[Review] Agents of Light and Darkness by Simon R. Green

Agents of Light and Darkness
Nightside #2
Simon R. Green
October 28th 2003
Ace

Amazon/Book Depository/B&N

The New York Times bestselling author takes readers back to the Nightside.

A quest for the Unholy Grail-the goblet from which Judas drank at the Last Supper-takes private eye John Taylor deep into the secret, magical heart of London...called the Nightside.

  

"Taylor is the name. John Taylor....My card says I'm a detective, but what I really am is an expert on finding things. It's part of the Gift I was born with as a child of the Nightside - the hidden heart of London where it's always three a.m., where inhuman creatures and otherworldly gods walk side-by-side in the endless darkness of the soul.

"Assignment: Locate the Unholy Grail, the cup Judas drank from at the Last Supper. It corrupts all who touch it, but it also grants enormous power. So I've got some competition - from angels, devils, sinners and saints - in the search for the dark goblet."

Chris here again with the next book in the Nightside Series, Agents of Light and Darkness. Simon R. Green takes us back to the shadowed and hidden world of the Nightside, where the sun never shines and it's always 3am.

John Taylor is searching for something far more serious than the Holy Grail, he's looking for the Unholy Grail and so is everyone else in the Nightside. Worst of all, the angels from both above and below have come to the Nightside and they both want to force him to use his special "gift" to find it for them. He's now in a race against time to find it, because he's been warned that if the angels find it first, it can spell the end of the world.

Many of the supporting characters from the first book make a reappearance, such as Suzie Shooter and Razor Eddie. And this time Simon R. Green gives you a deeper look into these characters than in the first book, including how the most feared bounty hunter in the Nightside lives when she's not hunting her human prey.

The humor from the first book returns in this one, and it once again left me laughing more often than not. The witty comments when John Taylor confronts two armies of angels and the snappy interruptions of Suzie Shooter as the interrupts anyone she wants without fear of the consequences, whether its demons from the pit or the feared Merlin himself, risen fresh from the grave to lend a fear inspiring hand.

I won't spoil the whole book, but I will tell you I give this tale of myths, legends and mystery a rating of 5 out of 5 laser pistols. This really is a "supernova" of a novel I will recommend to anyone.