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An [[Urban Fantasy]] series by [[Simon R. Green]], the Nightside series chronicles the adventures of the mysterious John Taylor in the titular Nightside, a hidden world in the middle of London wherein all manner of nasties lurk. Fallen gods and [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch Abominations]] lurk down every dark alley in a place seemingly made entirely out of dark alleys and gaudy neon.
John has a gift: using his Inner Eye, he can find anything. Lost artifacts, the mystical strings binding some otherworldly horror to reality, your missing keys, ''anything''. Naturally, this gets him into all sorts of trouble.
The series spans twelve books, with John Taylor as the protagonist. The books are:
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* ''[[Wedding Day|The Bride Wore Black Leather]]'' (2012)
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* [[Action Girl]]: Suzie Shooter, a/k/a Shotgun Suzie, a/k/a Oh Christ, It's Her, ''Run''.
* [[Air Hugging]]: Suzie and John are forced to do this for most of the series... {{spoiler|until somewhere in between books 9 and 11.}}
* [[Anal Probing]]: A Grey seen lying in the gutter has a sign, "Will probe for food."
* [[Anthropomorphic Personification]]: Creatures called "transient beings" can be found in the Nightside, including Lady Luck.
**
* [[Artifact of Doom]]: The Speaking Gun, an unholy weapon made from {{spoiler|one of Lilith's ribs}} that can unmake ''anything'' in an instant. It does this by knowing the Word any given person or thing was created with (as in, in the Beginning there was the Word) and speaking it backwards. Described by all who touch it, or even look at it, as utterly reprehensible.
** The second book had the Unholy Grail, the cup that Judas drank from. Everyone who's anyone is after this thing. {{spoiler|Judas himself, the Wandering Jew who has been forgiven by Christ but can't forgive himself, breaks its curse by using it for Communion, turning it into an ugly bowl with no power.}}
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* [[All Myths Are True]]: And they frequently stop in for a pint at the local watering hole.
* [[Angels, Devils, and Squid]].
* [[Anti-Anti-Christ]]: Merlin Satanspawn was born of the devil to be the antichrist, but he "refused the honor."
** His counterpart from Sinister Albion is a more conventional [[Anti Christ]].
* [[The Atoner]]: Razor Eddie was stone-cold killer with a pearl-handled straight-edge razor when he was fourteen years old. He made a name for himself in a street gang war over turf and afterwards killed people for money or the notoriety or because he could. Then one day he went down the Street of Gods and an epiphany happened. He hasn't said what, but now Eddie sleeps in doorways and lives on handouts and kills people who think their position and power protects them from their crimes, as penance for his earlier crimes. He also has some feeling for the homeless, now that he is one, and anyone who means ill for the homeless will die in a spray of blood and body parts.
** And the trope is invoked in the first Nightside book when Taylor talks about him some.
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* {{spoiler|[[Babies Ever After]]: May soon apply to John and Suzie, after events of ''A Hard Day's Knight''.}}
* [[Badass Boast]]: Plenty, but the Lord of Thorns takes the cake:
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* [[Badass Longcoat]]: John never leaves home without [[Trenchcoat Brigade|his trusty white trench coat]].
** And John doesn't have a monopoly on the trope. Razor Eddie and Dead Boy have their grey and purple coats respectively.
** John's coat sometimes approaches the status of [[Companion Cube]]. At least, he often refers to feeding it or taking it for a walk.
* [[Batman Cold Open]]: Almost all books after the first start with John doing a short case unrelated to the main plot for the first chapter, which gives John the chance to show off his talents and sometimes hang a [[Chekhov's Gun]].
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* [[Canon Discontinuity]]: New details are constantly being flung around, forgotten, called back, ignored, disproved, so on and so forth. Sometimes in the same book. The rules of [[Rule of Cool|Cool]] and [[Rule of Fun|Fun]] are in full effect and the series works best if you define its continuity with [[Broad Strokes]].
