On This Page
Description
John Taylor is the name. I work the Nightside. Only in that dark heart of London where it's always three A.M., where human and inhuman can feed their darkest desires, do I feel at home. Probably because I was born there. What I do is find things-people, objects-and in this case, the truth about the origins of the Nightside. That's what Lady Luck has hired me to investigate. But the more I dig, the more I discover, not about the Nightside but about the great question in my life: exactly show more who-and what-was my long-vanished mother. Paying jobs are one thing. Personal quests are another. And I've been warned that uncovering the facts about dear old mum could be a very bad thing, not just for the Nightside but for all of existence. Still I can't stop... I'm John Taylor. Finding things is who I am. It's what I do. Whatever the consequences... show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
Ah, here at last, we get to the meat and potatoes of John Taylor's mommy issues. I'm going through this series fairly quickly (although that will slow down shortly as I wait to afford more of the audio versions) so I"m not so much reviewing individual books as the series This one has yet more exploration of the various levels of the Nightside, which is fascinating in and of itself and practically doesn't need so much of the mysteries and action to be enthralling. A bit more fun with various Major Players, more stink and dirt and horror, more Q & A, and plenty of fun for a summer read.
Review of the audiobook:
I really enjoyed the first book, hated the second and was pretty unimpressed by the third. So it was with great trepidation that I started 'Hex and the City' with it's awful, awful title... And the good news is it's by far the best in the series! Starts predictably enough with John being contacted by a new client, but one who pretty much says 'let's get all this wider story stuff moving, shall we?' by asking him to find the origins of the Nightside. What follows is a tighter, darker and more entertaining ride than we've had yet.
I clicked immediately with new characters Sinner, Madman and Pretty Poison, unlike Suzie Shooter and Deadboy with whom the jury's still out, and the supporting cast are pretty decent too show more (Hern the Hunter, The Lamentation, Merlin Satanspawn, Lord of Thorns are all suitably ridiculous and insanely likable in a demented kind of way). Sure, there are still the endless repetitions of certain key phrases -'I opened my eye, my third eye, my private eye' (enough, Green!) - but it doesn't detract from a ripping good yarn that finally pits Walker against John directly and lifts the stakes to whole new levels.
This feels like a direct sequel to the first book with just a few details from the others thrown in to tie them together and genuinely reignites the series. Marc Vietor is outstanding in his interpretation of the principal characters and gets the black humour just right. show less
I really enjoyed the first book, hated the second and was pretty unimpressed by the third. So it was with great trepidation that I started 'Hex and the City' with it's awful, awful title... And the good news is it's by far the best in the series! Starts predictably enough with John being contacted by a new client, but one who pretty much says 'let's get all this wider story stuff moving, shall we?' by asking him to find the origins of the Nightside. What follows is a tighter, darker and more entertaining ride than we've had yet.
I clicked immediately with new characters Sinner, Madman and Pretty Poison, unlike Suzie Shooter and Deadboy with whom the jury's still out, and the supporting cast are pretty decent too show more (Hern the Hunter, The Lamentation, Merlin Satanspawn, Lord of Thorns are all suitably ridiculous and insanely likable in a demented kind of way). Sure, there are still the endless repetitions of certain key phrases -'I opened my eye, my third eye, my private eye' (enough, Green!) - but it doesn't detract from a ripping good yarn that finally pits Walker against John directly and lifts the stakes to whole new levels.
This feels like a direct sequel to the first book with just a few details from the others thrown in to tie them together and genuinely reignites the series. Marc Vietor is outstanding in his interpretation of the principal characters and gets the black humour just right. show less
I am becoming more and more engrossed in this series with every book. In this fourth installment, we finally discover the origins of the Nightside as well as the identity of John’s long, lost mother. The mystery is captivating, the characters compelling, and the creativity astounding. In this novel, I was particularly impressed by Green’s vivid writing and his perfectly delivered dry humor. It’s the kind of prose that gives me chills in a good way, a single line containing a world of meaning and emotion. I loved every minute of this creepy, dark, thrilling adventure, and I can’t wait to read book five.
