Lies Sleeping (Rivers of London #7) by Ben Aaronovitch

The Faceless Man, Martin Chorley, is moving closer and closer to his mysterious but doubtlessly destructive final goal. But the Folly has gathered all its resources, all it connections to begin Operation Jennifer which will final stop him once and for all

And Peter Grant, detective constable and apprentice wizard, boyfriend to a river goddess is going to be in the centre of the front line

I like Peter a lot, as a character. There’s so many aspects to him which are so refreshing and fun to read. Perhaps most surprising of them is he’s a person. A real person with a life. He’s a police detective and a wizard but he also goes home to his mum for dinner and fending off her massively spicy Sierra Leonian cooking. He has a pint. He goes home to Beverley. In a genre where so many people, especially detectives, seem to just exist for the drama, he actually has a home life. He’s not sitting there declaring “I am Police! My Life Is Fighting The Crime!”

I also like that he’s a good man - and how he’s a good man. Peter isn’t naive. He knows there are times when being a bit of a bastard would be more effective and safer. He overtly thinks that there would be a better way to do things - but those would involving not caring for people, not following the rules and, ultimately, not being a good man. Peter isn’t a fool and is aware that he is sometimes actively making his life more difficult and dangerous -but these rules matter to him. But nor is he self-righteous, he doesn’t think he’s better than other people, he isn’t judgemental. He’s hopeful without being naive and he’s cynical without being bitter. He doesn’t expect the world to be better but he is determined to make it better. And oh my gods, can I say how much I love seeing a fictional police officer who cares about the rules? It seems to be a staple of fiction to have the police break the rules gleefully and we’re supposed to support it. I like to see a fictional police officer who actually cares about the law. I really like how Lesley stands as counterpoint to him - because again she isn‘t super demonised as all evil - but because maybe she just doesn’t have his same lines. And she maybe has a point? These rules and laws have been put in place for completely non-magical people and do they even apply, can they?

And he’s extremely funny and fun with a lot of very wry observations which were hilarious. I love Peter, I love his voice, I love how we get this incredible hard balance of being a good person without being naive or bitter is just hit perfectly. He’s wonderful.

He also fits the world - this wonderful setting in London, full of research and knowledge and pure love of the city - but that love is the same as Peter’s goodness. It’s love that is mixed with cynical knowledge of reality - whether it’s Lesley’s angry retort that London sucks all the wealth and attention from the rest of the country or Peter’s cynical knowledge of London Traffic, funding, neglected areas, some truly awful architecture and more - he sees ALL of it and loves it despite it.

The Hanging Tree (Rivers of London #6) by Ben Aaronovitch

The Faceless man is active again – only this time Peter and Nightingale are on his tale and making ever more progress in finally tracking him down and exposing him

So long as Peter can avoid the wrath of Lady Tyburn, goddess of the river Tyburn, who is most annoyed at Peter over the arrest of her daughter

And there’s some Americans with guns which is never a good thing.

I love this series. I love it so much

I love how incredibly British it is. How very London it is. Every page is just so full of London, London places, London culture, London history. I don’t really know a lot about Ben Aaronovitch but he must be a Londoner and he both loves his city but also sees it very clearly – knows it for what it is.

The constant, fun wry comments about the city, the places, the rivers, how things have changed, how they’ve adapted are so much fun and add such an incredible richness to the series. Because we’re not just adding a rich supernatural world and culture to the city, but the city itself – the actual, real, London - is also explored in so much depth and history and commentary and it’s so much fun. And, honestly, it shouldn’t be because there’s such a lot there – but Peter’s irreverent tone, his completely sarcastic, very British and wry take down of it all is excellent. The way he loves his home but is fully aware of all of the problems of it as well, all of the nasty realities.

That acknowledgement of London as it is also includes all of its racial diversity. Mama Thames and all of her daughters are Black. Peter is Black, his mother from Sierra Leone. We have Guleed who is Middle Eastern, Muslim and wears a Hijab and plays a major role throughout the book become a de-facto Folly member (I really hope she joins up because she’s an excellent partner for Peter, her wry cynicism touching nicely with his occasional naivety). Please more of this!

On top of this there’s a real acknowledgment of how class, wealth and race affect people – how people are treated, what advantages they have and especially how hat relates to policing.

