Secret Histories Books In Order

Publication Order of Secret Histories Books

Secret Histories is a fantasy and science fiction series by Simon R. Green that can qualify as a supernatural adaptation of the James Bond series by Ian Flemming. The series revolves around Shaman Bond- whose actual name is Edwin ”Eddie” Drood- a member of the old family of the Droods that has been protecting human beings from all kinds of supernatural evil when the government comes calling. Although the author intended the series to be a trilogy, its increasing popularity made him continue with his writing. So far, The Secret Histories Series has a total of eight novels.
The series is a story told in Edwin Drood’s perspective, who happens to be the black sheep of his powerful family, which has been protecting the humans for ‘more centuries than anyone can remember’, just to quote from the book.

Eddie has been feeling out of place with his family ever since his early childhood, as they were brought up under strict rules that did impinge on his freedom. Eventually, he is allowed to leave and work as a field agent of the Droods in London. While in London, he discovers some of his family’s dark secrets.

About The Author

Simon R. Green was born in 1955 in Bradford on Avon Wiltshire in the United Kingdom. This prolific science fiction author boasts a degree from the University of Leicester in Modern English and American Literature. Although he began his writing career in 1973, it took Simon Green a while to realize success, which finally came in 1989 with the release of seven novels. The same year, he got an opportunity to write a bestselling novel adaptation of Kevin Costner’s film- Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Since 1990, Green has been writing novels and short stories that have given him a place in the world of science fiction literature.

In 2007, The Man With The Golden Torc was released, the first book in the Secret Histories series. The second book, Daemons Are Forever, was released the next year.

The Man With The Golden Torc: This book introduces the main character as somewhat of a rebel, in terms of his sense of fashion and his disregard for his family’s age-old traditions and rules. In fact, he does everything that he is told to do by The Matriarch-his grandmother- who is in charge, even when he becomes a field agent in London, something that the Droods had never had before.

Things start to go wrong, however, when Eddie is set up for an ambush while transporting on of his family’s valuables. He has to fight through a number of villainous creatures- dragons, elves, carnivores (cars gone feral)- only to realize that the whole thing was a test, and there was nothing in the box.
He is then officially declared rogue by his family without being given a reason. Eddie has no option but to make a run for it and try to clear his name. While doing this, he gets to discover some of his family’s dark secrets, and realizes that one of their own had turned the family against him.

As he works on proving his innocence, he makes alliances with questionable acquaintances, one of them being his sworn enemy, a wild witch called Molly Metcalf, after promising her that he would help her bring down the Droods. He did this primarily because he discovered all the lies at the heart of his family and he felt that they weren’t fit rulers.

Daemons Are Forever: This sequel follows up what happens after Eddie brought down the Droods- who put him in charge as a punishment, giving him not only the responsibility to rule the family, but also to redeem it. As a show of strength, Eddie decides to take up the responsibility of ridding humanity of one of its greatest enemies: The Loathly Ones.

While on his venture, however, he discovers that the Loathly Ones ( who are soul eaters by the way) have far more fearsome predecessors, The Hungry Gods. Also known as The Many-Angled Ones, these creatures are from a higher dimension and their purpose is simple: to consume every single living being in their wake.
These creatures happen to have spies everywhere, even among the Droods. Other than that, the Droods are weaker than ever, with their fabled golden armor being no more. Once again, Shaman Bond is at a disadvantage, and has no choice but to form questionable alliances with encounters from his past and his future.
With Molly Metcalf by his side (his arch-rival-turned-girlfriend), Eddie starts to realize that ruling isn’t as easy as he thought.

Review of the series

From the books’ titles all the way to the characters, Simon Green has done a good job of interpreting the James Bond series differently.
The mash-up between the supernatural and the human is commendable. There is a balance between the two and no element has an advantage over the other. This is seen when Eddie finds himself in situations where reciting a magic spell is useless and he has nothing to rely on other than his wit. This saves us from the cliche of ‘magic solves everything’.

Another commendable aspect of this series is that it has a number of strong female characters, much unlike the James Bond series where the women were portrayed as damsels in distress who did nothing but simper in his presence.

Eddie is also a very interesting character to follow in the book, changing between the honorable man from a respectable family and the ruthless fighter who can punch through a helicopter. His relationship with Molly Metcalf is also something to look forward to as it transpires from hatred to respect, and ultimately love.

Conclusively, this series is action-packed, exciting, humorous and full of surprises with every page that you turn. Green has the unique ability of coming up with new concepts and interesting characters with every turn. The plot may move a bit too fast for some readers and may lack depth for others, but this series is a must read for any science fiction fan.