Book Review: Something From the Nightside

Something From the Nightside is the first book of the 12 book Nightside series by Simon Green.  If you like your fantasy a little darker, a little weirder, and a little more British this would be an excellent series for you.

The book starts with our protagonist, John Taylor, who isn't quite human.  He is a private investigator who is forced to return to the Nightside, a sort of hidden netherworld London, where it is always 3 am and always dark.  Taylor had been living in London, away from the Nightside.  He though he had finally left it for good.  The book focuses on his quest to return a runaway child to her mother.  Along the way we meet an interesting cast of characters, all various friends and enemies of our main character.

There is Suzie Shooter, the human bounty hunter who gets her name from her trademark weapon, and makes her money in very violent ways.  There is also Razor Eddie, the Punk God of the Straight Razor, also violent.   And something more than human, that cannot be killed.  There is also Alex Morrisey, the owner of Taylor's favorite bar Stangefellows, whose family has been attached to the bar for centuries, but can never leave.

One of the driving themes of this story and all the books, is Taylor's special talent for finding things, and what it allows him to do.  A theme that goes hand in hand with his abilities as a finder, is what he really is.  He is a product of a relationship between a human father and an inhuman mother.  What exactly his mother is is unknown to both Taylor and the reader.  Most creatures of the Nightside speak of her with both reverence and fear, but no one will reveal to Taylor exactly what she is or where she can be found.

I found Tales From the Nightside very entertaining.  Think of it as a cross between Stephen King and Neil Gaiman.  It's dark, mysterious, British and a bit gross.  But at all times entertaining.  The characters are well drawn, and interesting, and there are enough different types that Taylor interacts with, that it is never dull.  Beware in the Nightside.  Nothing is ever what it seems.  We have book 1 and 2 of the Nightside series available new in paperback for $7.99+ tax.

I Don't Care How Many Bats I Have Tattooed on My Person, I Still Do Not Have to Read Dracula

It's kind of a mantra.  I struggle with this deep doubt of my worth as a bookseller, because I read almost exclusively for pleasure, and almost always out of the often shunned genres of: fantasy, young adult, and graphic novels.  I seldom find other things that call to me, but there is this tiny voice that whispers that I'm a bad person for refusing to read non-fiction, or even classic literature.  So I repeat to myself that I don't have to read Dracula.  My goth card will not be revoked if I don't.

Here's the thing.  In the second year after Borders closed, I pledged to read one classic a month for the entire year.  I kicked it off with the most bookseller friendly classic of all time; Fahrenheit 451.  We booksellers love the First Amendment.  Since Fahrenheit 451 is pretty much all about the power of books and not losing them to censorship, I really couldn't think of starting any place else right?

And then I hated it.  I finished it and was pleased with the ending, and was glad that I made it all the way through the book, but it took me almost three weeks to read.  I could read six Jim Butcher novels in that time, and not feel bogged down by a sense of moral obligation to pick up a book.

I kind of imagine this is how non-readers feel all the time.  "I'm not enjoying this, but if people see me holding this, they'll think I'm some sort of savvy intellectual type."  Make no mistake, I definitely felt intellectually superior to everyone walking around with Fifty Shades of Grey (that's when this experiment took place), but I wasn't a very happy reader.

So like 90% of the population, I guiltily abandoned my New Year's Resolution.  I then spent the next 49 weeks reading 83 additional books, including nearly everything Jim Butcher has written (hence the earlier math-those were not random numbers).

So, I learned a lesson.  Classics are not really my thing.  Most of the time I feel okay about it.  I have my handful of go to non-fiction books (I love you Simon Winchester), and I have my token regular fiction book (The Bean Trees).  I also have a trove of recommendations based on the 50 hours a week I spend selling books to other people ("What are the last three books you loved," isn't just to help you find your next favorite book.  It's also to help the person who has read it already.).  But there's this voice that whispers (usually after someone gives me a scornful "oh," sometimes with accompanying eyeroll, when I answer their inquiry as to what I read), that tells me to put on my big girl pants and read some literature.  It's typically not a very positive voice, so I have decided to continue to repeat my reader mantra: "I don't care how many bats I have tattooed on my person, I do not have to read Dracula", and I am a happy reader.

