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Ben Aaronovitch: Rivers of London (Book Review)
I'd heard good rumours about it for years, but this week I finally managed to read Ben Aaronovitch's "Rivers of London", the first volume of what I take is an ongoing saga.
Previously I had known Ben Aaronovitch as a Doctor Who scriptwriter - he's responsible for Remembrance of the Daleks and Battlefield, both Seventh Doctor and Ace adventures -, so the DW nods didn't surprise me. But I think I'd have liked this book regardless. It's urban fantasy, with a hero, Peter Grant, who's a young officer with the London Met and runs into supernatural goings on early in the novel, with the result that he's simultanously engaged in solving a vicious murder series and becoming an apprentice wizard. And he has to broker peace between the female and the male divine embodiment of the River Thames.
The casual interaction with deities (and the fact that you can become one - Mama Thames started out as a Nigerian woman, while Father Thames started out as a Roman-era Briton) had some Neil Gaiman echoes for me, though it may simply be drawings from the same mythological sources. Peter Grant, our hero, is black, as are Mama Thames and her daughters (and that's how Selena after a few decades of visiting London, learns there are small underground and some above ground rivers flowing from or into the Thames). This is very much today's London, but at the same time, the novel evokes tropes (one of Peter's superiors is a grumpy Northerner from Yorkshire, because of course he is). There's a lot of humor, but the seriousness of the crimes is truly hard hitting. Especially once two of the characters who looked like they would be regulars get endangered, and yours truly suddenly thinks, damm, British series, I shouldn't take anyone's survival for granted, Spooks alert, X and Y might actually die! But please, not Y! I LIKE Y.
I shan't tell you whether or not Y survives, because I like sharing my agonized suspense. Instead, I'll praise another aspect of the book, which is the of St. Paul's in Covent Garden, the actors' church, and a particular obscure bit of British theatrical history. The play's the thing, indeed. I had my suspicions before the reveal, but fairly played, book.
The novel wraps up both cases our hero is involved with but certainly sets up enough to make me curious about further adventures. Not yet in a "must have immediately" manner, but if I find time - *eyes ever growing staple of recced books* - I will read more.
Previously I had known Ben Aaronovitch as a Doctor Who scriptwriter - he's responsible for Remembrance of the Daleks and Battlefield, both Seventh Doctor and Ace adventures -, so the DW nods didn't surprise me. But I think I'd have liked this book regardless. It's urban fantasy, with a hero, Peter Grant, who's a young officer with the London Met and runs into supernatural goings on early in the novel, with the result that he's simultanously engaged in solving a vicious murder series and becoming an apprentice wizard. And he has to broker peace between the female and the male divine embodiment of the River Thames.
The casual interaction with deities (and the fact that you can become one - Mama Thames started out as a Nigerian woman, while Father Thames started out as a Roman-era Briton) had some Neil Gaiman echoes for me, though it may simply be drawings from the same mythological sources. Peter Grant, our hero, is black, as are Mama Thames and her daughters (and that's how Selena after a few decades of visiting London, learns there are small underground and some above ground rivers flowing from or into the Thames). This is very much today's London, but at the same time, the novel evokes tropes (one of Peter's superiors is a grumpy Northerner from Yorkshire, because of course he is). There's a lot of humor, but the seriousness of the crimes is truly hard hitting. Especially once two of the characters who looked like they would be regulars get endangered, and yours truly suddenly thinks, damm, British series, I shouldn't take anyone's survival for granted, Spooks alert, X and Y might actually die! But please, not Y! I LIKE Y.
I shan't tell you whether or not Y survives, because I like sharing my agonized suspense. Instead, I'll praise another aspect of the book, which is the of St. Paul's in Covent Garden, the actors' church, and a particular obscure bit of British theatrical history. The play's the thing, indeed. I had my suspicions before the reveal, but fairly played, book.
The novel wraps up both cases our hero is involved with but certainly sets up enough to make me curious about further adventures. Not yet in a "must have immediately" manner, but if I find time - *eyes ever growing staple of recced books* - I will read more.
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They're not changing anything other than the cover, and they're not even doing that anymore! Argh!
Actually, it's worse with another series I like, Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman, which has been published as a book in the UK, published as an audiobook in the UK, translated into German, translated into Italian, and has STILL not been published as so much as an e-book in the US/Canada.
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ETA: Isn't the first one the one where the German tourist family shows up? They were kind of endearing, especially since they really weren't what I expected.
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tbh, I tend to acquire the new books on UK release, and then buy them when they come out here
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