Something from the Nightside (Nightside, Book 1)

The Nightside is the black magical heart of London, where it's always 3:00 AM and anything may be had for a price. Private detective John Taylor was born in the Nightside, of a human father and a mother that was something else, he's not sure what. As a result of that ancestory, Taylor has powers, including being able to find anything. As another result of his ancestory, Taylor has enemies that have been trying to kill him since childhood. Five years before the novel opens, Taylor left the Nightside for the mundane world. Then a client waves a lot of money and hires him to find her runaway daughter, who's disappeared there. So Taylor goes home. The story is told in flat, Hammett-like style that some of the reviewers didn't like, but I did. It fits the hard-boiled private detective genre this novel uses, while setting off the constant comic throwaway lines Green hands the reader -- 'A Neanderthal in a business suit was talking with a dwarf in full SS regalia.' A backpack nuclear bomb displayed in a shop window: 'Probably defective, have to supply your own plutonium or something. Otherwise, somebody would already have bought it.' Taylor and his client walk down a street, and find themselves in the future: 'Timeslip. Those things are supposed to be posted!' Or a man who stinks so badly, he attracts flies 'Every once in a while, one got too close, and the stench killed it.' An alley that can't always be found, because the alley doesn't want to be associated with a business located there. The reviewers who didn't find this funny are suffering humor impairment. The setting is brilliantly realized: cars in the street, plus things that look like cars, many of them hungry for pedestrians; Strangefellows, the world's oldest bar; a street gang that consists of demons; the ghost of cafe from the sixties, where the Coke tastes better; the place the Timeslip takes them to, which makes the Nightside look cheery and harmless; the Harrowing, nameless beings without faces, and hypodermic sryinges for fingers; and the place where the runaway girl finally is found. Taylor hunts for the missing girl, encountering old friends and old enemies, though sometimes he's not sure which is which. But regardless of what he encounters, he won't stop till he's done the job he was hired for. This is the first novel of Green's I've read, and I'll be reading more as soon as I can get them. There are three more in the "Nightside" series, as well as other series by Green I intend to check out. I like this book a lot. Highly recommended.

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

This is a wonderful new series. If you like the Anita Blake Series, Tanya Huff and Jim Butcher series, you will love this new series by Simon Green. This is the first book in the series. John Taylor is a private eye in London. He is not originally from London though. He grew up in The Nightside, which is a secret world where nighttime never ends, and where every fantasy character you can imagine you will find from sleezy clubs, to demons, to the most interesting cast of characters I have read about in a while. John Taylor left the Nightside five years ago with no intention of ever returning. Then along comes a missing persons case that he cannot say no to. John has a special gift. He finds things. He can pretty much find anything that you are looking for. Well his new client's daughter is missing and the last place she was seen was the Nightside. I do not want to spoil the story, but this is a world you will LOVE. I highly highly recommend.

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.

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