Rivers of London

Rivers of London (also listed as Midnight Riot) is the first book in a hugely popular series. My friends have been telling me for years to pick it up, and since I’m a stubborn idiot, I let it languish on my TBR. Well, no more! Now I’m one of those annoying evangelists telling you I don’t care what is next on your pile, throw it away and pick up this book instead.

Rivers of London introduces us to Police Constable Peter Grant. While investigating a murder he interrogates a witness, only to discover his witness is a ghost. Before he knows it he’s assigned to a new superior officer, Master Wizard and Detective Chief Inspector Nightingale. Now he’s mingling with gods and goddesses, wading through interdepartmental politics, and show more trying to solve a wave of horrific supernatural murders sweeping across London.

I don’t often say I was hooked on page one, but I really was. I love the writing style and the voice of Grant, and he’s a character I want to spend more time with. He’s a likeable smartass without being too snarky. He handles the revelation of magic with admirable level-headedness, but he’s not perfect; he definitely makes mistakes and sometimes bites off more than he can chew. Nightingale needs a touch more fleshing out but his character, and the master/apprentice relationship with Grant, has some real potential. And I appreciate the friendship he has with Lesley that seems destined to become more.

Also, as much as I love Harry Dresden, the way he ogles women and describes them becomes nauseating; in contrast Grant is a breath of fresh air. He admires women, he sees a few that he finds attractive, but it’s briefly mentioned and then he moves on. There’s no essay describing her melon-like breasts that defy gravity, etc. Just “oh hey she’s attractive, cool. Back to the case.” I would stand next to Grant on a subway and not be afraid he’s a creeper. It shouldn’t feel like a huge deal when a male fantasy author writes this way, but here we are.

Rivers of London neatly tied up the murder mystery while opening up plenty of questions for the further series to explore. Part urban fantasy, part police procedural, this book was 100% a delight. Expect to see the others in the series on my review list in short order, because I want to get to know this entire cast better. show less

This book was perfectly paced, excellently plotted, with glorious characters and relationships. I have literally zero complaints about this book. I aspire to be the level of chill that Peter and Nightingale are. I love that Aaronovitch did not shy away from making pointed social commentary in a way that fit with the narrative and did not stand out as an authorial rant, but sounded like things Peter would say and think. I adored the relationships between the main characters and the way they blossomed, especially Nightingale and Peter's relationship of fondly exasperated mentor towards precocious apprentice. And to my delight, all of the main protags are genunely likeable. I would be friends with them.

I am 100% ready for book two.

A couple of months back I was perusing a website that sells books (as you do) when I saw a book cover that made me instantly take notice. That book was Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch and it had to be mine. I bought a used copy and while I had every intention of reading it as soon as it arrived I was in the middle of some pre-scheduled reviews and it didn't happen...until now! Rivers of London is the first book in the Peter Grant series which chronicles the experiences that a police constable in London has while investigating a gruesome beheading. This book initially comes across as a contemporary crime novel but quite quickly it's established that in this reality magic, ghosts, and vampires are real (among other mythical show more phenomena). However, all of these entities are strictly governed by a special branch of the Metropolitan Police Service which up now consisted of one man. The narrative takes off once Chief Inspector Nightingale, the last wizard in London, decides to take on Peter as his apprentice. There's romance, suspense, magic, and good old-fashioned detecting. With London as the backdrop it was bound to be a winner. If you didn't guess already, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and I've already ordered the next in the series, Moon Over Soho. XD One tagline by Diana Gabaldon might sum it up even more succinctly: What would happen if Harry Potter grew up and joined the Fuzz. If that doesn't win you over then I don't know what will. show less

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Book Report: The book description says:
Probationary Constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London’s Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to assign him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he’ll face is a paper cut. But Peter’s prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost. Peter’s ability to speak with the lingering dead brings him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates crimes involving magic and other manifestations of the uncanny. Now, as a wave of brutal and bizarre murders engulfs the city, Peter is plunged into a world show more where gods and goddesses mingle with mortals and a long-dead evil is making a comeback on a rising tide of magic.

My Review: I'm on record everywhere as disliking phantasee nowvels with Randomly capitalized woordes misspelled to make them majgicqkal. So why the hell would I even pick this book up? Need an easy target to aim brickbats at?

No.

I feel about this book the way I feel about candy bars: Okay. I won't buy one, normally, because I don't like them much (except Little Debby Nutty Bars, which are Perfection, but this is so self-evident as not to need discussion), but there are times and places for everything, right? I found a time and a place for this book. I liked it fine. It's more what I'd hoped for when I heard the fuss about the Harry Dresden, Wizard for Justice, series. Which I did not like at all after about book two.

