Simon R. Green Sharper than a Serpent’s Tooth

Sharper than a Serpent's Tooth

Simon R. Green

Ace, March 2006, $6.99, 256 pp.

ISBN 0441013872

In the heart of London, accessible to only a few people, lies Nightside, a city within a city. It is a dark and gloomy place, where magic works and creatures from myth and legend, as well as humans, reside there. One of the residents is private investigator John Taylor, who with a friend, has just returned on a journey to the past where he finally learns who his mother is. She is Lilith, Adam's first wife, who created Nightside as her domain where the forces of Hell and Heaven can not travel.

The gods that are worshipped in Nightside are her children, begotten by consorting with demons. When she became too dangerous, a spell was cast, banishing her to Limbo, but now she has returned and wants to remake Nightside and the Earth in her image. John intends to stop her using any means available, and gathers a wide array of characters to help him defeat his mother. Everything they try fails, and it looks like the nightmare from John's trip to the future is coming to pass. In a last desperate attempt to save his city and the world, John is prepared to sacrifice himself if a plan he thought up actually works.

Nightside is a place people who are attracted to the macabre will want to visit, but is not a place one can stay too long because it casts a hold on you so that the visitor will never want to leave. John, who has been hounded for years because of the prophecy that he will destroy Nightside, is willing to die if it means his city will survive. Simon R. Green has written a captivating take, starring heroic an endearing character whose thoughts when he is in danger are hilarious.