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Title: Paths Not Taken (Nightside | Book 5) |
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Review of Paths Not Taken (Nightside, Book 5)
- John Taylor just discovered his long-gone mother created the Nightside--the dark heart of London--and intends to destroy it. To save his birthplace, he will have to travel back through a very distant--and probably deadly--past.
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Comments for Paths Not Taken (Nightside | Book 5)
- Posted on 2007-11-12
Nightside stories
Simon Green has invented a nasty little piece of work called The Nightside. You will be reminded that it is called the Nightside on practically EVERY PAGE. He will not let up with repetition so get used to it. Strangely enough, he has created some strong and interesting characters. Then he kills them. Lines them up and shoots them down ( or rips their limbs off ). For a pulp serial fiction, they are rather entertaining, just be sure of the correct order to read them. Each book usually contains an individual story line but there will be occurances in each edition that will be brought up again in later novels. Unfortunately, there is no sequencing published on the cover and little listing available inside.
The series in a nutshell:
Cliche Private Investigator with supernatural power solves cases in a grim "otherworldly" location congruent to London. Mix liberally with time travel and forces of Good and Evil vying for supremacy and add a dash of zombie horror snuff film and Voila! You have THE NIGHTSIDE.
Score: 3
- Posted on 2007-09-27
Search for Nightside's Origins
Paths Not Taken (2005) is the fifth urban fantasy novel in the Nightside series, following Hex and the City. In the previous volume, John Taylor finally discovered the identity of his mother when she visited Strangefellows, but quickly regretted the knowledge. Walker and his minions invaded the bar to destroy Taylor, but are defeated by Taylor's friends and relative.
Bad Penny stabbed Taylor and was permanently banished from Strangefellows and everywhere else. Merlin even nullified the Speaking Gun. Then Taylor tipped his mother out of the bar back the way she had come.
In this novel, Taylor has a visitor at the office. Unfortunately, he is actually present at the time. When asked his complaint, Eamonn Mitchell says that he is being hounded by other versions of himself. Then such other versions appear, armed with change wands, and make a mess out of Cathy's carefully filed paperwork [snigger]. Taylor and Tommy Oblivion -- another Nightside PI -- track down the man behind the plot and reason with him.
Taylor is impressed by Tommy's talent and invites him along on a trip back through time. Suzie Shooter invites herself into the party. Old Father Time sends them into the far past, but not quite far enough.
In this story, Taylor and associates find themselves in the Nightside of sixth century AD. Taylor figures than Lilith has interfered with the time transfer and gets VERY angry. After he cools down enough, they decide that their best chance to go further back in time is Merlin Satanspawn.
Failing to locate Merlin at the Londinium Club, they next try the current version of Strangefellows. Taylor recognizes the exterior view of the Avalon from a prior experience. They find Merlin inside and shortly thereafter Nimue the witch appears.
Nimue is a bubbly little golddigger. A former Druid, she had run away and then convinced Merlin to teach her real magic. Now Taylor talks her into helping them, but their plans go dreadfully wrong. Despite all this, Taylor and Suzie go back further in time, but not quite far enough.
Taylor finds someone, or something, else to send them even further in time. Finally Taylor gets back to Nightside's origins. It's not much like his expectations, but he does have a confrontation with his future mother.
This story parallels the previous novel. He meets people, or things, that he had encountered in the previous novel during his excursions back in time. Naturally, these persons or things have some memory of Taylor when they later -- or earlier -- meet him in the future.
Highly recommended for Green fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of tough detectives, various magics, and a personal quest through time.
-Arthur W. Jordin
Score: 5
- Posted on 2007-08-26
Super Reader
Not really as good as the last few, because it really breaks the fantasy-noir feel to go on a time travelling adventure, for most of it.
John takes Suzie Shooter and Tommy Oblivion with him through time, to try and work out a way to stop the war with his mother Lilith.
Along the way you get Arthur, Mordred, Merlin, Nimue, Father Time, and a rather meaner version of Herne the Hunter than previously.
Lilith, of course, is still waiting for them, as the relationship between John and Suzie intensifies.
Score: 3 - Posted on 2007-01-12
Another awesome book by this author.
well, this is like the 6ht one i read of his.
I love the NIghtside even if i seems to be much of the same over and over.
was kinda sad to see dead boy was not in this one.
Score: 5 - Posted on 2006-04-13
Better, but still
Trust me, it is not fun being the lone wet blanket amongst a chorus of positive reviews, but....
This was better than the last book, but the last was so lame that it took me a long time to read this one. Green STILL isn't doing ANYTHING different from Cook's Garret series and the Garret series is still better. That's why it only gets 2 stars instead of 3.
Look, if you only read super duper mega fiction then you will like this series, heck you will like anything that Green wrote. Also, you should be reading a lot of the miliporn done by Brunch and Drake and by the way have you resubscribed to Soldier of Fortune and Babes with Guns?
I like his work when there's nothing eles to read, but know this: Walter Jon Williams does the male-female buddy cop characters better than this, Cook does the fantasy detective better than this and the Dresden series handles fantasy meets machineguns better than this, and Morgan's Kovacks character is much tougher than John Tyler.
Still, its a fun ride, but not a great book. I will read the next book because its a fun ride. It is wrong to say its a good book however, because the plots are still shallow (though there's actually some character relationship development in this one) and the characters are stock put in every book Green has ever written. If you've read the other books in the series this is better than the last because it has an interesting take on Roman times, however, I still ask: how much over the top phantasmagoria can you take before it becomes mediocre?
Score: 2