Goodbye, crazy people

I'd been looking forward to Night Fall by Simon R. Green since the advertisement for it at the end of his last Secret Histories novel, since it meant the characters from that series were going to finally share space with his earlier Nightside series, which evidently ended before I started this blog.

A quick rundown on the Nightside...

Nightside is kind of a pocket reality hidden in London, kind of an adult version of The Phantom Tollbooth. Normal reality goes out the window in Nightside, where sin is available to all seekers, timeslips bring in people from all over the universe, aliens, alternate dimensions, etc all exist within. The Nightside is supervised by The Advisors, who in turn are represented by someone with the title Walker. At the start of this volume, Walker is John Taylor, who was the narrator of the Nightside series. Trying to to spoil too much, John is the child of the supernatural entity that formed the Nightside, is married to Shotgun Suzie, and is about to become a father.

Edward Drood, on the other hand, is still working with the Drood family, who are bound and determined to save humanity, whether they like it or not. So, when the borders of the Nightside start expanding for reasons they can't easily discern, the Droods send Eddie in along with Molly Metcalf to figure out what's actually happening, violating ancient pacts that have kept the Droods out of Nightside.

This doesn't go well, and we follow both men as a war inevitably starts breaking out. Eventually, the Droods use Alpha Red Alpha to shift the entire manor into Nightside for what they assume will be a bloodless coup.

Which doesn't happen.

Along the way, characters from both series pop in and out of the narrative, along with JC from Ghostfinders, who eventually helps end the war towards the end. In the end, we get resolution on just about everything, although the final wrap up is kind of abrupt. (It also conforms that Ishmael Jones is not part of this universe.)

I really enjoyed seeing John and Edward sharing the same pages, since they're really two sides of the same character. They do end up pulling a Kirk meets Picard towards the end, which honestly had me cheering while eating my lunch today.

I'm sad to see the world end, but what a ride it was. Although you never know how permanent such endings are, sometime things do come back even in a cameo.

He's the man, the man with the spider's touch

So, Moonbreaker by Simon R. Green is pretty much exactly what I expect out of a paranormal James Bond novel, particularly one in his Secret Histories series.

Which is to say, over the top, cheeky, and really entertaining.

OK.

So, at the end of the last one, we found Eddie Drood poisoned by Dr. DOA, who was actually an alternate reality version of Eddie from a reality where the Drood were exterminated. Eddie wound up trapped with Molly Metcalf in said alternate reality while his alternate self went to Eddie's normal reality.

Several things happen here. We find out the alternate Droods worshiped Kali, in the sense that the Thugees in Temple of Doom worshiped Kali. We also find the alternate hall has an alien Grey who's actually a robot from the future trapped in that version of the Old Library.

They eventually get back to Eddie's original relaity, and the chase is on for Bad Eddie. Well, after dealing with the Hall releasing parts that have been cut off from reality for a while. Like the parts with the alchemically married to demons Droods. And the alchemically married to angels Droods.

Then it's off to Scotland and the Museum of Unattached Oddities, Siberia, and THE MOON!

There's quite a bit going on here, and the fur keeps on flying from start to finish, with occasional meditations on family obligations and how much one should acknowledge bad things done in the past. As an added bonus, the teaser for the next book reveals that it will be narrated by both Eddie and John Taylor (narrator of the Nightside series). That should be interesting.

So yeah. One of the better entries in the Histories.

The Poisoner's Garden

A few notes before I start talking about Simon R. Green's Dr. DOA. The main library finally reopened, and I had the opportunity Monday to finally go explore beyond the first floor, which lead to some new additions to the TBR pile. You'll find out more about them as I finish them, although one looks to be book 2 in a series, although unlike the other 2 series by the author I saw, this one wasn't numbered, suggesting that skipping a volume shouldn't have any real bearing on understanding the plot. (I did put a request in on Book 1 of one of his other series, the one which initially caught my eye.)

