Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth

First of all,let me say that you absolutely MUST read the Nightside series in order or you're going to be incredibly LOST by the time you get to this one. To me, each book in the series was worth waiting for, and I looked forward to each new release as much as I look forward to each new installment of the Harry Potter series. I absolutely love the Nightside books and they started me on the whole steampunk/fantasy/sci-fi road of books that I had never read before I picked up the first of the Nightside stories. If you are at all into any of those 3 types of fiction, you're going to really enjoy these books. Horror readers may also like these books, to a point.

Now on to this installment. The hero of this series is John Taylor, PI in that show more hidden area of London called the Nightside. At the beginning of the series, John travels in a timeslip where he has a nasty vision of the Apocalypse that somehow he has brought about, and sees his friends as his enemies or worse. He also knows this has something to do with his mother (I won't say more about that in case you haven't read the other books). Suffice it to say, she's back and she's in the Nightside, and has decided to recreate it the way she wants it, and screw everyone else. So now John Taylor has a dilemma: how does he defeat her, but not bring on the apocalypse that he has seen in his future?

Absolutely LOVE the author's writing, often a cross between really bad joke-type humor and the old-fashioned noir type PI novels. You have to love an author who doesn't take himself so seriously that he makes the reading fun! show less

In Sharper Than a Serpent�??s Tooth, the sixth novel in Simon R. Greenƒ??s NIGHTSIDE series, John Taylor and Suzie Shooter have just returned from the past where they discovered the origin of Johnƒ??s mother, Lilith, and witnessed the birth of the Nightside. Now that theyƒ??re back in the present, they are determined to stop Lilith from destroying what she created and remaking the Nightside in her own image.

First they must rescue Johnƒ??s secretary, Cathy, who has been kidnapped. Then John wants to raise an army that they hope can stop Lilith, but heƒ??s haunted by visions of a future where he has destroyed the Nightside and his friends, so he decides to travel forward in time to get some answers. Perhaps if he knows the show more future, he can change it.

Besides the future, the other interesting places John visits include the cellar of Strangefellows, Rotten Row, Simulacra Corner, the Necropolis, a faerie sweat shop, the Bazaar of the Bizarre (a reference to Fritz Leiberƒ??s LANKHMAR books) and the Street of the Gods (another Lankhmar reference). Along the way he gets help from and/or pisses off a lot of the strange characters weƒ??ve already met, and some new ones, too. Thereƒ??s Alex Morrisey, Kid Psychoses, Tommy Oblivion, Sneaky Pete, Razor Eddie, Sandra Chance, The Collector, The Little Sisters of the Immaculate Chain-Saw, dancing ghost girls, the Carrion in Tears, Dead Boy, Julien Advent, Jessica Sorrow, Count Video, King of Skin, the Doormouse, the Engineer, Walker, the Beadle, Merlin Satanspawn, and the Lord of Thorns. He even meets the guys in suits who run the Nightside on the backend.

Eventually thereƒ??s a huge long battle when Lilith appears on the Street of Gods and everything blows up. This becomes so furiously paced, so ƒ??epic,ƒ? and so over-the-top that it is actually dull. Green hits us with everything and everyone at once ƒ?? each person is more powerful than the person mentioned before, wiping away enemies with their vague superpowers such as ƒ??undoing probabilities and spreading nightmaresƒ? (what does that look like?). For all the build-up, it was a little disappointing, mostly because the action was so frantic and intangible. This part of the story, which was the climax, had little tension or impact, though several characters die. (Iƒ??m not sure if theyƒ??ll stay dead.)... Read the rest:
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This sixth book in the series returns us to the fantastically awful world of the Nightside, a hidden world within London where it is always 3am. Our hero, John Taylor, knows the identity of his dreaded mother and desperately tries to prevent the future his discovery portends in a faceoff between mother and son. Stunningly creative, the Nightside grabs the imagination and keeps you coming back for more in a noir detective series that really is all about the night. SPOILER: I love the legend of Lilith, and this one brings a whole new fascinating layer to the mix. Ponder the questions of what is a god and what are the consequences of demanding uncompromised freedom. Then enjoy the story!

It feels like the ongoing trauma has been buttoned up quite nicely.
Green gives you a lot in his books, and he has a great love for cliches'. It somehow works for him though. He's able to give us a really great series that get you thinking on all manner of thoughts on: religion, human depravity, morbid humor, a little folklore or histories/prophecies. The list just goes on.
Check this out if you're not to squeamish.
Cheers!

I'm reading this series for a book a month challenge. I like Green's writing, but I'm not a huge fan of the Nightside world. It's just a little to bleak for me. That being said, I do like Taylor, and his friend's are well developed supporting characters.

John is desperately trying for futures he doesn't want not to happen. He's fighting Lilith who is back and wants to reshape the Nightside to her original vision which could eliminate humanity from the world and destroy most of John's friends. He's battling huge odds and trying hard to keep himself and his friends alive.

It's interesting, twisted and I really got caught up in the fights and problems the characters had. Kudos to Simon R Green for writing such an entertaining series. Apparently there's a sequel but this finishes up John's story arc well.

This is a review of the audiobook version (no time to read these days!):

The book that concludes the wider story of the series - the return of John's mother Lilith. She's back and immediately starts thrashing the Nightside. For the first few frantic chapters all hell breaks loose. Then, in an odd bit of story-pacing, John goes wandering off looking for people to help him stop Lilith. The impending sense of doom is lost and the story meanders for a bit before sparking back into life towards the end. I find Simon R. Green's books a but, er... lop-sided, at the best of times but this one was the most skewed. As always he provides a suitably apocalyptic ending and brings in all the most important characters for the big showdown. A bit show more predictable but entertaining enough all the same. Not anywhere near the same league as 'Paths Not Taken' or even 'Hex and the City' but still a fitting end to the story. One wonders where the Nightside can go next...

The narrator Marc Vietor is on fire, providing decent enough voices for the noirish John Taylor, the demonic Lilith, repulsive Deadboy et al. Top performance! show less