It’s been a while since I posted a review but it was somewhat unavoidable. I followed up a visit with by the parental units with a nice week long or so cold.  At any rate, I’m back and typing with some Simon R. Green.

Simon R. Green is one of my all time favorite authors. I really love his snarkiness and his creativity.  The very first books I ever read were his Hawk and Fisher novels.  After that I was hooked.  At that point and time, the six novels had been turned into two omnibus books.

The Hawk and Fisher novels are not set in modern times, but neither are they exactly historical.  I suppose if I had to say it was set in a particular time period, I would call it medieval times.  This is a place where magic is an every day thing and non-human creatures are around.

The books are all set in a town called Haven, a misnomer if there ever was one.  Haven is a town almost like the Nightside, where you can buy or sell anything up to and including your soul.  They even have their own Street of the Gods.

Hawk and Fischer are Watch commanders (policemen) in Haven.  They patrol the worst area of the city (of course) and generally get the worst cases to go along with it.  They’re the only members of the Watch who can’t be bought or bullied and that generally pisses off most people in Haven, even their commanders.  Or especially their commanders.

These books are now only available in two omnibus editions I believe: Swords of Haven and Guards of Haven.  The individual stories are:

• Hawk&Fischer (No Haven for the Guilty)
• Winner Take All
• The God Killer
• Wolf in the Fold
• Guard Against Dishonor
• The Bones of Haven (Two Kings in Haven)

They are a great blend of a police procedural and a fantasy novel.  Green brings in his usual dry English wit along with his amazing imagination into each story.  You don’t have to read them in order to enjoy them.  There is a sort of follow up story that wraps up Blue Moon Rising and the Hawk&Fischer stories called Beyond the Blue Moon.  It starts up in Haven and ends in the Forest Kingdom arc.

These were the stories that got me hooked on Simon R. Green. I highly recommend them. A+