ensemble of charactors, including: Shotgun Suzie, a woman whom you really DON'T want to meet in a dark ally at night; Razor Eddie, Punk God of the Straight Razor; Belle, a deadly, genuine woman--more or less; the Fourth Reich, consisting of a couple dozen (...); the Demon Lordz, a clan of extremely minor demons; the Collector, who has a warehouse full of objects from the past and future; Merlin Satanspawn, the infamous wizard, long deceased; and many, many other. This is, if I am correct, Simon R. Green's second forray into the Nightside--a seedy hidden section of London, where it's always three a.m., and at least a couple inhabitants are human. The Nightside novels combine sci-fi, horror, mystery, and superb detective fiction into compact but fast-paced reading. They are perfect for a summer day, lounging about; or on a dark night--they'll keep you up better than x amounts of coffee. John Taylor is a classic character, combing traits from every major fictional private eye, and yet remaing incredibly unique. Simon R. Green has a gift; here's your chance to partake of it.
Rating:
Summary: Another Dark Time in the Nightside
Review: Agents of Light and Darkness is the second novel in the John Taylor fantasy series, following Something From the Nightside. In the previous volume, Taylor was hired to find something and instead found more than he bargained for, yet banished it from Nightside back into the void. In this novel, Taylor starts off sounding more like Joe Friday than the literary detectives who inspired the first book. He has found something for Jessica Sorrow the Unbeliever and presents to her in the Church of Saint Jude. While there, he witnesses a confrontation that leaves a man a pillar of salt. The angels, both light and dark, have come to the Nightside. Taylor is hired to by the Vatican to find the Unholy Grail, the cup that Judas Iscariot drank from at the Last Supper. Others are also hunting for this powerful relict, including the angelic hosts of above and below. Shortly after he accepts his commission, others try to force him to change sides. Taylor hires Suzy Shooter as backup and starts looking. This time he can't use his talent, for the angels have already plucked his mind from his body and tried to force him into finding the relic for them (final recipient to be decided later). Some think that he should not give either side the chalice, for that would precipitate the apocalypse, with Nightside the battleground. As he follows his leads, Taylor witnesses enough angelic violence to not wish to encourage the final confrontation. People snatched off the streets to be questioned and then discarded, sometimes in pieces, as well as people turned into pillars of salt or impaled on light poles. He finds, and then loses again, a weapon capable of discreating angels or anything else, but only at great cost to his soul. Among the blood, pain and fire, Taylor treats with old friends and enemies, uncovers massacres and blood baths, and follows his leads. Then he finds the relic and witnesses a miracle. Oh, did I forget to tell your about the small group of minor demons running a house of ill-repute, the Fourth Reich, or the right-wing Warriors of the Cross? Well, this is a short review, as is the book. Its only defect, if any, is the brevity of the story, but there is a lot packed inside! Highly recommended for Green fans and for anyone else who enjoys urban fantasy with a theological flavor and an American detective story setting.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable Light Reading
Review: AOLAD is the second in the series centered around private investigator John Taylor and London; however, it is not the second in The Nightside series--the nightside being that strange dimension that is parallel or at right angles to our own. Drinking Midnight Wine is in the same world, in a different city, with some of the same characters, and a lot of the same referrents and mythology. It was written before AOLAD, so should be considered the second in the series.... Easy reading. Fun. Enjoyable characters. It is interesting finding out more about this world as it unfolds in the various books. I hope Green keeps moving forward with it.
Rating:
Summary: Well worth a read
Review: I read the first novel in this series "Something from the Nightside" and really enjoyed the style, humor, characters, plot and the Simon Green's creativity.
The second "Agents of Light and Darkness" only improves on the original.
A great read with some original ideas.
Rating:
Summary: A Touch Reminiscent of Hawk and Fisher's Haven
Review: If Haven, the city in which one of his previous series for Ace was set, were brought up to date, it would be a lot like the Nightside-- violence, magic, pathos and horror all rolled into one down and dirty package. On one hand I don't think I've read in any horror novel about an object as gruesome as the Speaking Gun, on the other Green takes a gleeful delight in describing incredible violence committed on and by his charcters, on the third hand(not impossible in the Nightside) he has a romantic streak that runs through his books that at times seems incongruous given the first two. While it's not a major work, it is a nice contribution to his oeuvre and a welcome treat for those of us who have fond mrmories of Haven and its denizens.
Rating:
Summary: In search of the Unholy Grail
Review: In Something From the Nightside, Simon R. Green introduced us to a secret world found deep beneath the streets of London, a fantastical place where it is always 3 AM and the unimaginable is commonplace. John Taylor, a private eye blessed with a unique gift for finding anything, returned home to the Nightside after several years in the real world, reneging on a promise he had made to himself to never go back. A girl was missing, and - more importantly - her mother was willing to pay good money to get her back. It appears Taylor is now back to stay, if for no other reason than to investigate the mystery of his own destiny and that of the inhuman mother he never knew. All of that will have to wait for the moment, however, as angels have come to the Nightside.
The very future of the Nightside, not to mention a little something called the Apocalypse, hangs in the balance as the forces of good and evil tear the Nightside apart in search of a powerful object that has gone missing. It is nothing less than the Unholy Grail, the cup from which Judas Iscariot drank at the Last Supper. If anyone can find it, it is John Taylor - and everyone in the Nightside knows it. Already commissioned by a strange little man representing the Vatican, Taylor finds himself at the very center of the most dangerous case of his career. Even the good angels care little for man, and they don't shirk from leaving burned out husks and pillars of salt in their wake. They also can't be trusted any more than the angels of darkness, as Taylor learns all too well - first-hand. Unfortunately for Taylor, this means he can't use his special gift for finding things in his search for the Unholy Grail, as it allows the angels to pinpoint his location. Knowing he will need some extra muscle to survive this one, he teams up with trigger-happy Shotgun Suzie and calls in a few special favors from erstwhile associates such as Razor Eddie, Punk God of the Straight Razor, and Strangefellows bar owner (and Merlin ancestor) Alex Morrisey.
Taylor's search takes him to such infamous places as the Pit, a club run by the Demon Lordz; the headquarters of the Fourth Reich; the old Styx Theatre where the dead and undead go for entertainment; and that most secret and mysterious of places - the warehouse holding all of the treasures of the Collector. The reader will learn all about the Speaking Gun, the only weapon capable of harming angels, and witness characters and events unusual even by Nightside standards. Aside from the search for the Unholy Grail, Agents of Light and Darkness also holds out clues to the possible future we glimpsed (courtesy of a Timeslip) in Something From the Nightside, especially John Taylor's place in that future and the truth about his long-lost mother. It is a truth that seemingly threatens to destroy the Nightside and the world around it.
This is a very quick read, and it is constantly entertaining. Black humor abounds, moral truths are addressed in the most unusual of manners, friends and enemies interact in increasingly unexpected ways, and the ending does not disappoint, actually adding much to an already exciting and highly compelling story. Even secondary characters such as Shotgun Suzie and the Collector begin to take on an unexpected depth in this novel - obviously, Green is still building for the future of the Nightside series. While this book stands apart from its predecessor, underlying themes tie the two together and pave the way for future eagerly anticipated jaunts to this ingenious underworld of Green's creation.
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