Paths Not Taken

Originally posted at FanLit: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/reviews/paths-not-taken/

Warning: Contains spoilers for previous NIGHTSIDE books. If you haven�??t read them, please start at the beginning with Something from the Nightside. Otherwise youƒ??ll be lost.

Paths Not Taken is the fifth book in Simon R. Greenƒ??s NIGHTSIDE series. In the previous installment, Hex and the City, John Taylor investigated the origins of the Nightside and discovered that Lilith, his own mother, was its creator. Now, in Paths Not Taken, John and Suzie Shooter travel back in time to discover why and how Lilith created the Nightside. That might help them figure out why she now wants to destroy it and how they might be able to stop her.

The best part of show more Paths Not Taken, as usual, is the setting. This time itƒ??s fun to learn what the Nightside was like throughout history, not just by being told, but by actually going back to experience it. (If you thought the modern Nightside was bad, you should have seen it in the 6th century!) As we go backward in time, the past mixes up with the possible futures John has already seen in a previous book (thus the title Paths Not Taken) and we see how John has been unwittingly influencing events all along. We get to visit some familiar people and places and we learn what happened to Merlinƒ??s heart, where the Lamentation came from, and how Suzie becomes disfigured in the future John has been worrying about. Green purposely creates all sorts of time paradoxes which will make your head spin. Iƒ??m just starting to realize how well he planned out the NIGHTSIDE series.

Paths Not Taken suffers from the same problems this series has had from the beginning, mainly the repetition of ideas and language within and between books. Green repeats himself so often that I wonder if he has certain phrases typed into a macro. For example, ƒ??ƒ?? I opened up my inner eye, my private eye ƒ?? and it was the easiest thing in the world toƒ??.ƒ?, ƒ??ƒ?? they all remembered they had urgent appointments somewhere else.ƒ?) This was a real problem for me, so Iƒ??ve decided to take a break from NIGHTSIDE before revisiting it in the next book, Sharper Than a Serpentƒ??s Tooth.

Iƒ??m listening to the fabulous audio production narrated by Marc Vietor. I wouldnƒ??t think of reading NIGHTSIDE any other way. show less

Another great installment in the Nightside series. It picks up right where the last book left off, continuing the drama of John’s long, lost mom wanting to destroy the Nightside. It’s very dark, as usual, but more depressing than the other books because of its focus on the characters’ emotional issues. There’s also more romance, though it hardly feels romancy when the pair in question can’t touch each other, are extremely scarred both physically and emotionally, and almost never put down their shotgun. Regardless, I enjoyed going deeper into the characters personal lives, and I like that no one is entirely good or entirely bad. Everyone lives in shades of gray, especially John, whose choices in this book can be viewed as show more either cruel and selfish or as necessary evils in pursuit of a noble purpose - or maybe a little of both. I was also excited to finally have some of the many mysteries cleared up even though the story is definitely not wrapped up. Green drops a huge clue towards the end that’s clearly the answer to how everything will be fixed, but the protagonist has yet to realize it. I’m looking forward to reading book six to find out what happens next. show less

This is a good addition to the Nightside series. I am always impressed with Green's ability to play on words and fiddle with history just a bit. I'm not too sure how I feel about this series become more of a mythology series than a Taylor solving the most recent mystery series. I feel now that it becomes imperative that each book be read in order and that I understand what's happening with all the characters because I might miss something in future books.

Marc Vietor is a wonderful narrator and I hope to listen to more of his work in the future. If you want some good, easy fantasy books to listen to during your commute or while working around the house, I'd recommend the Nightside series.

This is not a good standalone. Many of the other books in the series are good standalones but this is a serious bridge book, it's a book that fills in some of the background and the way things will have to go for John Taylor. He has to go into the past to meet with his mother, Lilith, to find ways of dealing with her, meeting up with some pivotal characters and meeting with a lot of the characters and important people in the world.

It's one of the weakest I've read in this series but it's not a bad read, it fills in some gaps and progresses the plot. This is a series that I will have to re-read in sequence some day.

Review of the audiobook (driving to work has never been so much fun!):

At the end of 'Hex and the City' John Taylor announces he's going to go back in time to find the Nightside's orgins. I loved that book, but that statement filled me with dread. Why create this alternate world filled with vampires, ghosts, laser weapon technology and man-eating cars if you're just going to abandon it? And for the opening chunk of the book (which is essentially 'Hex' part 2) I honestly thought the story was going to fall apart. Fortunately, after a slow start it actually turns out to be pretty good. The Nightside of yesterday is darker than ever, magics and technologies less refined and more dangerous, and some of the events genuinely shock.

As with most show more of Simon R. Green's books, the pay-off at the end is worth putting up with the slump in the middle but as the slump came at the start this book just gets better as it goes on! The scene at Hern's court is amazing, best sequence of the series for me, and we actually bear witness to the creation of the Nightside!

Marc Vietor continues his blinding narration of the series, creating a sense of a darker more primal Nightside. show less

City boy goes time travel for his mother without a plan, and wreak havoc along the way without regard for consequences, all because he doesn't want some consequences to happen. The running gags are starting to run pretty thin, we all know about the Nightside by now, little point of telling about the murderous traffic or that the Devil himself is humbled by the vices of the citizens. This book is a clear corridor, a transport, in the narrative, hopefully the next is back in shape. Taylor is much better as a Chandler-wannabe PI then a hero set on a Epic Quest to Save the World.

Besides I heartfully agree with MaryWJ above that the logical thing to do, when you know that messing with your mother will destroy the Nightside, is not show more necessarily to go messing with your mother. But as I implied above, connecting the dots and pay attention to consequences (especially during time travels) is Taylor's core incompetence. show less

I wasn't very keen on this book. I haven't read the other books in this series, but I have read other Simon Green books and perhaps that coloured my expectations. I felt that Taylor was rather stupid and simplistic. He continually reminds the reader that searching for his mother leads to a dark future. So therefore he searches for her to try to destroy her. It really is tedious.

I also felt that the plot was rather stretched out. I would far rather have seen maybe one stop in time (preferably the stop where our heroes encounter Herne the Hunter, my favourite portion of the novel) followed by a more in detail encounter with Lillith and the start of Nightside and then the following battle between John and Lillith for the existence of show more Nightside. Instead there are multiple, rather tedious stops and the whole novel stops just as it gets going. Its all very well that its part of a sequel, but stopping just before the main battle isn't just a cliffhanger, its a cop out.

Aside from anything else, I thought that Suzie was a far more interesting and nuanced character than John. I would really have liked to see the story from inside her head. Instead we were trapped with John, whose simplistic logic made no sense for the kind of character he was built up to be.

Perhaps it would have been better had I read the whole series, and I will admit that I am intrigued by the story, but I have to say that the writing was really quite poor and on writing quality alone I wouldn't recommend this book. show less