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Taylor is the name, John Taylor. My card says I'm a detective, but what I really am is an expert on finding lost things. It's part of the gift I was born with as a child of the Nightside. I left there a long time ago, with my skin and sanity barely intact. Now I make my living in the sunlit streets of London. But business has been slow lately, so when Joanna Barrett showed up at my door, reeking of wealth, asking me to find her runaway teenage daughter, I didn't say no. Then I found out show more exactly where the girl had gone. The Nightside. That square mile of Hell in the middle of the city, where it's always three A.M. Where you can walk beside myths and drink with monsters. Where nothing is what it seems, and everything is possible. I swore I'd never return. But there's a kid in danger and a woman depending on me. So, I have no choice - I'm going home. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Recommendations
plutoempress similar style, though i (and this is my opinion) find john taylor funnier than harry dresden.
lookitisheef Jim Butcher and Simon R. Green both have created great supernatural male-lead detective series. I think they provide a nice balance to the girls-kick-butt series out there...don't get me wrong, I love the work of Kim Harrison and Laurell K. Hamilton (to name a couple), but it's nice to see that authors can create plausible male leads in the supernatural fiction world, too.
Also recommended by DovSherman
90
amberwitch Another urban fantasy P.I. noir series. Different kind of setting - Boston instead of London, and less cartoonish, more Tolkien inspired characters.
Also recommended by MyriadBooks
20
amberwitch More complex plots, less cartoonish characters. Very nice descriptions of a London where necromancers are in demand as more and more undead lingers.
by anonymous user
Member Reviews
This first book in the Nightside series begins like a noir hard-boiled detective story. John Taylor is scraping a living as a private investigator in London. Then a woman walks in with a problem. She's offering big bucks to Taylor to find her runaway daughter. Intrigued by the case and the woman, Taylor agrees. But there is a problem - the case will take him back to the Nightside he left six years earlier.
From that point the book shifts to a dark urban fantasy with more than a touch of horror as Taylor travels the Nightside with his client meeting old friends and old enemies in his quest to find the missing teenager.
The worldbuilding was intriguing and, frankly, horrifying. A house that eats people and dead zones that transport people show more to other times were intriguing. The characters and dialog seemed ripped from a 1940s mystery.
While I enjoyed this story, the horror aspects will keep me from continuing on with the series. Fans of horror and noir mysteries will likely want to continue. show less
From that point the book shifts to a dark urban fantasy with more than a touch of horror as Taylor travels the Nightside with his client meeting old friends and old enemies in his quest to find the missing teenager.
The worldbuilding was intriguing and, frankly, horrifying. A house that eats people and dead zones that transport people show more to other times were intriguing. The characters and dialog seemed ripped from a 1940s mystery.
While I enjoyed this story, the horror aspects will keep me from continuing on with the series. Fans of horror and noir mysteries will likely want to continue. show less
I wish I could give this 1.5 stars, as it doesn't even quite even live up to 2 stars.
'Nightside' was supposed to be an urban fantasy, leaning farther into horror, about John Taylor...a private eye with...a 'private eye' as his magic power. That gives you an idea of the quality and creativity you'll experience throughout the book. John is pulled back into the shadow city (the Nightside) within London in service of a case after 5 years away and vowing never to return to his place of birth.
Its kind of hard to fully miss these days with urban fantasy, but this manages to do so. The Nightside (which, as others have said is a name/phrase we see ENTIRELY to frequently throughout the book) feels like a thinly veiled and poor shadow of the show more London of Neverwhere. In fact, the book as a whole feels like an artless imitation of Neil Gaimen's work mashed up with more mainstream urban fantasy, traditional hard-boiled detective novels without a solid grounding in the tropes of genre, and horror minus anything actually disturbing or horrific. It frequently tells rather than shows, with long exposition between characters info-dumping descriptions and information on one another rather than letting us experience the world. While some nods to Zelazny's Amber and Moorcock's Champion are fun references, they push the feeling of the overall book further into realm of low-quality fan fiction. As does the frequent shifting of tone from what is clearly attempting to be horrific/disturbing to a humorous tone that never actually manages to be funny. show less
'Nightside' was supposed to be an urban fantasy, leaning farther into horror, about John Taylor...a private eye with...a 'private eye' as his magic power. That gives you an idea of the quality and creativity you'll experience throughout the book. John is pulled back into the shadow city (the Nightside) within London in service of a case after 5 years away and vowing never to return to his place of birth.