There’s an excellent moment where one of the characters continually assumes they know so much about Peter – and ye gods they’re all stereotypes everyone has heard so many times before and we know so many fools think this – based on his race and class and it’s just so ridiculously wrong and far from Peter’s reality and his family.

Foxglove Summer (Rivers of London #5) by Ben Aaronovitch

Peter faces something more daunting than anything he has encountered previously… the countryside.

The London cop is heading to rural Herefordshire on a missing children’s case – it’s not the Folly’s case but it’s always best to check on local supernaturals just be sure there isn’t any magical nefariousness with children. Usually it’s more mundane and this looked like another case

But as Peter stays around to help, more and more of the mystical is clearly involved; there is definitely something unnatural going on (beyond the foody pubs with the heritage sausages).

I love this series. I love the world setting with its quirkiness, it’s fun, the broad range of supernatural creatures and Peter happily trying to fit them all into police procedure. Yes we will have fae and ridiculous acronyms and proper police filing and budget concerns!

In some ways, this story is very slowly paced – because it closely follows a police investigation which is inherently slow. We have procedures and false leads and crossing t’s and dotting I’s and red herrings as well as the whole mystical research side of things and Peter being so completely off his patch. We don’t run from action to action –but it still really works because of the excellent writing, tone, world building and general sense of realism to the book. It’s not full of action after action – and it would feel wrong if it were. That’s not how police investigations work, it’s not how a missing kid investigation works and it’s not how Peter, the Follow et al work. Part of the glory of this book is that it’s an Urban Fantasy police story that doesn’t involve people running around with gunfights until the bad guy decides to conveniently kidnap the protagonist so no-one has to do any investigating or deal with actual investigative forces or officialdom except in the most tangential manner. This has a level of realism I can really feel - and because of that even small bit characters stand out as actual people (though it helps that each is given their own little quirks and originality).

Of course, it’s also not slow because it’s immensely amusing and extremely funny. I read most of this book with a big grin on my face.

I have always loved how every British this series is and this book is no exception. The tone, the snark – oh the glorious snark (the wonderful glorious snark) – the nice little asides and interactions and wry observations – it’s just so very British. The tone of the whole book just oozes Britishness in such authenticity that I don’t think I’ve ever seen in another book. I’ve never seen a series that had such a powerful sense of setting. It’s lots of little things, like hilarious little snarks about the Daily Mail (and their dreaded view of Europe, Asylum Seekers or anyone else), or how the police are actually quite eager to shift their cases to the Folly because then it’s not THEIR budgets they have to mine for resources.

Broken Homes (Rivers of London #4) by Ben Aaronovitch

Peter and Lesley are still trying to track down the Faceless Man and his erstwhile pupils; it’s a long, tedious task only achievable by dogged police work.

Of course, the understaffed magical police force has plenty of other things to drag their attention – an ancient magical book that a thief tried to sell, a man committing a very suspicious suicide, people being microwaved, a Russian military trained witch and the gods and goddesses of the Thames demanding their attention. And some of it is definitely linked to a bemusing tower block that doesn’t quite make sense

There’s a lot to handle – and the Faceless Man’s influence is definitely behind some of it – but which and why?

Nightingale insists the Faceless man is no Moriarty – but he may be wrong on this one

When a copy of this book was pushed through my door on Friday evening, I opened it then cleared my desk, dropped my e-reader and turned off my phone. There would be no interruptions. When the sun rose Saturday morning, I had finished reading it – and could finally allow myself to sleep

It’s an excellent sign of a good book – does it rob me of sleep? Can I read all 357 pages of it without any breaks? And, particularly, can I read it in one setting and not even take a break to get coffee? The answer to all is yes, I love this book more than coffee.

There’s so much about this book I love. I love its realness – which sounds strange about a book that is about the supernatural, but it’s true. I love the sense of London you get from every page, the very real place that it conjures, the actual real place that it relates to. You can feel London – and intimate knowledge of London - on every page. I can’t undersell how powerful the setting is.

But the realness doesn’t just stop at the city, there’s also a lot of research that has gone into Peter’s job as a policeman. The procedures, the bodies he deals with, the hoops he has to jump through. His wry views of both the public through a policeman’s eyes and the same wry criticism of the police’s own failings both historic and present (especially as a Black man who grew up in a poor neighbourhood). When so many crime stories have magical forensics, impossibly fast deductions, so little actual investigation and police work and such a very fast and loose approach to what the law actually means, it’s so excellent that this Urban Fantasy book has a more realistic presentation of police work than any number of crime dramas. My personal favourite was replacing the jurisdictional battles (“it’s my case! How dare you steal my case!”) with police forces trying to push cases on each other because they can see how much budget it’s going to eat up.