What started off as a creative and interesting read quickly devolved into an ejaculation of cool ideas that never fully coalesced. The biggest issue with Hex and the City is that all our heroes are so overpowered that every situation they get themselves into are quickly over in a couple of pages despite the author trying to build it up as the thing that will surely end them. It's anti-climactic and honestly comes off as lazy writing. The characters are cool on the surface, but feel like they are trapped in the box of their creation. The story itself works as a macguffin, but doesn't provide any interesting hooks through the rest of the story causing it to fall flat. Even the twist at the end had me scratching my head and asking, "Why?" show more It's a good enough read for some creative ideas brought to life, but don't expect it to capitalize on those ideas in any meaningful way. show less
If Clive Barker and Jim Butcher had a baby, and that baby grew up and wrote a book, that book would look like Simon R Green's Nightside series. I get excited when I pick up the next in the series, wondering what awful and wonderful creatures/people/beings I am going to meet. Who is going against John in this book? Who is helping him out? Is this the book in which the destruction of the Nightside and possibly the entire world begins? Possibly, for this is the book in which we meet his mother, and all hell breaks loose. The darkness that is the Nightside is so compelling it is hard to put these books down to do anything else. Read this series and be sucked in!
Hex and the City is the fourth book in Simon R. Green's Nightside series. I have, and have read, only books two, three, and six. This book opens with an auction that goes terribly wrong before John Taylor, private eye, manages to end the crisis. The real case is finding out the origin of the Nightside, for which John has been hired by Lady Luck herself. (At least it shuts up John's secretary, Cathy Barrett, who wants to accompany him on a case -- just not this case.) In payment, Lady Luck will tell John who his mother was.
This is bound to be a very difficult and dangerous case. Shotgun Susie and Razor Eddie aren't available, so John seeks out the Madman and the Sinner to help him. (Sinner comes with a bonus, his deadly girlfriend, show more Pretty Poison.)
NOTES:
Chapter 1: See Carnacki the Ghost-Finder by William Hope Hodgson for the guy John Taylor says he used to work with.
Chapter 2:
a. The old 'Avengers' show John mentions is the British one in which the most famous duo was John Steed and Emma Peel. It has nothing to do with the Marvel Comics superhero team.
b. To understand the favor John did for Rick of Rick's Café Imaginaire, read 'The Hunting of the Snark' by Lewis Carroll.
Chapter 3:
a. We meet the Madman and learn his back story..
b. Jessica Sorrow, the Unbeliever, appeared in book two, Agents of Light and Darkness.
c. We meet Sinner and Pretty Poison. Sinner's back story is included.
d. John Taylor still owes the the Prospero and Michael Scott Memorial Library their only copy of I Did it My Way by Baron Frankenstein.
Chapter 4:
a. A few of the clubs in Nightside are mentioned, including membership requirement.
b. Parts of the Londinium Club are described, as is Bad Penny.
Chapter 5:
a. The "Twilight Zone" theme is the ring tone on Taylor's cell phone.
b. Strangefellows bar is even older than Merlin Satanspawn.
c. Alex Morrisey learns something about his ancestry that he's not happy to hear.
d. John has a Vision in which he learns who his enemies are.
Chapter 6: This takes place in Rats' Alley.
Chapter 7:
a. Taylor and helpers are being followed by 7 combat magicians from the Hooded Claw Clan, 2 supernatural trackers, and the Holy Trio (Jesuit demonologists).
b. See Agents of Light and Darkness for the unholy grail case.
c. The Freak Fair is described, as well as the Maxwell Mausoleum.
d. I suspect the person who taught Taylor about carrying around a bit of celery was the 5th Doctor from the 'Doctor Who' TV show.
e. We learn the fate of the Brittle Sisters of the Hive.