Its kind of hard to fully miss these days with urban fantasy, but this manages to do so. The Nightside (which, as others have said is a name/phrase we see ENTIRELY to frequently throughout the book) feels like a thinly veiled and poor shadow of the show more London of Neverwhere. In fact, the book as a whole feels like an artless imitation of Neil Gaimen's work mashed up with more mainstream urban fantasy, traditional hard-boiled detective novels without a solid grounding in the tropes of genre, and horror minus anything actually disturbing or horrific. It frequently tells rather than shows, with long exposition between characters info-dumping descriptions and information on one another rather than letting us experience the world. While some nods to Zelazny's Amber and Moorcock's Champion are fun references, they push the feeling of the overall book further into realm of low-quality fan fiction. As does the frequent shifting of tone from what is clearly attempting to be horrific/disturbing to a humorous tone that never actually manages to be funny. show less
I enjoyed this introduction to the series. I liked the characters and story moved right along. Did it get a little redundant on pointing out that 'it's the Nightside'? Yes, but I didn't find it as distracting or annoying as some of the reviews.
Simon R. Green started something amazing when he wrote "Private eyes come in all shapes and sizes, and none of them look like television stars." Meet one such private eye, John Taylor, man with an interesting story.
There is London, but then there is the Nightside, a sort of alternate London in which every single vice has its outlet. The sky is a perpetual 3 AM, and the people will just as soon stab you in the back as they would save your life.
Taylor, a private eye working out of London, yet familiar with the Nightside, gets a case from a woman looking to find her lost daughter. All the clues point to Nightside, to which Taylor is hesitant to return for several reasons.
Though, paying the rent trumps his personal feeling, and his show more well-paying client convinces him to return. Once in Nightside, Taylor is able to use his power: the ability to find things. However, every time he uses his powers, he attracts unwanted attention to creatures a bit more frightening than anything he'd ever face back in London.
This, the first book of the Nightside series, introduces us to many of the characters Taylor knows, as well as introducing an overarching plot for the series.
Written like Sam Space meets Lewis Carroll adapted by Terry Gilliam, Nightside is definitely a book to read if you want to get hooked on a wonderful urban fantasy series. Easy to breeze through, but highly addictive.
Recommended to fans of Green's other work, the work of China Meiville, or any other New Weird or Urban Fantasy author. show less
There is London, but then there is the Nightside, a sort of alternate London in which every single vice has its outlet. The sky is a perpetual 3 AM, and the people will just as soon stab you in the back as they would save your life.
Taylor, a private eye working out of London, yet familiar with the Nightside, gets a case from a woman looking to find her lost daughter. All the clues point to Nightside, to which Taylor is hesitant to return for several reasons.
Though, paying the rent trumps his personal feeling, and his show more well-paying client convinces him to return. Once in Nightside, Taylor is able to use his power: the ability to find things. However, every time he uses his powers, he attracts unwanted attention to creatures a bit more frightening than anything he'd ever face back in London.
This, the first book of the Nightside series, introduces us to many of the characters Taylor knows, as well as introducing an overarching plot for the series.
Written like Sam Space meets Lewis Carroll adapted by Terry Gilliam, Nightside is definitely a book to read if you want to get hooked on a wonderful urban fantasy series. Easy to breeze through, but highly addictive.
Recommended to fans of Green's other work, the work of China Meiville, or any other New Weird or Urban Fantasy author. show less
Surprisingly dark and gory in places, it's an interesting twist on urban fantasy PI.
It opens fairly predictably, in a nice homage to noir detective genre that eventually spawned UF: John Taylor is a overworked underpaid PI with a conscience. Down on his luck and owing a lot of money to various nefarious influences he realizes his luck might have turned when an obviously extremely rich women enters his office. She wants him to find her daughter and finding things is John's specialty - there's only two snags, one is that she wants to accompany him (and John's not adverse to having a rich woman on his arm), and the other is that her daughter has gone to Nightside, somewhere she shouldn't know about, let alone be able to visit. And show more somewhere that John fled from five years ago with no intention of ever going back. Nightside isn't where dreams go to die, it's where they grow mix mingle and mutate into things stranger than nightmares. And as it quickly turns out , John is something special there, powerful with a reputation to match, even after 5 years. John eases his client (and the reader) into the strangeness of Nightside where creatures from all over time and any place mingle and merge, but somehow through the absolute fiat of the unspecified Authorities, a veneer of civilization remains. However his target is not in the nicer parts of Nightside, and between him and there are the people he fled from to start with.
