As part of my on-going investigation of Simon R. Green, I picked up an omnibus of three of his early novels, Swords of Haven. The three books are essentially police procedurals sent in a fantasy universe.

The setting is the city of Haven, a place that vaguely reminds me of Fritz Leiber’s Lankhmar. The chief difference is that the city is governed by an elected council rather than a patrician. All three tales concern Hawk and Fisher, a husband-and-wife team, both captains in the City Guard. The feel is gritty and urban; think Victorian England with magic standing in for technology.

The first tale, Hawk and Fisher, is the least satisfying of the three. After a promising opening in which Hawk and Fisher find and put down a vampire that’s been terrorizing the city, it turns into a “country house” mystery (well, the house is in town, but “town house” mystery sounds silly) in which a candidate for the city council is murdered and one of his guests are responsible. Hawk and Fisher are on the scene, as they’ve been detailed to be the man’s body guards.

It’s a locked room mystery, and the gimmick—how the murder was done—is not bad. But I didn’t like the characterization, and I found my suspension of disbelief collapsing fairly often.

The second tale, Winner Take All, is better. It picks up shortly after Hawk and Fisher leaves off, when the duo are assigned to be body guards for yet another candidate. The election is imminent, and there’s a whole lot of full-body electioneering going on. By law, candidates are not allowed to have wizards on their staffs; but naturally enough, all of them do, complicating matters nicely.

The initial set up had me worried; it was a little too much like that of the previous book. And the characterization is still problematic; too many characters seem to do what they do because the plot demands it, rather than because it makes sense.

The third tale, The God Killer, is the most interesting. One of the features of Haven is the Street of Gods, where all of the city’s temples and churches are located. We first see the Street of Gods in passing in Winner Take All, but here it’s front and center. It’s the thing that most reminds me of Lankhmar, but Green’s Street of Gods is actually a more interesting place. First, the geography of the Street of Gods is variable; it’s as big as it needs to be to hold all of the temples, and its weather differs from that of the rest of the city. Second, the existence of the various gods is a material fact: they are magical “Beings” that feed on the worship of their followers and in return give them power. Those with many followers grow more powerful, and those with fewer fail and die; moreover they can be killed. Green’s basically following Terry Pratchett, which is amusing, as Terry Pratchett was himself following Fritz Leiber (Anhk-Morpork equals Lankhmar.)

But again, Green’s added a new twist. Hawk and Fisher are from another country, to the far north, and claim to have been raised as Christians. Moreover, as in Drinking Midnight Wine, the characters make a distinction between the Beings worshipped on the Street of Gods, and God who is the transcendent creator of all that is. (I’ve been unable to find anything on-line about Green’s religious beliefs, but I have to wonder if he’s a Christian.)

So, my overall assessment. Not bad; it’s been a rather fraught week, what with the Station Fire and all, and this book helped me pass the time pleasantly enough. The third novel in the set, at least, is genuinely interesting, and if Green still doesn’t strike me as a truly excellent writer, these were good enough that I’m willing to look up the remaining Hawk and Fisher novels (which are also available in an omnibus edition, Guards of Haven).