Chapter 8:
a. Our quartet enter the World Beneath Nightside to consult the Lord of Thorns. The descriptions make it clear this is NOT a place to visit if you can help them.
b. I suspect that the man running the pastel blue barge on the World Beneath canal was the Phantom of the Opera.
c. Bub, who guards the way to the Lord of Thorns is probably Beelzebub, the Lord of the Flies.
d. I hope the Lord of Thorns isn't, as rumored, Joseph of Arimathea. His description of himself reminds me of Darkwing Duck announcing his presence to crooks, only even more extravagant. The Lord of Thorns has his own guess about who John's mother is.
Chapter 9:
a. We learn some things about Walker's past. Also, his wife is Sheila, their son Keith is at Oxford and their other son, Robert, is in the military.
b. Marianne Faithfull was a 1960s singer and songwriter.
c. There's a vision of Henry Walker, Mark Robinson, and Charles Taylor (John's dad), performing a ritual in 1967. Doctor Who is mentioned again.
d. Aleister Crowley was real.
f. Possibly the 'Dagon' mentioned in the poster is the H. P. Lovecraft Dagon, not the Syrian god.
g. John's mother's alias was Fenella Davis.
Chapter 10: Alex's insult to John probably references 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the poem that is the source of the phrase to have an albatross around one's neck.
Our journey to various places in the Nightside amply demonstrates that it's not a good place to visit, let alone live. Mr. Green's descriptions are as evocative as I've come to expect from him. As John, Madman, Sinner, and Pretty Poison search for someone who can tell them the origin of the Nightside, Walker and the Authorities make it clear how strongly they feel that the origin story is one that needs to remain untold. John can't count on Walker being his late father's old friend to keep him alive. There's also that pesky problem of how to prevent the horrible future John encountered during a Timeslip in an earlier book. I didn't see the last chapter coming, but I did enjoy it. show less
This is bound to be a very difficult and dangerous case. Shotgun Susie and Razor Eddie aren't available, so John seeks out the Madman and the Sinner to help him. (Sinner comes with a bonus, his deadly girlfriend, show more Pretty Poison.)
NOTES:
Chapter 1: See Carnacki the Ghost-Finder by William Hope Hodgson for the guy John Taylor says he used to work with.
Chapter 2:
a. The old 'Avengers' show John mentions is the British one in which the most famous duo was John Steed and Emma Peel. It has nothing to do with the Marvel Comics superhero team.
b. To understand the favor John did for Rick of Rick's Café Imaginaire, read 'The Hunting of the Snark' by Lewis Carroll.
Chapter 3:
a. We meet the Madman and learn his back story..
b. Jessica Sorrow, the Unbeliever, appeared in book two, Agents of Light and Darkness.
c. We meet Sinner and Pretty Poison. Sinner's back story is included.
d. John Taylor still owes the the Prospero and Michael Scott Memorial Library their only copy of I Did it My Way by Baron Frankenstein.
Chapter 4:
a. A few of the clubs in Nightside are mentioned, including membership requirement.
b. Parts of the Londinium Club are described, as is Bad Penny.
Chapter 5:
a. The "Twilight Zone" theme is the ring tone on Taylor's cell phone.
b. Strangefellows bar is even older than Merlin Satanspawn.
c. Alex Morrisey learns something about his ancestry that he's not happy to hear.
d. John has a Vision in which he learns who his enemies are.
Chapter 6: This takes place in Rats' Alley.
Chapter 7:
a. Taylor and helpers are being followed by 7 combat magicians from the Hooded Claw Clan, 2 supernatural trackers, and the Holy Trio (Jesuit demonologists).
b. See Agents of Light and Darkness for the unholy grail case.
c. The Freak Fair is described, as well as the Maxwell Mausoleum.
d. I suspect the person who taught Taylor about carrying around a bit of celery was the 5th Doctor from the 'Doctor Who' TV show.
e. We learn the fate of the Brittle Sisters of the Hive.
