Making the dark side darker

kw: book reviews, fantasy, mysteries, humor

I guess with six thousand years of literature out there, all the good titles have been used. That is the impression I get from the titles of Simon R. Green's novels. I reviewed one of his Bond takeoffs, The Spy Who Haunted Me, last August, and his two other Secret Histories novels also modify Ian Fleming titles. The titles of Green's Novels of the Nightside are more eclectic, this one being The Good, the Bad, and the Uncanny.

The genre is a fascinating mix of hardcore detective and magical fantasy. As this novel the tenth of the series, I surmise that John Taylor has appeared before, probably in all ten. Taylor is not entirely human, being the offspring of Lilith, the legendary demon who seduced Adam. Somehow, he has morphed into a magically-gifted private detective in the secret city behind/beneath London known as Nightside, where the sun never rises and the moon is always full (so werewolves never have to change back).

I suppose I am humor-challenged. It took me a quarter of the way into the book to realize that the author's tongue is into his cheek up to the elbow. It took meeting Jacqueline Hyde to clinch it. Thereafter, I found it hilarious.

With all the trappings of neo-Gothic horror, there is little horror, but plenty of action. Fortunately, even when the author is pushing the James Bond tropes the hardest, there is little of the savage sadism that Ian Fleming wallowed in. The climax, a hand-to-sword battle between Taylor and his nemesis, is told almost with dispassion, and gotten through quickly. At the close, when a package of suggestive shape arrives, I realized that Nightside novels are episodes in a cliff-hanger series. Apparently, this novel takes place within 24 hours, though that is easy to forget as the action unfolds.

Hmmm, my writing above is a bit scattered, is it not? I am definitely under the influence of Green's fantasy setting and writing style. The trouble with pure fantasy is that the author feels free to throw in a new bit of magic as needed to advance the plot. There is no need for setup, no satisfying any quibbling rules of physics or whatever. Need a magical time machine? The next fellow to show up has one in his pocket. Need to go where no sane taxi driver will take you? A friend with a rocket-bearing armored car is just a phone call away.

Need to close down a troublesome review? Say goodnight, Gracie.