Agents of Light and Darkness is the second book in Simon Green's Nightside series. Here's my review from Audible. It pretty much says it all.

"I just can't decide"

Parts of these stories are so well told it can bring a tear to your eye and part of it feels repetitive and part of it bugs me to no end. You'll have to find the good bits on your own. I'm not going to spoil it.

The repetitive, is the instance that anything out of this world is possible in the Nightside. That's fine, I got it the first time but it's repeated often and gets tiresome.

As for what bugs me, well there don't seem to be any rules in the Nightside and while that is all well and good it affords the writer to pull stuff directly from his.....collective....mind for convenience. Some times it just feels contrived and some time's it all comes together beautifully. That's irritating. I'm sure I'll listen to the next one if for no other reason than to see if I can decide whether I like this type of storytelling or not.

Then there is the narrator, he's the one thing I'd never change and I'll look for his work and try things just to listen to him. He's wonderful.

Paranormal horror + noir + angels + great narrator + quick listen? Yeah, ok. Sign me up.

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.

AS mentioned in the blurb there at the start this is a quest for the Holy Grail. So, once again John Taylor has to use his own particular gifts to hunt the object down. Of course as with all things Nightside, it isn't so cut and dry. The Holy Grail isn't some peaceful relic, it is in fact very, very dangerous. Way too dangerous for anyone in the night side to possess.

When the Vatican *and* the Authorities of the Nightside ask John to help find the Grail he basically laughs in their faces. Things quickly escalate and then no one at all is laughing.

Throughout the book John once again pulls in a couple of friends, and sometime enemies, to help: Shotgun Susie, sometime friend and enemy is a bounty hunter whose best friends are her weapons. Also, Razor Eddie the "Punk God of the Straight Razor", who is a friend and working off some bad karma of his own.


This book also goes into The Authorities a bit more although they really are just a mysterious group behind the scenes at this point. We also spend some time with The Collector. He is a greedy, self-serving, jerk of a character who is not very sympathetic in this story. He, as can be guessed by his name, wanders throughout the world (and time) to collect interesting or important items. Not to show them off, but rather to hoard in his home base.

I felt this book was better than the last, everyone had clear goals and story lines here. Some of the characters you meet have good back stories and motivations that are expanded in this book as well as the rest in the series.

A quick entertaining read!

This book started out with so much potential! I love well done urban fantasy, and I liked the concept of seeking the "Unholy" Grail. I thought that was a nice twist. But then when I immediately figured out that Jude was Judas (like, within 2 pages of his introduction), I started to get worried. Turns out, I had good reason to. This book is a mess!

The plot hinges around a MacGuffin. The minor characters seem to only be there for shock value, and the main characters are one-dimensional at best, and repulsive at worst. The writing is cliche and repetitive. (Green mentions the angels have come to Nightside at least a dozen times, which is 11 more times than necessary.) And the overwhelming amount of gore and violence feels gratuitous throughout.

The book's only saving grace is its relative brevity. At 234 pages for the paperback edition, I flew through it in a couple of days; and not a moment too soon!

While entertaining for sure, this book didn't grab me quite as well as the first "Nightside" book. I did enjoy it, though. In this book, John Taylor grapples with angels from both sides, light and darkness, in the search for the "Unholy Grail." I never heard of an Unholy Grail before, but in this book, it is the cup from which Judas Iscariot drank at the last supper. I thought they all drank from the same cup... Anyway, Taylor teams up with Suzie Shooter again in this adventure in the Nightside as everybody seems to be looking for the Unholy Grail.

Wow. Even more of a spectacular read than the first. I live the character development in this one, especially when it comes to Suzie Shooter. John Taylor may be the hero of the series, but he’s also a bit of an antihero. His “halo” is definitely tarnished, if he even has one. Nothing is what it seems, not even angels, and lines between “good ” and “evil” are so blurry as to be practically nonexistent. Can’t wait to read more!