Chapter 8:
a. Our quartet enter the World Beneath Nightside to consult the Lord of Thorns. The descriptions make it clear this is NOT a place to visit if you can help them.
b. I suspect that the man running the pastel blue barge on the World Beneath canal was the Phantom of the Opera.
c. Bub, who guards the way to the Lord of Thorns is probably Beelzebub, the Lord of the Flies.
d. I hope the Lord of Thorns isn't, as rumored, Joseph of Arimathea. His description of himself reminds me of Darkwing Duck announcing his presence to crooks, only even more extravagant. The Lord of Thorns has his own guess about who John's mother is.
Chapter 9:
a. We learn some things about Walker's past. Also, his wife is Sheila, their son Keith is at Oxford and their other son, Robert, is in the military.
b. Marianne Faithfull was a 1960s singer and songwriter.
c. There's a vision of Henry Walker, Mark Robinson, and Charles Taylor (John's dad), performing a ritual in 1967. Doctor Who is mentioned again.
d. Aleister Crowley was real.
f. Possibly the 'Dagon' mentioned in the poster is the H. P. Lovecraft Dagon, not the Syrian god.
g. John's mother's alias was Fenella Davis.
Chapter 10: Alex's insult to John probably references 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the poem that is the source of the phrase to have an albatross around one's neck.
Our journey to various places in the Nightside amply demonstrates that it's not a good place to visit, let alone live. Mr. Green's descriptions are as evocative as I've come to expect from him. As John, Madman, Sinner, and Pretty Poison search for someone who can tell them the origin of the Nightside, Walker and the Authorities make it clear how strongly they feel that the origin story is one that needs to remain untold. John can't count on Walker being his late father's old friend to keep him alive. There's also that pesky problem of how to prevent the horrible future John encountered during a Timeslip in an earlier book. I didn't see the last chapter coming, but I did enjoy it. show less
Originally posted at FanLit:
Hex and the City is the fourth novel in Simon R. Green??s NIGHTSIDE series. IÂ??ve been listening to NIGHTSIDE on audio lately because IÂ??ve been doing a lot of home improvements, especially painting, and NIGHTSIDE is such an easy read that I donÂ??t ever have to stop and rewind, which is something you donÂ??t want to do when youÂ??ve got paint all over your hands. Audio readers know what I mean.
In Hex and the City, John Taylor is moving on to his next case in the seedy and decadent Nightside where itÂ??s always 3 AM. This time Lady Luck has hired him to discover the origins of the Nightside, something Taylor wanted to do anyway. During his investigation he meets some people/creatures who show more were fundamentally involved in the establishment of the Nightside. He begins to confirm his suspicion that his own mother, whom he doesnÂ??t even remember, is someone rather important. HeÂ??s not sure what she is or what it means for his own status in the Nightside, but the more he learns, the more nervous he gets.
The NIGHTSIDE books are quick, easy, and fun reads. Their strength is Green�?s setting: the Nightside is bursting with flavor. It�?s the kind of place you wish you could view in person �? through three feet of warded Kevlar-enhanced plexiglass. Life is both dark and colorful in the Nightside, and it�?s brutal, too. Simon populates the Nightside with some crazy characters (many of whom you�?ve seen before, but not necessarily all together in one city). Each installment introduces a couple more of them and also lets us spend time with some of our old favorites. In Hex and the City we meet a succubus named Pretty Poison who falls in love with Sinner, the man who sold his soul for true love. Then there�?s Madman, who was sane until he got a glimpse of what lies behind �?reality,� and the Lamentation who is the God of Suicides. We didn�?t get to see Razor Eddie, Dead Boy, or Shotgun Suzie in Hex and the City, but I feel certain that they�?ll show up in a future installment.
