Guards of Haven

Simon R Green’s Hawk & Fisher series, collected into 2 volumes:
The Swords of Haven, comprising Hawk & Fisher, Winner Takes All, and The God Killer
The Guards of Haven, comprising Wolf in the Fold, Guard Against Dishonour, and The Bones of Haven

I originally got the print editions way back in the day and enjoyed them enough to still have the paperbacks, so when I cames across the Kindle omnibuses working out at about £2.20 per individual book, I grabbed them. Well, I sort of wish I hadn’t; I still enjoyed them, but I enjoyed them far more when I originally read them. There’s several reasons - the writing now seems rather repetitive (although that may be because I read them back-to-back rather than dipping in and out), I no longer show more find violence very attractive especially when it is the focus of the storyline, and in some ways I find the stories simplistic.

Hawk and Fisher are a husband and wife who are exiles from the Northern Kingdoms and have ended up in the city of Haven in the Low Kingdoms where they have joined the City Guards. Haven is a Sanctuary-like cesspit of a port city with Dickensian squalor and poverty contrasting with aristocratic wealth and privilege in a Medieval society. H&F are about the only uncorrupted Guards on the force, and the six books deal with various cases set more or less sequentially. The books are stand-alone, although some references in the later books may not make much sense without having read the earlier books. There are also references to the Forest Kingdoms series; and it’s likely H&F are the hero and heroine from Blue Moon Rising.

All the stories are fantasy murder/mysteries; magic takes the place of science, gods have a real presence, and technology is Medieval, and society is Dickensian. Although there’s nothing explicit, it’s possible this is an alternative timeline or a far enough ahead future where society and technology have regressed and magic has returned (the mention of Christianity as one of many religions makes me think this).

These are an OK read, but they do come with a warning about the blood and guts violence (literally). One thing they don’t include is sex; it’s there, but it forms no part of the plotlines. show less

Swords of Haven and Guards of Haven are a collection of six related mystery novels written by Simon Green. Each has three of the novels in it, and I'm going to write one review for the entire collection. This series follows up on two characters that were introduced in his earlier novel, "Blue Moon," though they've come a long way in their lives. Guards Hawk and Fisher are husband and wife, as well as partners, and attempt to patrol the most crime-ridden area of the most crime-ridden city in the lower kingdoms. Each novel in the collection contains a standalone mystery these characters tackle.

Hawk and Fisher are great characters, and the town of Haven is squarely in the tradition of Green's other settings: widely imaginative, gritty, show more violent, and often gruesome. I enjoyed the traditional mystery-novel stereotypes set in a fantasy/horror world with the added twist of magical rules that the Guards must deal with when solving crimes. As for the stories, Green attempts a couple of locked-house mysteries that are below par for him. The situations stretch credibility and the charaters do stupid things to move the plot along that I found very annoying. The other stories, however, are quite good, especially the final entry in the series.

I think the main interest in these books is as antecedant to Green's later, greater "Nightside" and "Deathstalker" series. You can see him trying out some of the ideas that will make those other works so unique and entertaining. I recdmmend reading Green's other series first and then reading these books to explore his development as an author. show less

Fun, adventurous stories. Not something I, personally, would read more than once, but I would recommend for others to try.