If you’ve ever eaten Mexican food or Italian food or, really, more than one dish from any country or region’s dinner menu, you know that people can use the same or similar ingredients but end up with something very different.
Which brings me to Simon R. Green’s Jekyll & Hyde Inc. series, in which monsters fight aliens. Which would seem to occupy a similar territory as Green’s Ishmael Jones novels, in which an alien fights monsters.
But as Green explains in the following email interview about Hyde & Seek (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook), the second book after 2021’s Jekyll & Hyde Inc., it’s not just who’s on which side that’s different in this sci-fi / fantasy / horror / mystery mash-up.
For people who haven’t read the first book in this series, Jekyll & Hyde Inc., what happens in it and what kind of a world is it set in?
Jekyll & Hyde Inc., asked the question: Whatever happened to all the old monsters? There was a time when everyone believed in vampires, werewolves and so on. But then suddenly, they were just fiction. Rather than have their secrets exposed by a growing worldwide media, the monsters disappeared into the underworld of crime. All but one, who refused to be anything but a plain-dealing monster. And that was Edward Hyde. So he is the only one left, fighting the monsters. He forms Jekyll & Hyde Inc, to dispense Dr Jekyll’s formula to deserving people, to make them strong enough to fight monsters. Except, nothing’s that simple in one of my books.
And then for people who have read Jekyll & Hyde Inc., and can thus ignore me writing SPOILER ALERT, what is Hyde & Seek about?
At the end of Jekyll & Hyde Inc., our heroes wipe out all the monsters. But nature abhors a vacuum; supernature even more so. Leading to the new question; Whatever happened to all the old aliens? The Martians, the Bug-Eyed Monsters, the Reptiloids, and the Greys. Our heroes have their work cut out.
Where did you get the idea for this series?
I’ve always had a fondness for the old Universal horror movies, so it was fun to play with the old monsters. And I’ve always loved the old-fashioned sci-fi movies, like Quatermass, The Crawling Eye, Invaders From Mars, so that led to the second book.
So, is there a significance to their last name being Hyde as opposed to Dracula or Frankenstein or, I dunno, Kardashian?
Kardashian would have been too scary.
I used Hyde because the original story [Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson] has always fascinated me. In recent times, there’s been a tendency to make Hyde a sort of anti-hero, which I don’t agree with. Edward Hyde was pure evil, that’s the point. So would you trust him, if he offered you a potion to make you strong and powerful?
Hyde & Seek sounds like it’s a mix of science fiction and fantasy, but also rather pulpy.
I’ve always found the idea of genre limiting. I don’t so much mash genres as slam them together to see what sparks come off. Why leave anything out? Put sci-fi and fantasy and horror and mystery together, and see what you get. I have always been a great believer in dashing off in any direction that looks like fun.
It also kind of sounds like it’s mining similar territory as your Ishmael Jones novels, in which an alien fights monsters. Did Jekyll & Hyde Inc. start out as an Ishmael Jones novel, or as you wanting to put a different spin on a Jones story?
The tone of the books are very different. Ishmael is an alien trying to pass for human. Daniel starts out human, but chooses to become a monster. Ishamel is all about solving mysteries. Jekyll & Hyde Inc. is about fighting the good fight, and the toll it can take on you. And the Hyde books are much more action orientated. The second book starts with Daniel and Tina under fire from a fleet of attack helicopters, and getting the hell shot out of them. After that, things get worse.
So, are there any writers who had a big influence on Jekyll & Hyde Inc and Hyde & Seek but not on anything else you’ve written?
If there’s an influence on Jekyll & Hyde Inc., I’d say Neil Gaiman. Not in story or style, but in the way his work makes you think about things in supernatural stories that you’ve always taken for granted.
What about such about non-literary influences as movies, TV shows, or games?
There’s never been a really good Jekyll & Hyde movie. I’ve seen and enjoyed many, but I’m a big fan of the original book, and no-one’s ever done it properly. Though the Michael Cane TV series was a lot of fun, and so was the Stephen Moffat TV series.
Does that mean you don’t think Jekyll & Hyde Inc. and Hyde & Seek would work as movies either?
I think both books would make amazing widescreen pedal to the metal action movies. With some serious scares thrown in. Rights are available.
So, is there anything else you think people need to know about Jekyll & Hyde Inc.?
They’re fun! Monsters, battles, and a love story for the ages. Sex, a drug, and rock & roll.
Finally, if someone enjoys Jekyll & Hyde Inc. and Hyde & Seek, and they’re the first novels of yours they’ve read, which of your other novels would you suggest they check out next?
Try them all. They’re fun. But I was particularly proud of For Love Of Magic. I wrote that after acting in a production of the play Harvey, where an old Celtic spirit the Pookah shows itself to a man as a giant rabbit that’s invisible to everyone else. I thought; what if it showed itself as a beautiful young woman, and the man fell in love with her?