After reading four NIGHTSIDE novels back to back, it�?s obvious how repetitive the narrative and dialogue are. Green often uses the same words and phrases over and over. For someone who read the books as they came out originally, this may not be quite as noticeable, but even in the same book Green tends to use the same phrases repetitively. Of course this isn�?t a series I�?m reading for its �?literary merit� but it�?s also one of the reasons I can�?t give it a higher rating. Another reason is Green�?s tendency to put John in a situation that we�?re told is absolutely hopeless and then to create a deux ex machina (usually in the form of one of his friend�?s, or his own, heretofore unknown superpowers) to suddenly obliterate the unstoppable foe. Characters, places, and situations in the Nightside seem to constantly trump each other with their own outrageousness, making everything a bit over the top. Still, I�?m looking forward to learning, along with John Taylor, more about the Nightside, his mother, and his own destiny.
IÂ??m listening to Marc Vietor read the audiobook version, which was produced by Audible Frontiers. Vietor does a great job with all the characters. I like the audio so much that IÂ??ve purchased the rest of the series at Audible. show less
Hex and the City is the fourth novel in Simon R. Green??s NIGHTSIDE series. IÂ??ve been listening to NIGHTSIDE on audio lately because IÂ??ve been doing a lot of home improvements, especially painting, and NIGHTSIDE is such an easy read that I donÂ??t ever have to stop and rewind, which is something you donÂ??t want to do when youÂ??ve got paint all over your hands. Audio readers know what I mean.
In Hex and the City, John Taylor is moving on to his next case in the seedy and decadent Nightside where itÂ??s always 3 AM. This time Lady Luck has hired him to discover the origins of the Nightside, something Taylor wanted to do anyway. During his investigation he meets some people/creatures who show more were fundamentally involved in the establishment of the Nightside. He begins to confirm his suspicion that his own mother, whom he doesnÂ??t even remember, is someone rather important. HeÂ??s not sure what she is or what it means for his own status in the Nightside, but the more he learns, the more nervous he gets.
The NIGHTSIDE books are quick, easy, and fun reads. Their strength is Green�?s setting: the Nightside is bursting with flavor. It�?s the kind of place you wish you could view in person �? through three feet of warded Kevlar-enhanced plexiglass. Life is both dark and colorful in the Nightside, and it�?s brutal, too. Simon populates the Nightside with some crazy characters (many of whom you�?ve seen before, but not necessarily all together in one city). Each installment introduces a couple more of them and also lets us spend time with some of our old favorites. In Hex and the City we meet a succubus named Pretty Poison who falls in love with Sinner, the man who sold his soul for true love. Then there�?s Madman, who was sane until he got a glimpse of what lies behind �?reality,� and the Lamentation who is the God of Suicides. We didn�?t get to see Razor Eddie, Dead Boy, or Shotgun Suzie in Hex and the City, but I feel certain that they�?ll show up in a future installment.
After reading four NIGHTSIDE novels back to back, it�?s obvious how repetitive the narrative and dialogue are. Green often uses the same words and phrases over and over. For someone who read the books as they came out originally, this may not be quite as noticeable, but even in the same book Green tends to use the same phrases repetitively. Of course this isn�?t a series I�?m reading for its �?literary merit� but it�?s also one of the reasons I can�?t give it a higher rating. Another reason is Green�?s tendency to put John in a situation that we�?re told is absolutely hopeless and then to create a deux ex machina (usually in the form of one of his friend�?s, or his own, heretofore unknown superpowers) to suddenly obliterate the unstoppable foe. Characters, places, and situations in the Nightside seem to constantly trump each other with their own outrageousness, making everything a bit over the top. Still, I�?m looking forward to learning, along with John Taylor, more about the Nightside, his mother, and his own destiny.
