Thursday, July 10, 2014

Crossover Covers: The Nightside

Simon R. Green's Nightside novels feature private investigator John Taylor, who resides in the Nightside, a pocket dimension in London where it is always 3 A.M. There are numerous crossovers in the series, such as frequent appearances by the timelost Victorian adventurer Julien Advent (a disguised version of the title character of the television series Adam Adamant Lives!), references to the Traveling Doctor (the CU version of the Doctor of Doctor Who fame), the various monsters created by the Frankenstein family, Jacqueline Hyde (a descendant of Dr. Jekyll's who turns into a male Hyde), and numerous others. There are also strong ties to most of Green's other series and standalone novels, including the Hawk and Fisher novellas (which take place in the same setting as Green's Forest Kingdom books), the Deathstalker series (which represents one of many possible futures for the CU), the Secret Histories series, the Ghost Finders books, and the novels Shadows Fall and Drinking Midnight Wine.  Green has also written several short stories featuring the Nightside, which are being collected into an anthology next year. Said anthology will also include a new novella pitting Taylor against Sir Francis Varney from James Malcolm Rymer's Varney the Vampire. Furthermore, Justin Gustainis' novella Midnight at the Oasis, part of his crossover-filled Morris and Chastain Investigations series, has a reference to the bar Strangefellows from the Nightside books, as well as John Taylor, though he is only referred to by his first name.

2 comments:

  1. While I found the quality uneven, I really like Green's Nightside books. They seem to me a better mixture of the supernatural and Noir than Jim Butcher's Dresden books. There were things I liked about the Dresden books, but they were never quite satisfying for some reason. (The Dresden books mention Dracula and the Necronomicon on occasion, btw.)

    I remember one of the books used a Millar Medallion which was from the Grimjack comic book series another mixture of hardboiled crime and fantasy.

    Plus all the covers look cool.

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  2. I love this series as well as the Dresden Files. I have been writing up crossovers from the Nightside as well as the Secret Histories and sending them to Sean.

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