** But that does have the net effect of making it more important when continuity ''does'' play a role in things.
* [[The Cape (trope)]]: Julian Advent, particularly in his glory days as the Victorian Adventurer. Ms. Fate, the Nightside's own transvestite superhero.
* [[Catch Phrase]]: Plenty.
** ''Business as usual, in the Nightside.''
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** The return of {{spoiler|King Arthur}} seems to be this at first, but once more is subverted - even he becomes more of a tool in John's hands.
* [[Did You Just Have Tea With Cthulhu]]: {{spoiler|Despite being the incarnation of Earth, Gayle is pretty downright affable for an [[Eldritch Abomination]].}}
* [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?]]: John's Gift has helped him find the [[Achilles' Heel]] of a significant number of [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch Abominations]] over the years. He gives a few of them indigestion, as well. ( {{spoiler|Given who his mother is eventually revealed to be he's related to most of them, as he said in ''Judgment Day.}})
** Done with the {{spoiler|Speaking Gun}}. Twice, as of ''Judgment Day'' {{spoiler|though the second time it was done by God's Wrath Incarnate.}}
** In the [[Batman Cold Open]] to ''A Hard Day's Knight,'' {{spoiler|John realizes a bunch of [[Eldritch Abominations]] are trying to get into this universe using a human soul as a bomb. John weaponizes him, the pocket watch he took from Walker, and the Gateway they opened to send him a message and knocks their socks off.}}
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** Probably a reference to how the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki burned shadows of people and objects into the concrete.
* [[Evil Is Visceral]]: In ''Something From The Nightside'', the Big Bad turns out to be a house on the outside but all squidgy and organic on the inside.
* [[Evil Weapon]]: The Speaking Gun whispers in the hands of anyone who holds it, wanting them to use it. Only a few have the power not to: Father Time, {{spoiler|Suzy, and John. And both of the last two have tried to. Even Razor Eddie gave in, though he eventually overcame the compulsion. And [[Took a Level
* [[The Fair Folk]]: And the only reason they don't show up more often is because they really dislike humans. The feeling is decidedly mutual.
* [[Fantastic Ghetto]]: Many of the down-and-out former Powers live in Rat's Alley. John himself lived their for the time as a "guest" of perennial resident Razor Eddie.
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* [[Fridge Brilliance]]: In ''Bride'', Razor Eddie and Dead Boy fight a giant black centipede {{spoiler|that's actually Rogue the immortal}}. Eddie cuts off several of its legs in the fight. A while later, Harry Fabulous turns up at {{spoiler|John's stag party}}, offering a variety of drugs and other exotic delights... including black centipede meat! Might even be a call back to ''Angels'', in which Eddie mentions having sold off the remains of another bunch of his kills.
* [[Fridge Logic]]: In ''Unnatural Inquirer'', John's having killed all the [[Elite Mook]] minions of a gang boss is said, {{spoiler|both by John himself and by the [[Big Bad]]}}, to lend greater credibility to the idea that the Afterlife Recording is genuine. Given that John wipes the floor with [[Cosmic Horror|Cosmic Horrors]] on a regular basis, and cultivates a reputation for committing mayhem on anyone who so much as snickers at his trench coat, why would this incident be seen as proof of ''anything'', rather than written off as yet another case of dumb thugs pissing him off?
* [[Glowing Eyes of Doom]] / [[Glowing Eyelights of
* [[Gods Need Prayer Badly]] The Street of Gods runs on this. If enough people believe in something, it's true. Gods gain strength from the belief. The short story Razor Eddie's Big Night Out offers this to make an [[Oh Crap]] moment on the reader. Razor Eddie--who found a reporter trying to investigate the homeless to write schadenfreude stories of the formerly powerful now on the streets and mailed him back to the paper's office in forty-seven packages with postage pending on each one--Razor Eddie, who makes it a point to kill the rich and powerful (and in the Nightside, that's exceedingly so) who think their position means they won't ever pay for their wrongdoings (again, in the Nightside, it can be a lot)--Razor Eddie, who was infamous when he was 14 years old--Razor Eddie draws his power from the belief in him and what he does, and every time he does something spectacular and the stories spread, his power grows. The beings on the Street of Gods are afraid of him because they believe in the Punk God of the Straight Razor, too, and they know it.
