Rivers of London

I enjoyed this book, so much that I didn't want to review it right away because I was still immersed in Peter Grant's London. It's the urban fantasy take on the detective novel, a police procedural that gives a close-up view of a modern London with undercurrents of magic and magical beings. I love the tone of this book--it's wry and humorous, but doesn't let the humor take over the scene. It's one thing to be ready with a quick line, another entirely to go through one's entire life wisecracking, especially in times of great danger. Aaronovitch walks that delicate line like a pro.

Peter is a probationary constable who is about to be shifted into a paperwork division. He and his co-probationary officer and friend are guarding the perimeter show more of a murder scene when he sees a ghost. Peter is a very likeable hero, wry, intelligent, loyal, aware of class and race issues around him, and while he has family issues that include a heroin-dependent father, he doesn't spend every moment agonizing and reliving the past. We are told he did well in the sciences in school, just not well enough to get him to the next levels. It's magic's gain, as he sets his analytical skills to understanding the magical world, using his free time for experiments. I love those little experiments, because it breaks up the action and makes Peter's experience seem all the more real--who wouldn't be asking a lot of questions if they discover there are magical beings and magic in the world? Many people would be asking the 'hows' and 'whys;' Peter attempts to answer some of the questions himself through the scientific method, to the surprise of his technologically-challenged boss.

There are few wizards left, and I liked that Aaronovitch didn't make magic easy. It takes Peter hours of study and practice to advance, and we get a sense of the effort and thought Peter puts into it. It isn't until a third into the book when he finally raises his own werelight, and we are ready to cheer with him when he does: "Fuck me, I thought. I can do magic." It's a refreshing change from the all-powerful heroes of other books. Similarly, he's aware that even though he has two years on the force, he still makes mistakes, such as when he and Leslie "obtrusively" piled out of the car during surveillance.

Aaronovitch has a real gift for bringing life to his characters, even the most bit parts. Molly doesn't talk at all, and we still get a very good sense of her, her dedication and her potential. Seawoll, an initially scary superior, and Leslie's immediate boss, gets imbued with humanity when Peter watches him question witnesses. We're also given a good look at the subtleties of the police department, when Seawoll "interrogates" Peter after a shooting. "Then we continued lying through our teeth while telling nothing but the truth." It's a perfect tone that conveys so much about the officers' loyalty, the bureaucracy of the department, and the unspoken understanding to follow the letter of the law without coming close to the spirit.

I loved it, and the re-read was even better than the first time through. There are a lot of British-isms, but most of them can be puzzled out from the surrounding sentence(s). A great read, and I'll be looking for a hardcover to add to my own library.

great lines:
"I left in a hurry before he could change his mind, but I want to make it clear that at no point did I break into a skip."

"Number two was a magical library where all the direct treatises on spells, forma and alchemy were kept, all of them written in Latin and so all Greek to me."

Four investigative stars. show less

Aaronovitch, Ben. Midnight Riot. Rivers of London No. 1. Del Rey, 2011.
In Midnight Riot (published in England with the much tonier title of Rivers of London), Peter Grant is a probationary constable working for the modern-day London Metropolitan police. His bosses are about to shuffle him off to a make-work division where he will likely spend his career “making a contribution” by shuffling papers. All that changes when he meets a ghost who has witnessed a murder in Covent Garden. The next thing he knows, he is an apprentice wizard working to solve paranormal crimes. The plot is gritty, and best of all, the first-person narration is witty and authentic. It is a worthy addition to the urban fantasy genre that contains Jim Butcher’s show more Dresden Files, Charles Stross’s Laundry Files, the X-Files, and even Ghostbusters. Author Ben Aaronovitch cut his teeth writing radio drama scripts for Blake’s 7 and some classic episodes of Dr. Who in the 1980s. We should not be surprised that his plot is full of twists and sometimes disturbing surprises. Recommended. show less

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

Newly minted police constable Peter Grant probably should have listened to the ghost when it told him to stay away from DCI Thomas Nightingale, head of a mysterious one-man unit -- now a two-man unit, if Peter agrees to join him. Apparently, seeing ghosts means Peter has a promising career in front of him as a wizard. That is, if he can survive his first case involving a vindictive revenant and a quarrel between London's river spirits...

Such a fun book! I enjoyed Peter's tongue-in-cheek narration, and will be getting my hands on the next book in the series soon. A stellar start to my reading year.

