Down Among the Dead Men

This is a sequel to Blue Moon Rising, but like Ghostworld and Hellworld, the character base has been trimmed from the epic to the contained.The time is ten years after the Demon War (see Blue Moon Rising). A border fort was constructed to secure a border with Hillsdown. But now the fort has gone silent. A team of Rangers is sent to investigate.Upon arrival at the fort it is obvious that there is something very wrong. Soon the Rangers must join with some bandits in order to survive a horror that threatens the whole world.Dream sequences give a great personality profile for each character in a similar fashion to the flashbacks in Blue Moon Rising. While a direct sequel to the events of Blue Moon Rising, this is a tough and gritty tale that does not have the Rupert/Dragon/Julia/Unicorn brand of humor. But it is no less a good yarn.If you like the Forest Kingdom books (or the Twilight of the Empire books), you should take quite well to this one.

Though not as grand-scale and plot-involved as Green's other works, this book takes an interesting turn--Green focuses the plotline around the psychology of the main characters, the result being one of the most insightful and fascinating pieces of surreal fiction I've read. Green retains he dramatic talents and smooth writing, and the reader is hooked form the first chapter on an incredibly involving drama of the mind. And yet, throughout, none of the sword-and-sorcery classic fantasy element is lost.

This was an extreamly well written story, however the subject matter can leave some people a little queasy. The plot is excellent and the story is a non-stop suspense filled adventure. Blood and horror fill every page and readers will be torn between dropping the book in horror and disgust, and turning the next page to read on. Simon Green reaches into man's nightmares and brings them to life in this novel!

This book is set in the same setting as and sometime after _Blue Moon Rising_; however, you won't find Rupert, Julia, or any of those characters here. If you're looking for a similarly swashbuckling, intrigue-filled tale, you'll probably be disappointed. Which is not to say that I didn't enjoy the tale, if only for the surreal horrors of the beasties that Green throws at his heroes. Read it for the description and yes, for the adventure (sort of like a lushly detailed dungeon crawl), but don't expect an especially complex plot