* [[Go Mad
** Some people in the Nightside seem to RUN on this trope... the Deep School that Hadleigh Oblivion seems to have this as a graduation requirement.
* [[Half-Human Hybrid]]: John, in a manner of speaking. He looks perfectly human, but his mother is... not. Of course, his appearance {{spoiler|(and relative lack of power, compared to some of his siblings)}} is part of her plan.
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** In a "blink and you'll miss it" moment, in ''Agents,'' Taylor mentions some of the texts in the Vatican library, including the ''Testament of Grendel Rex.'' Grendel Rex is actually {{spoiler|a Drood turned into a [[A God Am I|self-proclaimed god]] now buried in Siberia.}}
** In [[Secret Histories]], we find out that Mab {{spoiler|has returned from Hell to reclaim her throne.}} How'd she get there? {{spoiler|Larry Oblivion released her on accident, hence how he also got his wand.}}
** In ''Just Another Judgment Day'', there are two small ones. The walking man references the Droods when grimacing that he thought the speaking gun had already been destroyed, and it is explicitly stated that Owen Deathstalker is a member of the adventurers club.
** ''Knight'' reminds us how connected everything is... Every. Other. Page. The Droods get at least a half dozen references, the state of the Elves seen in that series is {{spoiler|shown and resolved,}} and Hawk and Fisher themselves make an appearance at Strangefellows.
** ''Bride'' doesn't let the trend die, especially in the [[Batman Cold Open]], wherein we meet the Bride and Springheel Jack from ''From Hell With Love,'' as well as one of the last Immortals. {{spoiler|Turns out that he was there to kill his distant, half-immortal relative, the King of Skin. He also drops the bomb that the Droods are dead, except for Eddie}}. Also, the Carnacki Institute gets a couple mentions, with one of their ex- (and possibly excommunicated) employees, and John mentioning that he picked up a few tricks from Carnacki himself.
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* [[Noodle Implements]]: Used multiple times, most memorably in ''Hell To Pay'' when John clears a room by changing all the televisions in the Gryphon's office to the same channel and remarks "There are some things Man was not supposed to do, and certainly not with a moose"
* [[Noodle Incident]]: In ''Sharper,'' John mentions that he once attempted an angelic summoning to learn about his enemies. We don't know exactly what happened/went wrong, but apparently there ''used'' to be a hotel at the site, and it's still radioactive.
** Between ''Nightingale'' and ''Sharper,'' Razor Eddie is MIA on the Street of the Gods. We never quite find out what he was doing there, but he made a lot of gods run out weeping, which is saying something. Also, besides redemption for using the Speaking Gun, he manages to {{spoiler|[[Took a Level
*** The short story "Razor Eddie's Big Night Out" reveals the reason why he went on a rampage there, although details on what/who he actually attacked are vague.
** We never do find out what happens at Suzie's hen party. Then again, sending someone to find probably would've resulted in one dead messenger.
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** John himself refers to having apprenticed with [[Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder]].
** So who was [[The Phantom of the Opera|that masked Frenchman]] who gave them a lift on the underground river in ''Hex and the City''?
** Alex once mentioned having had the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in his bar, playing bridge. Guess [[
** Among the Collector's possessions is a [[The Wicker Man|huge wicker man with a dead policeman inside]].
* [[Shrouded in Myth]]: John Taylor has a reputation of such mythic proportions that he's essentially weaponized it. He defeats many enemies just by introducing himself. Sometimes he's bluffing, sometimes not.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Fantasy Literature]]
▲[[Category:Nightside]]
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