Previously, I’ve only read the „main“ Rivers of London novels, not the comics nor the novellas. But given Ben Aaronovitch’s latest novella, The October Man, is located in Germany, with a German narrator, curiosity won over lack of time. 😊

The narrator in this story is Tobias Winter, who shares with Peter Grant (and many a hardboiled detective) the sarcastic voice though and being the first licensed apprentice of the sole official magic practioner since decades, though not the fondness for architecture; he’s more into cooking. His background is Aaronvitch impressing me with his research, because while Winter’s father is also a cop, his mother is a proud Green veteran from the 80s „Atomkraft Nein Danke!“ demonstrations. (Anti-nuclear power demonstrations: were a really big thing if you were Green in the German 1980s.) World-building wise, the novella fleshes out the long term after effects of the WWII events that form such a key part of Nightingale’s backstory, but it’s very much set in the here and now. I’m intrigued by Winter’s (female) boss, Nightingale’s counterpoint, the Director, who it seems was the sole legal German magic practitioner until Angela Merkel revived the German magic department within the German police in 2005. (Danke, Merkel.) Tobias Winter also gains a female partner named Vanessa Sommer (and everyone comments on the pun in their names) who has a better time of it than Lesley in her first outing but inevitably strikes one as her counterpoint much as Tobias is Peter’s.

The story of the novella is a solid mystery, set in Trier, making the most of the vineyards and the vinery there. (Kudos, Aaronovitch, for not making it either Berlin, Frankfurt or Munich, and in general being that rarity, a writer from the English speaking world who acknowledges that Germans who aren’t either from Berlin or Bavarians exist). Very rarely, I got thrown out of the story when the book made an attempt to incorporate German slang into English in a literal manner – „they don’t give a sausage“ bemused me until it dawned to me someone must have translated „es ist ihnen wurst“ like that for Aaronvitch. Also, I suspect the reason everyone refers to Peter’s boss as „the Nightingale“ rather than „Nightingale“ isn’t out of respect but because Aaronvitch wants to imitate our habit of putting „der“ or „die“ in front of a name when casually referring to them – as in „echt jetzt, der Johnson als PM?“ Otherwise, though, there’s no literal equivalent of trying to provide Tobias Winter with a German accent, thankfully. The occasional digs – our linguistic tendency to come up with lengthy words for various aspects usually summed up with shorter words in English, for example – are good humored and warranted. Conversely, Tobias Winter observing you can’t trust the Brits to stick to international agreements may or may not be prompted by Current Events, but it’s just a remark in context, not a big thing.

We get two rivers in this one; if anyone is curious, that’s the Kyll, the adult one of the two. (That there are lot of smaller rivers flowing into the Mosel at Trier might have been one of the reasons Aaronovitch picked this location.) The Rhinemaidens are briefly mentioned, which makes me hope we’ll meet them in a future outing. Also, since Heine chatting with Father Rhine is one of the funniest sections of Deutschland: Ein Wintermärchen, I hope someone gives Aaronovitch a translation and he incorporates an update in said future outing. Of course, given what the poor Rhinen went through last year with the dry spell, it might not be a happy event.

Anyway, I enjoyed this book and appreciate what it does for extending this particular universe.

State of my own stories: assignment: recipient hasn't commented yet, but nearly everyone else vocal in the tiny online fandom has, so I'm pleased as punch. Treat: recipient loves it, but not many other people seem to have read it so far. We'll see. Consider the invitation to guess and get a drabble on the subject of your choice if guessing correctly my cunning plan to get more readers. :)

On to stories I loved as a reader:

Fairy Tales/History: The Last Dancing Queen of England: in which the story of the twelve dancing princesses is applied to the wives of Henry VIII, and somehow fits marvellously.

Being Human: return back to your grave: fantastic take on the tense relationship between Nina and Mitchell, and a great character exploration of both.

Better Call Saul: if you ever ever learn you never show it: Jimmy and Chuck, growing up. Superb take on a layered sibling relationship.

Crusade: Stone Walls Do Not A Prison Make: Dureena and Max, trapped together. Will they manage to figure out how to rescue themselves before irritating each other to death? No, seriously, this story is so much fun and depicts one of my favourite Crusade relationships.

Dragonlance: Our Journey Winds On, Still: talk about messed up siblingn relationships. Raistlin and Caramon Majore in their co-dependent glory, in a "what if?" that explores what would have happened if Caramon had followed Raistlin into darkness.

Elementary: The Case of the Anonymous Benefector: in which Kitty Winter solves a case familiar to ACD readers, and ensemble goodness is had to boot. I miss the season 3 set up of Elementary, and this story is a great bandage on that open wound.

Matthew Shardlake Novels Agnus Dei: Guy, Tamasin, Matthew and Jack strive to deal with the events from the end of Lamentation. Brief, elegant and to the point, and breaking my heart in the process (in a good way).

Rivers of London: Not a tame tiger: sparring, verbal (and otherwise?) between Varvara and Nightingale. Bring on the war generation magical interaction, I say!

Troubling the Water: whereas this is adorable silliness between Lesley and Peter, and I love it, too.


Penny Dreadful: Behind the Wallpaper: dozens of AUs and yet not. All that could have happened/did happen/who knows? when Evelyn Poole opened a door in the s2 finale.

A Place of Greater Safety: Tick Tock: in which the mysterious author actually pulls off an alternate way the French Revolution could have gone, based on my favourite Hilary Mantel novel's interpretation of its chief figures. I'll say no more - find out how yourself!


Many more to come, but this is my first installment

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.