Book #16

Tales From the Nightside Book 4: Hex and the City
by Simon R. Green

First: I have hit my very first experience with Toni's problem with fantasy novels. I tried reading Glen Cook's The Tyranny of the Night, the first in his series The Instrumentalities of the Night. And I like Glen Cook's writing, and I like the concept of this series -- but I couldn't read it. Because after 100, 150 pages, he had spent so long reciting the names of imagined countries and people and religions, and explaining in excruciating detail what happened between all of these entities in the past, and I had gotten so confused by the utter lack of a tangible touchstone for me to follow all the twists and turns and wars and rivalries -- not even a map, and what the hell kind of fantasy series doesn't have a map printed in the first book? -- that I just didn't care about the world to read about it. Totally annoying, too, because I was looking forward to new Glen Cook books. Ah, well.

I decided to go for Simon R. Green's fourth Nightside installment, Hex and the City. The writing is getting better, but there are still some of the same flaws: he still relies too much on stock phrases and poor attempts at hardboiled wit for humor. Fortunately, the characters are much more interesting, and though there are some of the old overpowered characters in this one, they are much more interesting; John's quest in this is to find out the origins of the Nightside, which it turns out relate to the identity of his mother and his role in the potential future destruction of the Nightside and the entire world, as glimpsed in the first book. His allies in this are the best part of the book: Madman and Sinner, two people who are in one way or another impervious to harm, who he brings because he can hide behind them when things get nasty. And though there is a surprise appearance by Suzie Shooter, and some annoying parts with Alex the bartender, the book overall was a lot of fun to read.

The ending kinda sucked, though. Either a cliffhanger or just a lame attempt to maintain John's persona as the tough guy/sad victim of the world's vicissitudes. Not good, whichever it was. But then, it was only one line in a 250-page novel, so the read was definitely worth it, and we'll hope the next installment saves the series from the potential downfall of John's last words.