Peter Grant and his London are intimately connected. The prose makes sure you know this by referencing the ways in which Peter interfaces with London constantly. Tube stops, the names of branch lines, references to bus lines and street names and the oh-so-British shorthand about a character by referencing the newspaper he or she reads...highways and exits and town names...the UK title of the book, The Rivers of London, is absolutely the proper title for a book that uses those rivers, from obvious and huge like the Thames to small, obscure, and vanished, like the Tyburn, as characters to be reckoned with, and whose central myth-making (highly reminiscent of American Gods) dates the age of some riverine characters to the time when England began to clean the rivers up and bring them back to life...well, Midnight Riot just doesn't do the book justice.

So...Harry Dresden meets American Gods, two things that have elicited negative reviews from me, and I give this three and a half stars. Senile? Drugged?

Honest. This book is meant to be fun to read, and it is, while still being built with a consistent mythical background, and it is, with...and here's the key to my pleasure in reading this as opposed to Dresden or Gaiman...a main character whose journey through the pages of story causes him to alter his perception of himself and his place in the world. Harry Dresden's boring agonizing and obnoxious chauvinistic 'tude towards women are absent. Gaiman's ultraubermega cool world-building is present, but without the static characters. Score!

Okay, that sounds like more than three and a half stars, right? Yep. If the book had had some issues ironed out, the rating would be higher. One big issue is Peter Grant's attitude towards the whole majgicqal mystikal world he's suddenly in touch with. “Oh...okay.” Not enough, Mr. Aa. Another issue is the pacing. How, in this day and time of 11945663-page, 29846-volume series novels, is it possible to make 298pp have draggy spots?! Seriously. Draggy spots! How? And there is the question of series-ness...one doesn't want to give too much away to preserve the fun of discovery for future installments, but the cicerone character of Nightingale, Grant's police superior and apparently a very, very old man, is not so much mysteriously vague and intriguing as annoyingly unexamined.

Flaws exist in all things made by humankind, and one person's flaw is another's bliss, but these are pet peeves of mine. Character development and pacing are crucial to my personal enjoyment of a novel. I'm inclined to be forgiving of first novelists in these matters, but not vets like Aaronovitch, who has written several very influential Doctor Who novels.

So three and a half stars it is. And I'll read Moon Over Soho, the next installment in the series, because I like Peter and his majgickqal world that much. Pretty high praise coming from a mean old curmudgeon like me. show less

First novel in what is now a long-running series starring London detective Peter Grant, whose potential as a wizard earns him a place on a secret team who deal with weird occurrences in the capital. In my opinion, suffers from the usual problems of a novel that (the author hopes) will be the first in a long series: some of the characters, including Grant himself, seem a little forced, as if the author knows that we should love this one, or hate that one, but we just have to take his word for it. That improves as the series goes on, and we can make up our own minds.[return][return]What I loved, however, is the central premise: in Peter Grant's wizard-world, the rivers, streams, creeks, etc etc that criss-cross London, buried under tarmac show more and diverted into storm drains, are each represented by a demi-god or goddess. Most of them have adapted comfortably to modern life, holding down jobs, hitting the fashionable clubs at night, raising families, but each one still identifies in some way with the "spirit" of the waterway he or she represents. Lovely idea -- and, as another reviewer has said, a really sharp and interesting depiction of modern London, and how the past there is always just beneath the surface. show less

"Original, witty fantasy with deep roots in London"

This book is a delight from start to finish (and it didn't take long to finish - I consumed the whole thing in two compulsion-driven days).

The book is deeply rooted in contemporary, multicultural, London, with a strong sense of place and of history that is polished and intensified through the lens of the tongue-in-cheek political correctness of the Metropolitan Police, and garlanded with figures from London myth who are at once as modern and as ancient as the city itself.

Wit is sprinkled like hotsauce throughout this books with references to contemporary fiction (Black Adder, Twilight, Harry Potter, Coronation Street), colourful similies, clever word play and a well-developed sense of show more the absurdity of daily life.

The mixed race background of the main character is used to draw out the multi-cultural nature of London and its long history of taking people from around the world and making them into Londoners within one generation.

The plot is driven by the main character's insatiable curiosity to know how things work (I'm easily distracted) and his need to do whatever is necessary to preserve the Queen's Peace (we're the ones who run towards the screams) and powered by magic and evil.

The book lays a glamour on a place I know well and turns it into somewhere I would like to know better.

It is, at heart, an optimistic, civilized, book, filled with chaos and compromise and unspoken agreements and recognition of subtle affiliations. Our hero does the right thing by being himself, taking care of his friends, showing pride but being respectful and muddling through until the job is done. I found the whole thing wonderfully British, or at least, how I would like being British to be.

I've already downloaded the next two in the series. show less

Utterly marvelous and imaginative urban fantasy set in London and surprisingly absorbing. I only meant to read a few pages while my Kindle rebooted and haven't been able to put it down much this weekend.

Great characters, engaging and fun mystery, and like the blurbs note, it's like Harry Potter as a police procedural.

I'd been meaning to read this series for a while thanks to a good review from Charles de Lint in F&SF, but only now got around to reading this. Now I can't wait to nab the second book and keep reading about Peter Grant, apprentice wizard and probationary constable for London's Metropolitan police force. :)