Book Review: Something from the Nightside

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Something from the Nightside     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Simon R. Green
Class/Genre:   Fantasy
Series: Nightside # 1
Ace, June 2003, $6.50, 240 pp.

It's a place where the sun doesn't shine, a locale where past, present and future converge at times. It is where one' darkest dreams and desires are met, a place not of this earth but connected to it so that people travel to and from it. John Taylor lived his entire life in the Nightside, abandoned by his father when he discovered the woman he married wasn't human. John has a gift of being able to locate anyone anywhere and he used that extra sense to help people.

He finally got sick of lies, betrayals and mistrust of those who would turn from friend to foe in the blink of an eye. He left the Darkside and set up shop as a private detective in mundane London and for five years etched out a living, safe and secure. One day Joanna Barrett comes to his office asking for help in locating her runaway daughter in the Darkside. Unable to refuse a damsel in distress, John travels to the Darkside, a place he's secretly happy to have a reason to return to because it is home and so very much alive.

Cross the X files with The Twilight Zone, add a pinch of The Outer Limits and a dash of Eerie, Indiana and one might have a glimmer of an idea what the Darkside is like. Simon R. Green has written this fascinating little gem that makes people want to walk on the wild and visit his extraordinary world. For though it is the focus of darkness, the Nightside has packets of goodness, which means that those who want to can defeat evil anywhere.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner