Something from the Nightside

Nightside Series, Book 1

By: Simon R. Green

Narrated by: Dan Calley

Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

Taylor is the name, John Taylor. My card says I'm a detective, but what I really am is an expert on finding lost things. It's part of the gift I was born with as a child of the Nightside.

I left there a long time ago, with my skin and sanity barely intact. Now I make my living in the sunlit streets of London. But business has been slow lately, so when Joanna Barrett showed up at my door, reeking of wealth, asking me to find her runaway teenage daughter, I didn't say no.

Then I found out exactly where the girl had gone.

The Nightside. That square mile of Hell in the middle of the city, where it's always three a.m. Where you can walk beside myths and drink with monsters. Where nothing is what it seems and everything is possible.

I swore I'd never return. But there's a kid in danger and a woman depending on me. So I have no choice - I'm going home.

©2003 Simon R. Green (P)2022 Tantor

Every cliche in the book in this book.

Just wow. Not so much a book as a cut and paste collection of cliches. Skillfully put together to form a coherent story, true but so overdone as to make the whole unenjoyable.

story lacks anything I cared about

I ended up reading this at the highest speed I could understand just to be done with it. the reader was good, but the story lacked depth both in plot and character development.

Great Urban Fantasy

Great character and good world to dive into. The narrator has an odd voice and sometimes I think it didn’t fit, but after the second chapter, I was into it. The Nightside is something you can easily get into. Ready for book 2.

Interesting sci fi!

This was a very interesting book. Great storyline, well narrated! Interesting concepts!!! I guess I need more words, yet I don't want to give the story away. It's very exciting!

In the nightside

Like other people, I was pretty annoyed by the catchphrase. It was like you could time it, in the nightside. Almost as if the most important thing about the nightside is letting your reader know things are different in the nightside. If he had pulled back on it 75%, it would have been a much better listen. I think the author is on to something with the character and the story but I don’t know that I can take another book with the same tic.

Entertaining and well produced

A delightful ramp and interesting story story. Worth the time period. Narrator's performance was 1st rate.

loved it

I read The Nightside books when I was a teenager so when I saw they were available on audible I just had to relive that memory. Just as good now as I remembered it was back when I first read it.

Great book killed by the narrator

Nightside series from Simon R. Green is one of the best urban fantasy you can find. This entry into the series offers entertaining story with unexpected plot twist at the end.
However this Tantor edition narrated by Dan Calley totally kills the book. Dan Calley's narration is flat, monotone, without any feeling, he just mills and mills words like a machine.
If you really want good narration, try to find and buy previous version of this audiobook from Audible Frontiers narrated by Marc Vietor. Mark's narration is on another level alltogether.
Do not buy this version.

A good short story

I must research if there is a sequel. This would be a great intro. Fast moving, interesting and different.

If you like Harry Dresden, try this one.

It's pretty good considering it's the first in a series. That first one is always trying to find it's footing. It has the potential to be an amazing series! It has a Dresden Files feel to it. A strong, but flawed main character. I look forward to more.