Book Review: The Bone Season

The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon

The year is 2059 and several major European cities are under the control of a security force known as the Scion.  People with special powers known as voyants (from clairvoyant) live a criminal existence in gangs on the fringes or society, or are captured and killed by the NVD.  But this society is not what it seems, and beneath it lies something even more sinister that our protagonist Paige Mahoney is about to discover.  Paige is a dreamwalker, someone who can enter people's minds, drive them crazy or even kill them.

The Bone Season has been receiving good reviews, with some criticism from book reviewers.  From what I understand some of the criticism lies in its similarity to other fantasy books, and I'd like to speak to that briefly.  I think people's natural tendency is to compare new books to older books so that readers will have a frame of reference.  Are some of the themes similar to other books?  Yes, but themes are typically similar and that is why they are themes, they recur.  I do not see a similarity to The Hunger Games, unless you are merely going with female protagonist that knows how to fight, which is a weak comparison at best.  As for the Harry Potter comparison, I don't really see that either.  Unless Hogwarts was a prison?  I'm starting to wonder if these book reviewers actually read the books they compared The Bone Season to.

And now for the comparisons that make sense to me.  There is an interesting Dickensian vibe here with Paige playing the role of Oliver Twist.  You also get an A Clockwork Orange vibe with some of the slang that is thrown around (not coincidentally one of Shannon's favorite books).  There is a glossary of slang at the end of the book, and it isn't used as much as in Clockwork, so there isn't a confusion factor.

The book itself is really quite original, Shannon creates a rich, developed world mostly based in Scion London, and its surrounding area.  She does a great job of world building, with the potential for more development in the upcoming sequels.  She also creates many different types and sub-types of voyants.  There is a handy reference chart at the beginning of the book, which honestly is unnecessary to appreciating the book itself.

From a purely aesthetic perspective this is a really pretty book.  It would appeal to fans of well made books everywhere.  The cover is beautiful, and the charts and maps are a nice addition, as are details like the red flyleaf with a symbol on it.  Sadly the only thing missing is a deckle edge.  No book is perfect I guess.

I loved this book.  I read it in two days (I even read it at work- ssssshhhhh don't tell my boss I may get fired).  It was really that entertaining.  It's definitely something I would suggest to everyone with an appreciation for fantasy novels, and any other good book.  Suggest, because it is rude to grab people and force them to read something.

Book Review: The Ocean at the End of the Lane

The Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman is his latest adult novel and most recent since the release of Anansi Boys in 2005.  It is an absolute delight of a modern fantasy novel.  It is a quick read clocking at only 181 pages, but never seems too short covering exactly what the author wants you to know and still leaving a sense of mystery.  The story is told from the point of view of an adult male looking back on certain events of his childhood that are both supernatural and terrifying.

The three main female characters, Lettie Hempstock, her mother and her grandmother, are endearingly sketched and unforgettable.  The novel encompasses a time when the narrator lived in a house close to the Hempstocks.  It covers the horror when the boarder who live with the narrator's family, an opal miner, committed suicide, and the surrounding supernatural aftermath.  This part of the book was actually taken from Gaiman's own childhood, when his father's car was stolen and the thief was discovered to have committed suicide in the vehicle.  There is also a delightful photograph on the rear of the book of Gaiman himself as a child standing atop a drainage pipe.

Alas if you are interested in more of the plot, you will have to read the book yourself.  I found it wonderful, so you will not be wasting what little time it takes to finish.  The Ocean at the End of the Lane is another successful entry in Gaiman's pantheon of  modern day fairy tales, and certainly worth a read or two.