Portraying Bigotry

 
One of the thorniest issues when it comes to analysing media from a social justice perspective is the concept of portraying prejudice and bigotry. After all, bigotry exists, bigoted people exist, at some point we’ll expect some bigoted characters showing up.

And that’s not a bad thing - in fact, erasing prejudice and pretending it doesn’t exist is far from ideal. To not show prejudice in times and places where prejudiced would be common or rife can be a denial that that prejudice exists, especially if you are showing everyone in that area and era as gloriously accepting of all minorities. In many ways it’s a form of erasure to do this or a rewriting of the world - both present and historic. The problem is portraying prejudice in a way that doesn’t perpetuate it - and too often writers use this argument of “realistic portrayal” as an excuse to produce some severely bigoted work.

So how to portray bigotry without producing a book or show that should come with its own trigger warning or will make the minority in question want to eat your liver?

Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, is that prejudiced portrayal really necessary? Sometimes the presence of bigotry is not only unnecessary, but it’s down right confusing, especially in speculative fiction. In an alternate world with an entirely different religion, culture even different species, is there a reason why women are dealing with misogyny? So much else had changed, why not this? Or, in the distant future, between the stars with more curiously-humanoid-aliens than you could shake a phaser at, do we still need racism? This can reach the point of almost parody - I’ve seen avatars of Greek gods - ancient Greek gods - losing their shit over men kissing. The Greeks!

It’s bemusing that, in these worlds where everything can be so different from our own, prejudice is considered inviolate. When all else in history can be changed, when the truly fantastic can be introduced, when we have magic, vampires, aliens and plot holes you can drive a bus through, it seems ridiculous to decide that bigotry is just something that must remain. And I think every social justice media critic in the world is tired of someone explaining the absolute necessity of “historical accuracy” in a series that has freaking dragons.

But even aside from fantasy worlds where you’ve decided to, bewilderingly, include real world bigotry; there is plenty of bigotry shown in works that are closer to our world and we have to ask “why is this necessary?” Does this prejudice actually add anything to the story or development or anything at all? One of the things that annoyed us so much about season 1 of American Horror Story is the amount of bigotry that was presented was completely gratuitous - it did nothing for the story to have the realtor use gay slurs to describe the previous occupants of the house, or even half of the many other problematic incidents on the show. Throwing in bigotry for the sheer hell of it, to an extent where it seems almost out of place sometimes, doesn’t help anyone.

Ok, you’ve looked at the bigotry and it is an absolute essential part of setting the world, the characters and the story. It would be wrong to exclude it - so how to include it without supporting it? Simple - by making it unsupportable.

Don’t make it funny, or casual, or accepted by the whole cast (as was the problem with American Horror Story season 1 in many ways), don’t present it as a quirk or minor issue. Don’t let it go unchallenged. That challenge is what stops a portrayal of prejudice into something that supports prejudice. Obviously that challenge can come in the form of a loud lecture or denouncement - but, contrary to what the objectors say, you don’t have to shoehorn a clumsy PSA into the middle of your story. That's a straw man, there are innumerable ways you can challenge the prejudice you've presented

Review: Whispers Underground by Ben Aaronovitch: Book 3 of the Rivers of London Series

Peter Grant is back and he, Leslie and Nightingale are faced with the ongoing dilemma of wizards with dubious ethics wandering around London doing very very unpleasant things. It’s be useful to be able to focus on them – but, of course, other things arise.

Including a murder – a murder which Stephanopoulos and Seawall, doughty members of the murder squad that they are, believe involves funny magic stuff. Not that they ever use the m-word, nor do they expect it to be used around them; they just know it makes their lives much much more complicated. And to make matters worse and even more complicated, the victim is an American, and the son of a state senator at that.

It’s a case that takes them into the warrens of London’s underground –it’s sewers and it’s railways and it’s many many many many tunnels that go on for miles and have been centuries in the building. It’s a maze down there – and it’s beyond amazing what can actually hide down there, unseen, for so very long as they try to find the cause of the man’s death – and the many surprises awaiting them underground.

