Review – Paths Not Taken by Simon Green (4/5 stars)

This is the 5th book in the Nightside series by Simon Green. This book followed a similar format to the last book, in that it is more of series book than a self-contained adventure. Still it was a fun read, quick paced, and very creative.

In this book John Taylor travels with Shotgun Suzie and Tommy Oblivion back through time to find out how the Nightside was created. So, pretty much this book is what the last book said it was going to be.

Occasionally because of the time travel the story seems a little disjointed. The only other negative was that the continuous descriptions of how the Nightside looked at each new time point got to be a bit drawn out. This book is also another short one, but that seems to be how this series is.

There were quite a few good things about this book. I liked how a lot of seemingly random events from the past books were given a reason in this book. It was cool that Green tied the events together so well. It was good to see Shotgun Suzie again. Mostly it was just interesting to see how the character’s actions in this book affected the future. It begs the question; could they have really changed the future or were they destined to do what their future selves did in the past so that the future would end up how it was? Time travel circular logic, as John Taylor says, does make your head hurt.

Overall, a great book, and a good addition to the series. I am excited to see how this series continues.