Also, the main library now as a large observation area in the reading room, meaning you can read while looking out at the Deaf School Topiary park.

 Anyway, back to our favorite cheeky Drood, as he navigates the shadows of England again.  We start with Eddie and Molly being summoned before the Matriarch again, this time to investigate on Cassandra Inc, a new organization selling information on future events to interested buyers. As this might interfere with the Drood family's own aims and ends, Eddie and Molly get sent off to find out where their information is coming from. When this gets wrapped up, and we've received a bit of foreshadowing from the source of the predictions, Eddie and Molly return to Drood Hall, where Eddie passes out and gets transferred to the ICU in the infirmary.

Seems our hero has somehow gotten poisoned by the supposedly Urban Legend, Dr. DOA. As the family can't figure out what it is, or how the Dr. managed to get through stringent security in the first place, and the only reason Eddie is still alive has to do with the Strange Matter Torc, Eddie and Molly set off on a quest to find Dr. DOA and/or a cure. What follows is fairly standard for the Shadowed world, with visits to the Wulfshead Club, a place where life energy is transferred from donors to those seeking to prolong their life, and even a remote mountain base that's home to the Drood offshoot Survivors. 

We eventualy wind up in one of Molly's old lairs from her days as a supernatural terrorist, where we solve on of the side mysteries in this one; namely, who's been sending various friends and enemies to fight Eddie while pretty much repeating the same script?

Eventually, Eddie and Molly confront Dr. DOA in the least likely place, and we get left with a cliffhanger on par with the one at the end of From Hell With Love.

As I say when I review one of these, if you've read one, you know what you're getting in to. If you haven't, and your curiousity is aroused, try one. They're all fairly short reads, and there are worse ways to spend your time.

Here we are again

I've mentioned before that Simon R. Green tends to go over the top more than an 80's era Sylvester Stallone action movie. However, with A Drood to a Kill, we're not nearly as silly as some of the other volumes in this series.

We start with Eddie Drood returning to Drood manor for a conversation with the new matriarch. Which involves breaking in, because of course it does. He's seeking information on why  the family won't give him resources for figuring out what happened to his parents after the end of Casino Infernale. Long story short, he winds up getting suckered into going on a mission for the family to figure out why things are leaking out of a spy station run by the British government. This takes up most of the first half of the book, and includes Jack the Armourer giving Eddie the tricked out Bentley. That tends to take shortcuts through other dimensions.

Which leads, or course to meeting Uncle James' former Elven lover in the shifting lands. Who sends Eddie home without explanation, until he finds out the real reason, Uncle Jack died.

Which leads to a Drood funeral and a wake. From which Eddie's fiance, Molly Metcalf disappears. Which leads to a search to figure out where the Powers That Be took her to play The Game, wherein killing off the other contestants also gets rid of any infernal or divine contracts one may have pending on one's soul.

When Eddie finally makes it to the game, about three quarters of the way through the book, he not only finds Molly, but his parents.

It's quite a ride, and the plotting is extremely non-linear. Not to mention Green takes more than a few chances to tie in Deathstalker to the world shared by his other series.

However, there are a few themes crossing through this narrative that give it a bit more depth than normal. Among other things, after an encounter at the Department of the Uncanny, Eddie decides he doesn't want to kill anymore, regardless of who's asking him to. This gets explored quite fully during The Game. The other, as evidenced with the death of Jack and a few others, is that of old players leaving the spy game. It's actually kind of depressing.

Fun read.

Over the moon....

Once again, Simon R. Green has written the literary equivalent of jumping iover the moon to avoid the shark.

This time, Eddie Drood and Molly Metcalf have to solve who killed off all of the Department of the Uncanny (including his grandfather, the Regent of Shadows) and find the mysterious Lazarus stone that's currently Property of a Lady Faire. (Yeah, not sure what Bond title that's a play on.)