It’s another review of fulsome praise, I have to say. In some ways it’s easier to write a review with lots of dubious errors, pacing issues or diversity fails because at least you have something concrete to say. When a book is just awesome you’re presented with the difficulty of finding a sufficient diversity of superlative adjectives to try and fill a full review.

The book has an incredible feel of place. You can feel London in its pages, the attitudes, the people, the places, the procedures; this is London through and through.  The richness and authenticity of not just the places, but also the history really shows through the book and makes everything so much more real. Despite the fantastic elements, it feels more fact than fiction because there is so much realness there. And not just in the places and not even just in the people, but also in the police procedures, the different jurisdictions, the way different things are handled, the way they were handled – and not just the way they’re officially handled, but also the daily practicalities of daily life.

The book is also funny with constant little side-references, tangents and wry observations about life, the city and everything linked with a cynical acknowledgement of how things are with an amusing twits that makes me repeatedly smile and laugh out loud. I’m not sure how much of it travels outside of a British context and British understanding, but to me it was perfect – amusing, injected lightness and fun and added yet further to the strong British feel of the book.

Review: Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch, Book 2 of the Rivers of London Series

Peter is back in another magical mystery in London. With Nightingale recovering from his bullet wound, Peter must pick up a lot of the slack on his own. And there’s some major events that call for his attention.

The discovery of vestigia on certain bodies points to a supernatural reason for the death of a large number of jazz musicians not just in the present but going back through history – and something that touches very close to his own life and family.

Or the series of men found with their penises ripped off – which in turn leads to another magical practitioner in London – perhaps even a whole cabal of them. It’s a discovery which leads to far more magical history and, more frightening, a true look at the extent of dark and dangerous magic in the wrong hands. We also see how it connects to London’s own underworld and corruption in the police.

Add in Lady Tyburn’s ongoing antipathy, Molly’s moods, a whirlwind love affair, his father’s musical come back and Leslie’s recovery and he certainly has a lot of balls to juggle

Reviewing this book is difficult for me, simply because I’m sorely tempted just to write praise after praise. It’s especially difficult after reviewing the first book because everything that book got right, so did this one. It’s a great sequel for building on that foundation and continuing the plot and the world development.

The first thing I like is that it is a continuation of the last book, the canon hasn’t reset and a lot hasn’t magically happened in the downtime. Lady Tyburn still hates Peter. Leslie hasn’t been magically healed and nor has Nightingale. Which is very surprising in so many series where people take a bullet wound then next episode/book are right as rain with nary a twinge.

We have another wonderfully real feel to London. The author is a Londoner and it shows in every word. The setting and theme are such that you could almost be there. The humour is constant, dry, wry and wonderfully snarky. You will smile. You will laugh.

The story itself twists back and forth and brings several plot lines together and they come together really well while still being separate. Sure Peter connects them and his connecting brings the storylines together. The depiction of the evil wizard is both frightening and really well described –the magical fight was epic yet the discovery of his den was truly and utterly horrific and carries the full level of that horror in the description. It was really well written and disturbing. The other storyline with the jazz musicians was a wonderful break in between, lighter but still vital and very very personal to Peter with his personal history. It also didn’t require you to know about jazz to follow, but you could feel the passion behind their music.

Face Off: Which Book do you Want to See Turn to TV?

As anyone visiting our site knows, we have read a lot of Urban Fantasy. A lot of those books go on to be made into a films or, even better, TV series - which we always run to check out. And, we have to say, we’re often disappointed, upset and even bemused by the choices made. After watching an entire season of Secret Circle, the only good thing I can say about it is that at least it wasn’t repeated for another season. Having attempted to read the books, I can’t imagine anyone expecting better. Another CW creation is The Vampire Diaries. Now, we have spoken at length about the problems of The Vampire Diaries and we’re not exactly looking forward to it coming back, but, having read the books I have to applaud CW. Yes, I applaud them - because the series is monumentally better than those books.

Even True Blood, which we enjoy, was hardly based on our favourite series. Of course, maybe we should be grateful as some books I have enjoyed - the Dresden Files and Blood Ties have been turned into rather mediocre TV series

But now we’re looking at what series we’d really love to see reach the TV screen - if The Vampire Diaries and Twilight were worthy of TV and film adaptation, then surely some of our favourites deserve a chance!

So, which one of these do you think should make it to the screen? Or do you have your own suggestion?



Kevin Hearne’s Iron Druid Chronicles.

