Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

Overall, I quite enjoyed Rivers of London. I did think the world building was info-dumpy, though in a pleasant way. Broken up well between bouts of action. I liked the overall progression. I liked that the magic stuff is only partially hidden. Higher ups in the police know about it, but don’t like acknowledging its existence. The interrogation scene amused the heck out of me.

I like the way magic works here, especially the explanation as to why modern tech and magic just don’t get along. The system feels unique enough, at the very least. I like that magic takes a while to master and isn’t as simple as getting a spell’s verbage correct. I'm always appreciative of some effort being put into actually doing magic and explaining how it works. I very much enjoyed the science-ish parts of Peter figuring out how magic was causing the tech to go all dusty. Of course, the disparaging way the cast refers to the Harry Potter series is amusing. Like, yes, it exists, but none of us enjoy it or references to it very much.

The story is quite twisty, though it hangs well together overall. A and B plots mesh more through characters than actual storyline. A plot wise, I am glad I had some background as to what Punch and Judy were. I’m not sure most of the American audience would be familiar. Not that things like Google and Wikipedia aren’t readily available to find out. Punch and Judy are explained here, but I’m not entirely sure the explanation stuck… it worked well enough for the plot, though, which is really what matters. As for the B plot... I liked Beverly well enough. Tyburn kind of made me want to smack her. The Thames were mostly just kind of there, especially Father Thames. We spent much more time with Oxley than him. I quite liked the river stuff. If I’d been reading a physical copy of the book, I’d probably have pored over the map a bunch. There is a map included, which is always a plus. London is definitely as much a character in this book as a lot of the characters, probably moreso than some.

Speaking of... I really want to know what kind of critter Molly is. She's clearly not human, but also apparently not a vampire. We see how Nightingale deals with vampires. I'm also interested to find out more about Nightingale. He's both properly mysterious and supremely awkward, which makes him an interesting sort of mentor. I also did like Lesley, though I thought she (and Beverly, really) was rather flat, as far as characters go. Tobey is best boy.

So yeah, Rivers of London was fun. I can't wait to dive into the rest of the series. If you're interested in following my journey, I am about to back-track through a novella and some short stories... ya know, because I'm a sucker for following Chronologies rather than publication order. 

Favorite Line

"This is because nothing builds character like being abused, spat at and vomited on by members of the public." - Peter Grant