It's obviously a heavily edited first book. Short and to the point, with enough description to be fun, but lacking in complex characterization. It seems that the author does have a greater design and won't just feature more stories of John fighting monsters. There were only little glances into John's backstory but they were all intriguing. I'm likely to read more of this series. show less
It opens fairly predictably, in a nice homage to noir detective genre that eventually spawned UF: John Taylor is a overworked underpaid PI with a conscience. Down on his luck and owing a lot of money to various nefarious influences he realizes his luck might have turned when an obviously extremely rich women enters his office. She wants him to find her daughter and finding things is John's specialty - there's only two snags, one is that she wants to accompany him (and John's not adverse to having a rich woman on his arm), and the other is that her daughter has gone to Nightside, somewhere she shouldn't know about, let alone be able to visit. And show more somewhere that John fled from five years ago with no intention of ever going back. Nightside isn't where dreams go to die, it's where they grow mix mingle and mutate into things stranger than nightmares. And as it quickly turns out , John is something special there, powerful with a reputation to match, even after 5 years. John eases his client (and the reader) into the strangeness of Nightside where creatures from all over time and any place mingle and merge, but somehow through the absolute fiat of the unspecified Authorities, a veneer of civilization remains. However his target is not in the nicer parts of Nightside, and between him and there are the people he fled from to start with.
It's obviously a heavily edited first book. Short and to the point, with enough description to be fun, but lacking in complex characterization. It seems that the author does have a greater design and won't just feature more stories of John fighting monsters. There were only little glances into John's backstory but they were all intriguing. I'm likely to read more of this series. show less
I read this years ago and thought it was a decent, short, pulpy read. Then, since the birth of my baby and I had no time to read, I went to the library and found a bunch of Nightside audiobooks. So I started again from the beginning with 'Something From the Nightside'...
First of all, narrator Marc Vietor is awesome. His noirish take on P.I. John Taylor is spot on, and the other main characters were all decent. I especially liked his interpretation of a certain monster...
Good pulp fun, nothing too original or brain-taxing. PI. goes back to supernatural Nightside, meets dodgy people, goes to dodgy places, tries to save the girl etc etc. Some of the supporting characters and locations were great (Strangefellows, The Harrowing, Alex show more Morrissey) and others I didn't really get in to at all (Shotgun Suzie, Razor Eddie, the *ahem* killer cars that eat people) but it all leads up to a pretty good ending that sees John square off against an old enemy an an apocalyptic scenario that sets up the sequel. show less
First of all, narrator Marc Vietor is awesome. His noirish take on P.I. John Taylor is spot on, and the other main characters were all decent. I especially liked his interpretation of a certain monster...
Good pulp fun, nothing too original or brain-taxing. PI. goes back to supernatural Nightside, meets dodgy people, goes to dodgy places, tries to save the girl etc etc. Some of the supporting characters and locations were great (Strangefellows, The Harrowing, Alex show more Morrissey) and others I didn't really get in to at all (Shotgun Suzie, Razor Eddie, the *ahem* killer cars that eat people) but it all leads up to a pretty good ending that sees John square off against an old enemy an an apocalyptic scenario that sets up the sequel. show less
The first in a series staring private detective John Taylor, written along the lines of a 1950's pulp detective fiction. Taylor comes from Nightshade a fascinating hidden world located somewhere below the streets of London. In Nightside, it is always 3 in the morning; humans (and other things not so human) come from all kinds of parrallell worlds (including fictional ones) and time frames to indulge in all sorts of depraved pleasures they are not allowed to pursue in their own worlds. That means anything and everything is possible. All the Nightsider born beings possess a gift of some sort - Taylor's is the the ability to find things. Nightside is a dangerous place, which is exactly why John Taylor left it five years ago.
Like all good show more 1950's pulp fiction - there is a dame - and in this story we have Joanna Barrett. She's looking for her daughter and has exhausted all her leads. She now turns to Taylor as her last hope. The only thing that Joanna knows about her daughter's disappearance is that she's ventured into some place called Nightside. Joanna doesn't know what this is, but as we now know, Taylor does. When he left there he vowed never to return. But he's really short on funds so takes the job on.
