Tales from the Folly by Ben Aaronovitch

My review is broken into pieces following each individual story in the order I read them in. I read 6 of the stories contained in Tales from the Folly.

"Moment One: Nightingale — London September 1966": Basically just noting the origins of the idea of Nightingale’s Jaguar and the “birth” of Mama Thames.
 

"A Dedicated Follower of Fashion": That… was oddly compelling and then very weird all of a sudden at the end. The subject matter was honestly not my thing, but the writing was good enough to keep me engaged.
 

"The Home Crowd Advantage": I liked that one. Peter is ever the practical man. Definitely helps he didn’t gain magic until adulthood.
 

"Moment Three: Tobias Winter — Meckenheim 2012": Okay so, clearly more to “The Agreement” than I originally thought… which was that it was silly. But I guess we’ll be finding out just how that works in Moon over Soho.
 

"The Domestic": Kinda sweet, all things considered. I like that Toby’s actually being useful every once in a while.
 

"The Cockpit": Very sweet. I liked all the literary references and having a bookshop god that requires reading as a “sacrifice” is cute. 

Double DNFs

Welp, I had a pair of DNFs happen in the last week or so. Figured I'd go ahead and share my short reviews of them because why not.

 

What Abigail Did That Summer by Ben Aaronovitch


I was honestly just very, very bored with this one. I also didn't appreciate the footnotes explaining modern slang terms Abigail uses. Either don't use them at all or trust your readers to figure out what they mean on their own.

Tea & Alchemy by Sharon Lynn Fisher

Largely alright, but certain plot similarities to Twilight kept jumping out and taking me completely out of the story. That’s not to say the plot is actually following the Twilight model, just… ya know, I saw the bits and am nope-ing out.

Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch

There is a slight spoiler for something reveal mid-book. Just a bit of a warning.

I definitely liked this one a lot more than Broken Homes. The lore especially was right up my alley. I also like Beverly Brook more than I ever did Lesley. That is not to say Lesley is a bad character, I’m just less fond of her. *shrug* But anyway, Foxglove Summer fully introduces the Fae in what I think is a rather classic but brilliant way. Although fairyland itself doesn’t have so much “screen time,” it lived up to my expectations of what we might get.

Changeling lore is usually pretty fun. Being the veteran of fantasy and mythology that I am, I clocked it pretty much from the start, or at least, upon the return of Hannah and “Nicole.” I didn’t anticipate the “Derek” of it all, but that was a nice little twist.

I think I also preferred the group of police from Leominster over the London group. They seemed much more chill and open about the whole Folly business. I’m appreciative of open-mindedness around weird things you demonstratively know are happening, rather than immediately going down the “don’t ask/don’t tell” route.

So yeah, Foxglove Summer was quite enjoyable. Good world building. Solid entry. 

Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch

I was honestly rather bored with Broken Homes. Considered DNFing it at one point. There was just a whole lotta nothin’ happening for a good long while in it and… yeah.

I definitely thought the wizard staff making bit was going to be longer and more interesting than it was. The architectural stuff was much longer and more boring. Even what happened with it at the end felt very anticlimactic.

Surprise, there were and are more magic users that Nightingale is/was aware of. Of course there are. This is the most unsurprising surprise. Random people and the Russian Night Witches, who’re no relation to the actual Night Witches. Speaking of, I did actually like Varvara. She was part of the more interesting bits of the story.

The Spring Fair was blah. I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting, but it was a load of nothing. I Did like seeing Beverly again for a minute. It feels like her inclusion is set up for her being more involved in later books.

Speaking of later books… Lesley. I don’t think I can actually say much without spoilers, but… her actions were understandable, I’ll say that much.

So yeah… I wasn’t really a fan of Broken Homes. Hoping the next one is better.

Favorite Conversation

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking, Lesley?” I asked. 

     “I think so, Peter,” she said. “But how are we going to get the pony up here?” - Peter Grant & Lesley May

Whispers Underground by Ben Aaronovitch

I really should have taken notes while I was reading. My brain’s a bit frazzled. That said, I did enjoy Whispers Underground. It was interesting.

