Secret Histories

""Men are mortal; but Daemons are Forever""

- Daemons are Forever

Simon R. Green's Secret Histories is about Shaman Bond, aka Edwin "Eddie" Drood, black sheep of an ancient, superpowerful family (the Droods) that protects humanity from its nightmares. The books are a take-off the James Bond books by Ian Fleming with a supernatural element to them.

Not related The Secret History
 * The Man with the Golden Torc (2007)
 * Daemons are Forever (2008)
 * The Spy who Haunted Me (2009)
 * From Hell with love (2010)
 * For Heaven's Eyes Only (2011)
 * Live and Let Drood (2012)

This series provides examples of:

 * Action Girl: Molly Metcalf, Janissary Jane.
 * Angels Devils and Squid
 * Always Chaotic Evil: The hungry gods/ the loathly ones.
 * Artifact of Doom: The Apocalypse Door. The Droods also have a bunch of them. They keep the Armageddon Codex such as:
 * Oath breaker -- A long stick of ironwood with pre-human symbols. It undoes all agreements, all bonds... right down to the atomic level.
 * Torc Cutter -- Exactly What It Says On the Tin
 * Sunwrack -- For putting out the stars one at a time.
 * Juggernaut Jumpsuit -- Possibly makes the wearer invincible
 * The Time Hammer -- For changing the past through brute force.
 * Winter's Sorrow -- Size of a paperwight. Break it and you unleash the the Fimbulwinter: an eternal winter that covers the world.
 * Dissector -- the ultimate scalple created by Baron Von Frankenstein. It can cut through any thing, neat as you like.
 * Dominator -- A laurel wreath made from silver. The user's thoughts and wishes becomes other peoples thoughts and wishes.
 * The Merlin Glass -- can be used to teleport and contact any Drood from the past and future.
 * Armor Is Useless: Averted except in three instances in the first book,  Other than those times, the golden torc is indestructible as long as it is on.
 * Badass Boast: Despite being in the wrong series, Walker gets one in The Spy Who Haunted Me:
 * Walker: "I could handle Good Time Georgie if I was unconscious." He smiled easily into Georgie's reddening face, completely unmoved by the man's size or presence or anger. "Are you sure you want to do this?  Perhaps you've forgotten all the terrible things I've done to you down the years. Or made you do to yourself. You're just a cheap thug, Georgie, whereas I... am Walker. Now go away and stop bothering me. Or I will tell you to do something deeply amusing and so extreme that people will still be laughing about it thirty years from now."
 * Badass Normal: The Indigo spirit.
 * All the Drood field agents when they're not in their armor.
 * Batman Cold Open
 * Battle Couple: Eddie and Molly.
 * Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Early on, Eddie mentions that many of the conspiracy theories in pop culture are true.
 * Big Screwed Up Family: The Droods, and how!
 * Bottomless Magazines: The Colt Repeater with infinite ammo and flawless auto-aim.
 * Canon Welding / Massive Multiplayer Crossover:
 * In Daemons Are Forever the Droods are revealed to be the ancestors of Giles Deathstalker.
 * Janissary Jane (in both Man with the Golden Torc and Daemons are Forever) also appears in the Nightside series.
 * Walker from Nightside is a character in The Spy who Haunted Me.
 * In From Hell With Love Methuselah was in the Nightside during the events of Agents of Light and Darkness and steals an angel's hand, then makes it into a hand of glory.
 * Merlin Satanspawn gave the family the glass which bears his name in payment of a favor.
 * Cast From Lifespan: The price for the pacts Molly Metcalf made with the various powers.
 * Chekhov's Gun: The James Bond like devices Eddie gets. Subverted in The Spy who Haunted Me (2009) since Eddie never uses the items his uncle gives him to his uncle's extreme frustration. However in From Hell With Love (2010) he uses the items he didn't use in the last book.
 * Chekhov's Gunman / The Man Behind the Man / What Happened to The Mouse: Philip MacAlpine
 * The Clan: the Drood family obviously. Also
 * Complete Monster: Mr. Stab.
 * Conspiracy Kitchen Sink
 * Cool Car: The Hirondel is packed with gadgets: EM Ps, flamethrowers and much much more.
 * The Cowl: The Indigo Spirit is basically a Captain Ersatz for Batman -- except that he has no problem killing people.
 * Dating Catwoman:
 * Dead to Begin With:
 * Deus Ex Machina
 * It's one of those series where you need to be one to survive.
 * Diabolus Ex Machina:
 * Druid: the origin of the Drood family name.
 * Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu: This is done twice.
 * Even Evil Has Standards:
 * The Fair Folk:
 * Fantasy Kitchen Sink: psychics, aliens, spies, elves, gargoyles, werewolves, ghosts, zombies, angels, demons, Frankenstein's creations, witches, interdimensional mercenaries, Lovecraftian monstrosities, satanists, superscience of various stripes and a few superheroes to boot.
 * Fate Drives Us Together: Subverted an Hell to get an agent cozy with the Droods. However, Roger actually does fall in love with Harry.]]
 * Fighting a Shadow: In Daemons Are Forever.
 * Firstperson Smartass
 * Flying Brick: When the torcs are on, the Droods become a variant of this with Not Quite Flight.
 * Go Mad From the Revelation: In The Spy who Haunted Me.
 * Government Agency of Fiction: MI13
 * Light Is Not Good:
 * Jack the Ripper: Mr. Stab performed several gruesome human sacrifices in Victorian Whitechapel in order to obtain immortality. It worked, but this form of immortality had consequences for which he was not prepared.
 * Loads and Loads of Characters
 * Magical Database: a particularly literal case, the Karma Catechist is a living database of every spell, ritual and magical concept conceivable in his universe.
 * Magitek: All over the place. The Drood armor, the Flying Saucerers and the Chelsea Lovers.
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Mr. Stab. In-universe example is anybody named "Drood." The mere mention in the first book is enough to empty a bar.
 * Subverted by Shaman Bond, the use-name/code name of our narrator and protagonist. He intentionally keeps that persona very friendly and low-key, so that no one would associate him with the Droods.
 * Nebulous Evil Organisation: The Immortals are this to the Droods.
 * Powered Armor: The Droods have their golden armor that comes out of the torcs.
 * Powered By a Forsaken Child:
 * Religion of Evil: The Satanic Conspiracy.
 * Rule of Cool
 * Run the Gauntlet: The first book, wherein Eddie Drood has to survive attacks by (in order) Men in Black in Black Helicopters, car-eating entropic Ghost Cars, Elves riding Dragons, Demonic Ghost Cars and, finally, a fleet of human-built Magitek Flying Saucerers (not a misspelling.)
 * Sealed Evil in A Can: Grendel Rex
 * Shout Out: And how! Even the name Eddie Drood is a shout out to the last novel of Charles Dickens.
 * In Spy, we get reference to the Wizard of Northampton, who has been writing comic books for twenty years or so. Which has done odd things to his perceptions of gods and monsters, if Walker is to be believed.
 * For Heaven's Eyes Only references "Description Theory" of Planetary fame.
 * The same book also mentions SAS combat sorcerers a couple of times.
 * Stupid Jetpack Hitler: Vril Power Inc. As well as Schloss Shreck.
 * Teleporters and Transporters: just about every variety there is. See Fantasy Kitchen Sink.
 * The End of the World As We Know It:
 * The Mole: played literally.
 * The Power of Love:
 * Too Dumb to Live:
 * Trilogy Creep
 * Unlimited Wardrobe: Molly has a literal magical version by reusing the same fabric and transforming it with magic.
 * Very Punchable Man: Philip MacAlpine.
 * The World Is Always Doomed: Only to be expected, given the Droods' role as big-league defenders of humanity.
 * Lampshaded in Daemons:
 * Who Wants to Live Forever: Happens to Methuselah. He wants to leave earth because he's done and seen everything. He also wants break into heaven to enjoy its splendor.
 * Woobie Destroyer of Worlds: Doctor Delirium, a villain who threatens to unleash diseases unless he is paid ransom in rare postage stamps -- once a collector, always a collector. He sends his goons to steal the Apocalypse Door in order to make the world take him seriously.
 * Trilogy Creep
 * Unlimited Wardrobe: Molly has a literal magical version by reusing the same fabric and transforming it with magic.
 * Very Punchable Man: Philip MacAlpine.
 * The World Is Always Doomed: Only to be expected, given the Droods' role as big-league defenders of humanity.
 * Lampshaded in Daemons:
 * Who Wants to Live Forever: Happens to Methuselah. He wants to leave earth because he's done and seen everything. He also wants break into heaven to enjoy its splendor.
 * Woobie Destroyer of Worlds: Doctor Delirium, a villain who threatens to unleash diseases unless he is paid ransom in rare postage stamps -- once a collector, always a collector. He sends his goons to steal the Apocalypse Door in order to make the world take him seriously.