3.75 stars. Midnight Riot is great start to a series and also is simply a fabulous new series for the urban fantasy world. This book is funny, not silly funny like Three's Company, but dry funny with an amazing delivery. Ben Aaronvitch makes very witty observations about human nature and delivers in such a way that it is funny. At the same time, he sets up an intriguing urban fantasy world, playing on existing mythology and bringing new stuff in. He even makes a few Harry Potter jokes.

The main character is the son of an African immigrant and a failed jazz musician, he is a newly made London constable and he is finding his way. This isn't a world where magic and the supernatural is known, instead Peter, the main character, is learning show more about magic along with the reader and Ben Aaronvitch is a great teacher. The characters are real, because of the way they are written, I felt like I knew the characters as people. The police investigation and technique stuff sort of dragged for me, that was the only part of the book I didn't care for and it brought down the rating -- but in all fairness, this book is about a police officer conducting an investigation. And the police technique is done well and seems convincing, but who am I to know about that? I recommend this book to people who enjoy urban fantasy, male points of view written by men, and additionally, those that like police investigation plots.

The book had solid writing and astute commentary. Here is an example, Ben Aaronvitch interrupts the story line to tell a seemingly non-related story but at the end he delivers the observation -- it is done so brilliantly ever single time. This example interrupts a riot scene:

"One of my mum's uncles once had tickets to Arsenal v spurs at Highbury and took me when his own son couldn't make it. We were down among season ticket holders, the hardest of the hard-core soccer fans who went there for the game, no the violence. Being in a crowd like that is like being caught in the tide -- you might try going in the other direction, but it drags you along all the same. It was a dull game, style wise, and looked to be heading for a nil-nil draw, when suddenly in injury time Arsenal made a late surge. As they got into the penalty area I swear the whole stadium, sixty thousand people, held their breath. When the Arsenal forward put it in the back of the net, I found myself screaming with joy along with the rest of the people around me. It was entirely involuntary."

Another keen observation:

If you ask any police officer what the worst part of the job is, they will always say breaking bad news to relatives, but this is not the truth. The worst part is staying in the room after you've broken the news, so that you're forced to be there when someone's life disintegrates around them. Some people say it doesn't bother them -- such people are not to be trusted.

Another good observation:

Despite what you think you know, most people don't want to fight, especially when evenly matched. A mob will tear an individual to pieces and a man with a gun and a noble cause is happy to kill ever so many women and children, but risking a fair fight -- not so easy. That's why you se those pissed young men doing the dance of 'don't hold me back' while desperately hoping someone likes them enough to hold them back. Everyone is always so pleased to see the police arrive, because we have to save them whether we like them or not.

Some of my favorite lines are below:

"Me and Nightingale did what all good coppers do when faced with a spare moment in the middle of the day -- we went looking for a pub."

He looked up, barked once and shot off toward King Street. "Get after him," said Nightengale.Two years running down drunks in Leicester Square had given me some speed and stamina. I lost ground when I had to dodge around a crocodile of Dutch tourists leaving the Theater. "Police," I yelled."Get out of the way." I didn't yell stop that dog -- I do have some standards."

"That's a load of wank," he said. " But at least it's convincing wank. In a couple of minutes we're going to take you down Hampstead nick, where a very nice lady from Scotland Yard is going to take your statements -- separately. And while I'm a beleiver in veracity in all things, I want to make it cleaer that there isn't to be an fucking mubo jumbo voodoo X-files shit in any fucking statement. Is that understood? ... As far as anyone else is concerned, normal fucking policing got us into this mess and normal fucking policing will get us out of it." ....
"Did he just ask us to lie to a senior officer?" I asked.
"Yep," said Leslie.
"Just checking," I said.
So we spent the rest of the afternoon bearing false witnesses in separate interview rooms. We were careful to make sure that while our accounts broadly agreed, there were lots of authentic-looking discrepancies. No one can fake a statement the way a policeman can.

If you are looking for a break from the female point of view urban fantasy world, but you still want to stay in the genre -- then this book is a great refreshing read. Just as an aside, this book has a different name in the UK: Rivers of London and a different cover. I like the UK cover more than the US cover. 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

This was delightful -- a London magician who is more a cop from a police procedural than another knockoff of John Constantine (the working-class Scouse magus from the DC/Vertigo Comics' long-running Hellblazer series). I liked this book a lot and can't wait to read the sequel!