What value can one ordinary man have in a magical world? What can a mortal bring to the affairs of immortals?
When Toby Dexter impulsively follows a strange woman off the train and through a door that shouldn’t exist, he begins the final sequence of events aimed towards destroying all that is, and all that could be, and upsetting the delicate balance between the mundane and the magical. It all starts out of love, and it’ll end in hatred and vengeance, unless Toby’s able to make the right choices in a very difficult world.
Gone is the safe mortal world he once knew. Overnight, he’s become a key player, a legendary “focal point” in the supernatural world of Mysterie, which exists alongside the real world of Veritie. And everyone seems to know much more than he does. For love of the dismissive, capricious, enigmatic Gayle, Toby will do just about anything. He’ll challenge trolls, venture into the realms of the dead, spit in the eye of a demi-god, face off against the Serpent’s Son, and alter the course of destiny.
Something terrible and strange and catastrophic is about to go down in Mysterie. Why else would Nicholas Hob, also known as the Serpent’s Son, and Heaven’s fallen stormtrooper, Angel, be in town? Why would the Reality Express be delivering a frantic load of refugees from Mysterie to Veritie? Why would the immortal riddle known as the Waking Beauty have put Jimmy Thunder, God for Hire and last descendant of Thor, on the case? Why would the beautiful but tragically addled Luna stir from her exile? And just who — or what — is Gayle? There’s a lot of questions, and the answers won’t please anyone.
By the time it’s over, Gayle and Toby, Jimmy, Hob and Angel, Luna and Leo Morn, reluctant hero, will converge for a fateful showdown to decide the fate of Mysterie and Veritie both. This is bigger than the mortal world of science and rationalization. This is vaster than the supernatural world of magic, myth, mystery, angels, gods, Powers and Dominations. This is so big, so inconceivably entangled in the warp and way of the worlds, that it’ll take a normal man in love to decide what will happen in the end.
The dead will walk, god and fallen angels will do battle, the King of Cats will choose sides, and an ancient creature will rise from his earthen prison, and all will be decided, in Drinking Midnight Wine, the novel from best-selling author Simon R. Green. Best known for his New York Times bestselling Deathstalker series, an epic and visceral space opera, and for his grim and gritty tales of fantasy gone twisted, he turns his attentions towards urban fantasy, evocative of Neil Gaiman … if someone had spiked Neil’s drinks and read him some Lovecraft before bed. Part Neverwhere, part American Gods, Drinking Midnight Wine comes off as their bastard, disreputable, tongue-in-cheek, and slightly deranged cousin, a creature all unto itself. Mysterie comes alive against a backdrop of ancient rivalries and hatreds, the suggestion of dark secrets and darker horrors, and the power of one man’s love in an unpredictable world.
I’ve long enjoyed Simon Green’s books (see other reviews at here and over there on this site), and I actually jumped the gun to order my copy of Drinking Midnight Wine from the UK, months before the American version was released. It was well worth it. Green excites, entertains, and kicks serious ass as always, managing to go from bone-shiveringly horrifying just through sheer suggestion to laugh-out-loud (nervously) funny. Green can convey the possibility of blasphemous, obscene horrors with a single sentence, or powers beyond imagination with a few words, and then turn around to deliver crisp, cinematic fight scenes as over-the-top as any Hong Kong movie. His true power lies in his words, letting us imagine what kind of being “Sweet Susie Slaughter” or “Nasty Jack Starlight” or “The Painted Ghoul” might be without actually giving us the details.
Green possesses a unique but catchy style, combining the cheerful excesses of the pulp novels with the crawling horrors of Lovecraft and the dark urban fantasy of Emma Bull or Neil Gaiman, and giving it an extra twist for good measure. Drinking Midnight Wine is, if not his best novel, certainly one of his most enjoyable, and highly recommended. My only regret is finishing it so quickly. Now what will I read?