This novel is a curious blend of suspense, humour, fantasy, horror and romance. I found some of the horror bits to be a bit ikky. John Taylor is a blend of Dick Tracy, Angel and Harry Dresden and I think I would read the next in the series if it comes my way. show less
Like all good show more 1950's pulp fiction - there is a dame - and in this story we have Joanna Barrett. She's looking for her daughter and has exhausted all her leads. She now turns to Taylor as her last hope. The only thing that Joanna knows about her daughter's disappearance is that she's ventured into some place called Nightside. Joanna doesn't know what this is, but as we now know, Taylor does. When he left there he vowed never to return. But he's really short on funds so takes the job on.
This novel is a curious blend of suspense, humour, fantasy, horror and romance. I found some of the horror bits to be a bit ikky. John Taylor is a blend of Dick Tracy, Angel and Harry Dresden and I think I would read the next in the series if it comes my way. show less
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ThingScore 100
It has 2 powerful sides – the light, cheesy fun of Shotgun Suzy and the grim darkness of Razor Eddie. The two aspects of the book really work well together without conflicting – which is a really skilful balancing act. It leaves me wanting to reads the next book to see where this series is going – the cheesy, fun and slightly whacky hijinks or the grim, gritty and slightly horrific darkness.
added by JalenV
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Author Information
210+ Works 37,063 Members
Science fiction and fantasy author Simon R. Green was born in 1955 in Bradford-on-Avon, England. He received an M.A. in Modern English and American Literature from Leicester University. He is the author of the Deathstalker series, a member of the British Fantasy Society, and occasionally does some Shakespearean acting. (Bowker Author Biography)
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- Canonical title
- Something from the Nightside
- Original publication date
- 2003
- People/Characters
- John Taylor (private investigator); Alex Morrisey (Strangefellows owner and bartender); Joanna Barrett (Taylor's rich client); Cathy Barrett (Joanna's daughter); Razor Eddie (Punk God of the Straight Razor); Shotgun Suzie (a.k.a. Suzie Shooter | bounty hunter) (show all 19); Lilith (mentioned); Blind Pew (the rogue vicar); the Brittle Sisters of the Hive; Lucy Coltrane (Strangefellows bouncer); Betty Coltrane (Strangefellows bouncer); The Harrowing (terrible and deathless creatures sent after Taylor); Ffinch-Thomas (yuppie punk with two fathers who are big in the city); talking Clydesdale with his own hansom carriage; Old Henry (the Clydesdale's employee); The Collector (he'll collect anything and he can travel in time); Victoria (Hawk's Wind Bar & Grill waitress); Walker (voice of the Authorities); giant cockroaches
- Important places
- The Nightside, London, England, UK (fictional); London, England, UK; Strangefellows (the oldest bar in the world); The Fortress, Nightside (refuge for former alien abductees); Taylor Investigations (Taylor's office in the real London); Blaiston Street, Nightside (show all 9); a possible Nightside 82 years in the future; Hawk's Wind Bar and Grill, Nightside; a brick and mortar house on Blaiston Street, Nightside.
- Epigraph
- I went to a house that was not a house.
I opened a door that was not a door.
And what I saw, I saw. - First words
- Private eyes come in all shapes and sizes, and none of them look like television stars.
- Quotations
- A good dramatic scene helps to keep the flies off.
...'Every private eye has to have a smart-mouthed secretary who knows a thing or two. I think it's in the rule book.' (epilogue)
Never get personally involved with a client. It’s written in large capital letters on page one of How to Be a Private Detective, Right next to Get as much cash as you can up front, just in case the cheque b... (show all)ounces, and Don’t go looking for the Maltese Falcon because it’ll all end in tears. ... (chapter 8)
'We don't really have weather, as such, in the Nightside,' I explained patiently. 'Or seasons, either. Here, the night never ends. Think of temperature changes here less as weather, and more as moods. Just the city, expressin... (show all)g itself. If you don't like the current conditions, wait a minute, and something new but equally distressing will come along. Sometimes, I think we get the weather we deserve here. Which is probably why it rains a lot.' (chapter 5)
... Every city has at least one area where all the rules have broken down, where humanity comes and goes, and civilisation is a sometime thing. Blaiston Street is the kind of area where no one has ever paid any rent, where e... (show all)ven the little comforts of life go only to the strongest, and plague rats go around in pairs because they're frightened. ... (chapter 7) - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)"Just...something from the Nightside."
- Blurbers
- Butcher, Jim
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