From the moment I picked up Hounded I was absolutely hooked on this series.   Atticus O’Sullivan is a 2000+ year old druid, who draws his power directly from the earth, and lives with his Irish wolfhound Oberon.  Atticus bound his mind to his wolfhound which allows Oberon to speak intelligently. I have to tell you right now, Oberon is one of the best charcters in Urban fantasy, and I would dearly love it if Hearne would write lines for my dog.  Atticus move from adventure to adventure battling various mythical pantheons.  With various Gods always wanting to kill him, the world’s last remaining Druid must be quick on his feet. The absolutely best exchange of the series happened Hammered the third book in the series, when Atticus meets Jesus Christ.

Jesus appears wearing a tie dyed T-shirt in predominantly reds, yellows, and greens, with a white peace sign screen-printed on the front of it.  He also wore a pair of relaxed fit blue jeans and classically black Chuck Taylors. Hearne even went as far as to suggest that "Jesus looked like the guy from the Old Spice bodywash commercials".  I dare you to tell me one single place that you can find Jesus described in this way?  What ensues is an irreverent exchange, with Jesus providing fish and chips to a crowded bar, explaining that "miracles are so much more fun when people are expecting them of you," while pounding back 60 year old whiskey. I laughed until my tears poured from my eyes.

Cover Snark: Same Book, Two Covers and so Many Problems

This week on Cover Snark we’re going to look at the same book and how it is changed to different markets – alas. Yes, alas because it’s one of those choices that bemuse me.

We begin with Rivers of London. A very evocative title and very appropriate since Mama Thames and Old Father Thames – and their offspring (all tributaries of the River Thames) play such a major role in the plot line. It’s relevant to the story

And the cover? The cover is beautiful – it’s a map of London made up of the places of London , notes of those places and other indicators of the real London – with the blood red Punch, appropriately displayed on top of it. All relevant to the story, the place – and it’s a unique and interesting cover.

Review: Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch, Book 1 of the Rivers of London series

(In the US this book was released under the title Midnight Riot.)

Peter is a probationary police officer in the MET – just about to get his first real position. And it doesn’t look good – he’s a bit too easily distracted, doesn’t have much concentration and maybe not best fit for the job; a fine future of office work awaits him. At least until he meets Chief Inspector – he’s the MET’s wizard. And, after taking a witness statement from a ghost, it seems that Peter is perfectly placed to join that very unique police department.

It’s not the most conventional department – especially since he and Nightingale make up its entirety, along with a completely unknown non-human servant Molly (and a large library full of extremely old books). In addition to learning how to become a wizard, he’s also tasked with brokering a peace deal between Mama Thames and Old Father Thames – deities in all but name.

But the primary task is a series of horrendous and apparently random murders leaving people with their faces apparently falling off. The investigation of random culprits, ghosts, a couple of vampires, magic, gods of the London rivers and a rampaging Punch and Judy Show. It seems so random – but it all comes together excellently.

Sometimes I pick up a book set in Britain and I can tell it’s written by an American (anachronistic profanity and a heroin-like addiction to tea are normally involved), sometimes I’m not sure – and sometimes I know beyond a shadow of a doubt there is no way anyone but a British person could have written a book.

And this was most certainly one of those. Within seconds of opening the book I could feel the Britishness wafting off every page. There is a brilliant sense of time and place – this is London, you can feel London on every page. This is London as can only be written by a Londoner. In short, the setting is really well done with a full sense of history and local knowledge. The writing style is wordy – but concise, the descriptions giving an excellent feel of time and place and making the scene excellently real. Normally I am put off by too much description but this book hit the balance of making sure the whole scene was conveyed while not losing us in dense verbiage.

And that same level of detail applies throughout the book – not just the place settings. The author either has a background in policing or has gone to far more research than most. The book has the police procedure down perfectly. There’s no magical CSI (well, except actual magic) no random police units that don’t exist, no fudging of the issues and the procedures – it’s accurate.

The magical world setting is also excellent. I wonder how big the author’s world building notes are because it feels extremely planned. It’s consistent, we have a full, internally workable system for the magic (not just words and lights) – it feels planned, it feels workable and it adds a level of realism that all of these creatures and beings and magic work together in an overall logical and thought out system. It’s almost a scientific take to magic. It shows a lot of work a lot of dedication and it makes the story work more because it works within itself – and magic has rules so doesn’t just Deux ex Machinae everything.