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The Unnatural Inquirer by Simon R. Green
Feb. 2nd, 2008 12:19 amFor the uninitiated, The Nightside is a milewide strip of London that kinda-but-not-quite exists in our reality. It's essentially home to all the people and creatures who find the real world boring, or got tired of having it move past them. You have your gods, most of whom no one alive has ever heard of, your time travellers, a few aliens, visitors from alternate dimensions, and even the occassional demon. Not to mention the tourists.
Our hero is John Taylor, a Sam Spade/Philip Marlowe wannabe. His father was a Joe Schmoe. His mother is *insert spoiler*. (Let's just say that I'd say that I think she and Eve from The Menagerie should get together for tea, but I'm afraid that would cause the world as we know it to come to an end. My money would be on Eve in the fight, though.) John has various scary abilities through his mother, not the least of which are extreme badassness and a reputation that makes people pee in their pants and cower in fear. He likes his reputation, as it keeps him from having to fight every person he meets. His girlfriend is a bounty hunter named Suzie. Suzie is a walking arsenal who scares people even more than John does. Largely because John would rather not kill you if he doesn't have to, and Suzie would rather blow you up than have to talk to you. His secretary/surrogate daughter is Cathy, a teenager he saved from a house that was trying to eat her. She runs almost all aspects of his life. His best friend is Alex, who runs the world's oldest pub, and is descended from either Merlin or Arthur. Merlin is buried in the basement. His quasi-father figure is Walker, the only person in The Nightside people are more scared of than John and Suzie, and who runs the place. He and John like to try to kill each other at least once a year, just to keep things fresh.
Everyone, including the bubbly teenaged secretary, is a badass. I'm not sure Green knows how to writer a character who isn't. It's also all an extreme exploration of Green's very active imagination.
Anyway, this time around, John and Suzie are off chasing down a bounty who seems to think having a boyfriend makes Suzie nicer, and having a girlfriend makes John easier to manipulate. They're in the middle of proving him wrong when Walker shows up and claims tormenting rights. Before they can mope about it, John gets hired in his role as a PI in The Unnatural Inquirer, the biggest gossip rag in The Nightside. It seems some poor schmuck managed to record positive prove of the existance of Heaven and Hell on a DVD(things like that happen there.) The UI purchased exclusive rights to it, but word got out and now he's on the run. John is hired to track him down for an amazingly exorbitant rate, and partnered with a UI reporter, Bettie Divine, a half succubus who sees this as the chance of a life time, and thinks it's all a grand adventure. I actually would have liked her a lot if she'd spent less time badmouthing Suzie and being convinced that John needed to be changed for his own good. Anyway, they tour the nightside, piss off a few gods, run from a T-Rex, and avoid getting caught up in an attempted rebellion against Walker. That last was very much for the best, as Walker doesn't put up with such things.
Really, aside from the mytharc and John's war with his mother, the books follow a certain pattern: John gets job. John gets partner-for-the-book. John and partner tear up the town and piss people off. At some point, they end up at Alex's place. Everyone is badass. But it's a good, engaging pattern.
On a final note, the following(which is spoilery for a relationship between 2 supporting characters, but not to the main plot or really to anything majorly important) may now be my favorite line from the series:
Our hero is John Taylor, a Sam Spade/Philip Marlowe wannabe. His father was a Joe Schmoe. His mother is *insert spoiler*. (Let's just say that I'd say that I think she and Eve from The Menagerie should get together for tea, but I'm afraid that would cause the world as we know it to come to an end. My money would be on Eve in the fight, though.) John has various scary abilities through his mother, not the least of which are extreme badassness and a reputation that makes people pee in their pants and cower in fear. He likes his reputation, as it keeps him from having to fight every person he meets. His girlfriend is a bounty hunter named Suzie. Suzie is a walking arsenal who scares people even more than John does. Largely because John would rather not kill you if he doesn't have to, and Suzie would rather blow you up than have to talk to you. His secretary/surrogate daughter is Cathy, a teenager he saved from a house that was trying to eat her. She runs almost all aspects of his life. His best friend is Alex, who runs the world's oldest pub, and is descended from either Merlin or Arthur. Merlin is buried in the basement. His quasi-father figure is Walker, the only person in The Nightside people are more scared of than John and Suzie, and who runs the place. He and John like to try to kill each other at least once a year, just to keep things fresh.
Everyone, including the bubbly teenaged secretary, is a badass. I'm not sure Green knows how to writer a character who isn't. It's also all an extreme exploration of Green's very active imagination.
Anyway, this time around, John and Suzie are off chasing down a bounty who seems to think having a boyfriend makes Suzie nicer, and having a girlfriend makes John easier to manipulate. They're in the middle of proving him wrong when Walker shows up and claims tormenting rights. Before they can mope about it, John gets hired in his role as a PI in The Unnatural Inquirer, the biggest gossip rag in The Nightside. It seems some poor schmuck managed to record positive prove of the existance of Heaven and Hell on a DVD(things like that happen there.) The UI purchased exclusive rights to it, but word got out and now he's on the run. John is hired to track him down for an amazingly exorbitant rate, and partnered with a UI reporter, Bettie Divine, a half succubus who sees this as the chance of a life time, and thinks it's all a grand adventure. I actually would have liked her a lot if she'd spent less time badmouthing Suzie and being convinced that John needed to be changed for his own good. Anyway, they tour the nightside, piss off a few gods, run from a T-Rex, and avoid getting caught up in an attempted rebellion against Walker. That last was very much for the best, as Walker doesn't put up with such things.
Really, aside from the mytharc and John's war with his mother, the books follow a certain pattern: John gets job. John gets partner-for-the-book. John and partner tear up the town and piss people off. At some point, they end up at Alex's place. Everyone is badass. But it's a good, engaging pattern.
On a final note, the following(which is spoilery for a relationship between 2 supporting characters, but not to the main plot or really to anything majorly important) may now be my favorite line from the series:
( spoilery )