The Lady Faire in question is more or less Dr. Frankenstein's version of an incubus/succubus; s/he is a combination of genders and more or less exists as the ultimate honey trap. Seems that Eddie's Uncle, the Grey Fox, gave the Lady the Lazarus stone, which the person who killed everyone at the Uncanny wants back.

So, Eddie, (who was given another chance at becoming the Drood Patriarch if he gave up Molly) goes on a quest to find the Lady Faire, who's hosting a party for all her lovers past in Ultima Thule. Mind you, it takes 3/4 of the book to get there, including a detour in a place off of the Nightside to meet the Doormouse.

Yeah.

Like almost all of the books in Green's shared world, this is a quick read with lightning pacing. His cast of characters remain almost comical in their exaggeration, and his mythology is vastly entertaining. 

Thy torc and thy armour, they comfort me...

So, anyway, I'd have been a lot sooner in the posting of this entry had it not been for the sinus infection that joined an ear infection, both of which proceeded to infect the lymph node they drained into. All of which meant a few nights hallucinating alternate sequences from Casino Infernale by Simon R. Green. This would be book 7 in his Secret Histories, all of which so far are plays on James Bond titles. (The listing at the end of this one for volume 8 lists the title as Property of a Lady Faire, which doesn't correspond to a Bond novel or movie that I know of.)

Anyway, I can't really go into the review of this without some backstory, which even then will be incomplete, because evidently some of his earlier medieval/renaissance fantasy has common characters.

So, for the sake of simplicity, we'll start with the 12 books of the Nightside, which was kind of like London Below in Gaimen's Neverwhere, only with many more explosions, time slips, and organizations straight out of the old Illuminati card game. While that series resolved in book 12 (The Bride Wore Black Leather), after invasions by Hell, Heaven, Lilith, Merlin Satanspawn, time travel, and just about everything else, Secret Histories started publishing around book 8, maybe?

Secert Histories concerns Shaman Bond, who is secretly also Edward Drood. Of the Drood family. Who mainly exist to protect humanity, whether they like it or not. While they, by old pacts, will not enter the Nightside, characters do jump series here and there (and also with the newest series, Ghost Finders). The Droods are a very, very old family, we find out most of their origin in Book 1, starting back at the dawn of man. We've been through various betrayals, bitter infighting, the death of The Matriarch, the death of Eddie, the destruction of Drood Manor, and Eddie leaving the family (AGAIN) and Joining the Department of the Uncanny. Which is where we join him and Molly Metcalf, Wild Witch of the Woods.

As we've been finding throughout the series, things assumed about the characters' pasts are not always as they seem. Which is why Molly and Shaman get sent to the northernmost island of Scotland, at the behest of the Regent of Shadows, to spy on a new organization first founded by Molly's now dead parents. They do find the information they seek, but at a price. As they try to transport back to London via the Merlin Glass, they wind up at Drood Manor to help with a "Family" matter. Namely, a summit between several organizations who might be affected by the war over Crow Lee's Inheritance. This ends up happening in the tombs of Mars. After much posturing, a few fights, and general silliness, Molly and Shaman go back to the Manor for equipment as they go try to break the Shadow Bank at this year's Casino Infernale.

Which is fine, except that they arrive to find that Shaman's parents have already lost his soul to the Casino. Which means he gets to bet Molly's, even though several have claims on it already. They have only their wits, as Eddie's torc gets removed before they go, and the Casino radiates a null zone most of the time that kills Molly's magic.

What follows careens between outright silly to deadly serious, often in the same paragraph. It's honestly one of the things I like best about Green's writing. I mean, during one scene as they first arrive in France, the talking car with an attitude helps Shaman and Molly escape from Valkyries that ride pterodactyls. When presented with such a ridiculous scene that is both funny and nail biting at the same time, it's a magical moment in its own right. His writing may veer off into outright lunacy, but it's done with such flair and elan that it's very hard not to go cheering right along with the shared delusion.