IÂ??m listening to Marc Vietor read the audiobook version, which was produced by Audible Frontiers. Vietor does a great job with all the characters. I like the audio so much that IÂ??ve purchased the rest of the series at Audible. show less
Members
- Recently Added By
Lists
Paranormal investigators and space detectives
274 works; 9 members
Author Information
210+ Works 37,073 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)
Some Editions
Series
Work Relationships
Is contained in
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Hex and the City
- Original publication date
- 2005
- People/Characters
- John Taylor (private investigator); Madman (bends reality - pay attention to his soundtrack); Sinner (dead and rejected by Hell and Heaven); Pretty Poison (Sinner's beloved succubus | Walker knew her as Sophia); Walker (Henry | the Nightside Authorities' public face); Herne the Hunter (show all 46); Merlin Satanspawn; Alex Morrisey (owns and tends bar at Strangefellows); Lilith; Lucretia Grave (Great Auction Hall head auctioneer); Deliverence Wilde (fashion consultant to the Unseelie Court); Sandra Chance (necromancer); The Lamentation (God of Suicides/Saint of Suffering/Tyrant of Tears | etc.); The Painted Ghoul (nastiest | most evil-looking clown); Jackie Schadenfreud (emotion junkie); Lord of the Dance; Dancing Queen; Bad Penny (assassin); Lady Luck (a Power and Domination | a Transient Being); Jimmy Hadleigh (and 12 more of Walker's Reasonable Men); Lucy Coltrane (Strangefellows bouncer); Betty Coltrane (Strangefellows bouncer); Count Video (seen in a Vision); King of Skin (seen in a Vision); Jessica Sorrow (seen in a Vision); Annie Abattoir (seen in a Vision); Julien Advent (the Victorian Adventurer | edits the 'Night Times | ' the only Nightside daily paper); Larry Oblivion (seen in a Vision); The Harrowing (terrible | deathless creatures sent after Taylor); Sister Morphine (a Carmelite nun whose veins manufacture drugs for the Rats' Alley addicts); Cathy Barrett (Taylor's secretary); Rick (owns Rick's Café Imaginaire); the Bone Horror (lost all of his flesh gambling | lost all of his flesh gambling); Lord of the Thorns (Overseer of Nightside); the barge man on the World Beneath canal; Bub (guards the way to the Lord of Thorns); Shotgun Suzie (briefly); the Brittle Sisters of the Hive (what's left of them); Blind Pew (the rogue vicar); psychenaut from a lower dimension; psychenaut from a higher dimension; six-foot teddy bears (Great Auction Hall workers); giant penguin with a pencil moustache (Rick's Café Imaginaire waiter); Taylor's unicorn horn pin; Doberman Pinscher (Jackie Schadenfreud's | oversized | dyed pink); chaos butterfly
- Important places
- London, England, UK; The Nightside, London, England, UK (fictional); Strangefellows (the oldest bar in the world), Nightside (the oldest bar in the world); Great Auction Hall, Nightside; Rick's Café Imaginaire, Nightside; the Mammon Emporium (the Nightside's only shopping mall) (show all 16); the Hotel Clappe, Nightside's red light street; research station, the Prospero and Michael Scott Memorial Library, Nightside; the Londinium Club (the oldest | proudest | most select Gentlemen's Club in Nightside); Rats' Alley, Nightside; the Maxwell Mausoleum, the Freak Fair, Nightside; a small, private garden that leads to the World Beneath, Nightside; the World Beneath, Nightside; the Lord of Thorns' crystal cave, the World Beneath, Nightside; the Willow Tree tea house, Nightside; Hawk's Wind Bar & Grill, Nightside
- First words
- You can find anything in the Nightside, from the sacred to the profane and back again, but I don't recommend attending the auctions there unless you've got a strong stomach and nerves of steel.
- Quotations
- [Taylor has spotted Walker's agents on his tail.]
... But Walker had been having me watched and followed so long now that many of them had actually become familiar faces. In fact, if I was getting nowhere on a case,... (show all) I quite often took them off somewhere for a drink and tried out my various theories on them. On the grounds that neither of us was going anywhere for awhile, so we might as well be comfortable. Most of them went along with it. In the Nightside, today's enemy can be tomorrow's friend, or at least ally. And vice versa, of course. None of us ever mentioned this arrangement to Walker, of course. ... (chapter 6) - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)"She's not my mother," I said. "She was never my mother."
- Blurbers
- Butcher, Jim
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 1,466
- Popularity
- 15,872
- Reviews
- 28
- Rating
- (3.93)
- Languages
- Czech, English, German
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 9
- ASINs
- 8