Just Another Judgement Day by Simon R. Green

John Taylor is the son of Adam's first wife, Lilith. But even though she is his mother, and he recieved his power, to find anything, from her, when she returned to the Nightside and tried to destroy it, he stood up to her, refusing to be anything but his own man.

Nightside is the one place that can be both heaven and hell, the answer to every sinner's wildest dream, as any fantasy can be fulfilled there. The cost of that fantasy, though, that is something you might mind paying. You might give up your health, your soul or someone else's. It used to be controlled by the Authorities, disembodied powers that no one ever saw, and their mouthpiece was a man named Walker.

The Authorities are dead now, slain by Lilith, but someone needed to rule the Nightside, to keep the powers in check, and the New Authorities have stepped forward to do so. John Taylor is interested in learning who the New Authorities are, but he's not going to break a sweat to learn who they are. He has more important things to worry about, like himself and the woman he loves, Suzy Shooter, who is unable to touch him without wanting to hurt him. It's nothing personal- Suzy was sexually abused by her brothers from the time she was young, and she has a hard time touching anyone.

But when Walker appears at the door of the house John and Suzy share together, he appears wanting their help. For someone is headed to the Nightside, someone Walker has no chance of touching or stopping, and he wants John to do just that... stop him, in any way possible. And who is this man Walker is so afraid of? It's The Walking Man, God's own instrument of Vengeance, who has come to the Nightside to cleanse it of its Iniquity.

The Walking Man is a supernatural engine of destruction, untouchable by any instrument of death and unable to be killed. So how can John Taylor have any hope of stopping him? His first act in the Nightside is to kill all the people responsible for a shop that sells Memory Crystals. But nobody knows what is on the crystals except for the shop's exclusive clientel. And, as it turns out, what is on the crystals is the starvation, torture and humiliation of small children that are kept imprisoned in the basement of the shop.

Taylor is horrified that he didn't know, that Walker didn't know, what was going on there. He, Walker and Suzy Shooter enter the shop together before they find out the horrible business in the basement within, and while all are horrified by what they see, Suzy stays behind to help the children, knowing a thing or two about being tortured and humiliated, and John seeks out anything that can end the menace of The Walking Man.

Two things becomes very clear about the Walking Man. One is that he truly does come to end the Iniquities of the Nightside, but he also knows no limits on his judgement. Someone who worked in a horrible place, but took no part in the things that went on there is equally guilty in the eyes of the Walking Man, and equally deserving of death. He kills with no qualms, sure that his judgement is right because his judgement is God's judgement.

And his next target is the Boy's Club, where he not only takes down the figures of organized crime, but the relatively blameless mercenary Penny Dreadful, who is only doing her job by protecting the man who hired her. But when The Walking Man turns his attentions on the site of the Street of Gods, and dukes it out with Razor Eddie, God of the Straight Razor, also a Hand of God, and wins, John Taylor is forced to employ the one weapon he swore he never would, the Speaking Gun, which can literally speak things out of existence. But when The Walking Man goes after the New Authorities, can Walker and his new Sidekick Chandra the Monster Slayer, an Indian hero, take down the Walking Man with it, or can Taylor find another way to defeat the unstoppable Walking Man?

I enjoyed this book alot, because even though it is short and rather slim for an urban fantasy novel, Simon R. Green has managed to pack so much story into it without the story feeling rushed or too dense to read. His voice, or rather the voice of John Taylor, is knowledgeable, cynical and slightly disinterested at first, but as the story grows, he becomes more invested in what is happening and preventing the Walking Man from carrying out his threat of destroying the New Authorities and the whole of the Nightside.

But it's not a Nightside story without plenty of revelations, not just about the current Walking Man, but about John Taylor, Nightside, and the characters of Nightside. So, no disappointment here, and by the end of the novel, the revelations are flowing fast and thick, and we see a possible ending to the series, and a possible role change for John and Suzie as well. But which will come true- the possible future of John destroying the Nightside and Suzie becoming partly machine, or some happy ending where they get to love each other and settle down as much as they are able to?

Since Simon R. Green has said that there will be a definite end to the series, either one is a strong possibility right now, and it makes me anxious to find out, which will involve reading the next book (if there is one, and I hope there is). Actually, according to his website, there will be three more books after this one, so more scandals and revelations are sure to follow. And I am sure to be along for the ride.