![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I finished reading Rivers of London on the train on the way to work this morning, so thought I'd give a stab at reviewing it. I've never written an actual book review before, so lets see how it goes!
Rivers of London (Rivers of London #1) by Ben Aaronovitch
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 where gods and goddesses mingle with mortals and a long-dead evil is making a comeback on a rising tide of magic.
I would give the book 4 stars, and tag it as fiction, crime, urban fantasy and mystery. It would be good for someone who was in the mood to read something that was adventurous, funny, and mysterious, and it's medium-paced. It's a mix of character and plot driven, there's strong character development, the characters are lovable and diverse.
The writing is a little uneven in places, and I'm not sure if it's because this is Aaronovitch's first stab at original novels (as opposed to Doctor Who franchise works), or if he wanted to write a different book than he did. The prose is clever, and there are a lot of nice turns-of-phrases and incidental observations about city-living that strike you as being the kind of incisive observation you didn't realize you already agreed with until he said it. The primary characters were interesting and had well-sketched out personalities and at least some measure of diversity.
However, it was still kind of hard to keep my mind on the narrative, because the clever commentary is very much at odds with the plot, which is the kind of capital-W Whacky that I would associate with...well, Doctor Who plots. I loved the world-building - the river spirits especially, and Beverley and Oxley and Tyburn - and I would've been much more interested in a serious take on that than the actual A-plot ended up being. The pacing is also a little off. You don't get the sense at all that months have passed in the course of the narrative, but I wonder if that's part of the same problem that I describe above - the A-plot requires time to pass but that's not really what Aaronovitch is interested in.
All in all, a quick-ish fun read with some neat ideas and snarky commentary. Could do a lot worse.
Rivers of London (Rivers of London #1) by Ben AaronovitchProbationary 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 where gods and goddesses mingle with mortals and a long-dead evil is making a comeback on a rising tide of magic.
I would give the book 4 stars, and tag it as fiction, crime, urban fantasy and mystery. It would be good for someone who was in the mood to read something that was adventurous, funny, and mysterious, and it's medium-paced. It's a mix of character and plot driven, there's strong character development, the characters are lovable and diverse.
The writing is a little uneven in places, and I'm not sure if it's because this is Aaronovitch's first stab at original novels (as opposed to Doctor Who franchise works), or if he wanted to write a different book than he did. The prose is clever, and there are a lot of nice turns-of-phrases and incidental observations about city-living that strike you as being the kind of incisive observation you didn't realize you already agreed with until he said it. The primary characters were interesting and had well-sketched out personalities and at least some measure of diversity.
However, it was still kind of hard to keep my mind on the narrative, because the clever commentary is very much at odds with the plot, which is the kind of capital-W Whacky that I would associate with...well, Doctor Who plots. I loved the world-building - the river spirits especially, and Beverley and Oxley and Tyburn - and I would've been much more interested in a serious take on that than the actual A-plot ended up being. The pacing is also a little off. You don't get the sense at all that months have passed in the course of the narrative, but I wonder if that's part of the same problem that I describe above - the A-plot requires time to pass but that's not really what Aaronovitch is interested in.
All in all, a quick-ish fun read with some neat ideas and snarky commentary. Could do a lot worse.