I did find it somewhat amusing that I was reading this one while experiencing one of the now-yearly Texas ice storms. Got the real-life version of trudging through snow and ice at the same time Peter was.

I like that Lesley’s officially Folly now. The continued looks at her recovery make me happy. I also enjoyed the further looks at the Fae and adjacent world. Love me some expanding world-building. Still not entirely sure what Tyburn’s up to, but it definitely seems concerning.

The London rail system being involved here was fun. I think it’s neat to see how they dealt with the expanding rail and wanting to keep London “pretty” or whatever.

So yeah, Whispers Underground, another solid entry in the Rivers of London series. 

Favorite Line

"But this was a murder inquiry and woe betide any officer who breaks the chain of evidence, for they will be sat down and have what went wrong with the OJ Simpson murder trial explained to them at great length. With PowerPoint slides." - Pete Grant 

Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch

While not exactly super surprising, I did very much enjoy Moon Over Soho. I thought it was nice to see consequences from the last book carry over into this one. It's always nice when we aren't just reset back to "normal" immediately. I know that's a little weird to say for a sequel, as I think the consequences should always stick... but yeah.

As usual, I very much enjoyed the world-building. Got a few answers to a couple of questions I had from Rivers of London, The Masquerades of Spring, and some of the short stories preceding Moon Over Soho chronologically. It was also fairly well done. Not a giant info dump, just Nightingale organically telling Peter stuff when appropriate.

I also enjoyed the progression of the characters. Getting to know Peter better and learning about Lesley through her family and recovery. Dr. Walid amused me, in line with several coroner types from CSI-like shows. I even quite like Ash and hope we see more of him in future.

I was kind of amused at the notion of Nightingale assuming his former colleagues would just not teach anyone else magic just because there was some sort of Agreement. It does (from short story readings) seem like other government types in other countries assumed the same. It seemed completely silly to me for some surviving wizards to keep that knowledge to themselves. Of course the knowledge is going to be passed on. It's so obvious to me. Heck, Peter's pretty much got two apprentices of his own in Lesley and Abigail (one assumes Abigail, anyway) and he's not even a "proper" wizard yet. I kind of assume Lesley's going to come under Nightingale's tutelage, but one never knows.

I thought Simone being super connected to Peter's case was also fairly obvious. He fell too fast, too hard for her to not be involved somehow. I actually though she might be a shapeshifter of some kind. I was definitely wrong on that count, but that's where my head was originally at.

Anyway, I thought Moon Over Soho was a solid follow up to Rivers of London. Built out more of the world nicely and was just solid over all. 

Favorite Lines

"He was calling it an atonic seizure because, even if he didn’t know why it had happened, it was important to give it a cool name." - Peter Grant

"For a terrifying moment I thought he was going to hug me, but fortunately we both remembered we were English just in time. Still, it was a close call." - Peter Grant  

In Other News

I finished my Moosemon Project, part of my Armor Digimon Project Line over on OviPets. Took me just about a year to complete. 

The Masquerades of Spring by Ben Aaronovitch

I said in my very brief review of “Aboard the RMS Antiqua” that I found Berrycloth-Young to be overly verbose. He definitely is, but it actually helps roll this story right along. The rhythm of his writing (speaking from a Watsonian viewpoint) is almost hypnotic. I like it a lot. I actually like Gussie a lot, too.

I quite enjoyed The Masquerades of Spring. It was a fun romp with some historically realistic touches which were, at times, a bit hard to read. Such as it is with our own history, not colored by magic. I didn’t enjoy reading about the racism and homophobia, but I appreciated their inclusion instead of them being glossed over like it never happened.

It was neat seeing Nightingale in a completely different context to his “future” appearance in The Rivers of London. Younger versions of characters are often fun to see and get to know. Having him at the helm of this investigation made me almost feel sorry for Gussie, what with the go-go-go attitude about the whole thing.

Despite the running around that happens here, I found The Masquerades of Spring fairly cozy. Big enough stakes without being too big. Plus seeing some of how things work on my side of the pond was a treat, even if it was actually a very small amount.

I feel like The Masquerades of Spring might be a good jumping on point for the series, but not at the same time. The tones between it and The Rivers of London don’t quite match up. But then, Gussie and Grant are just two completely different characters and the time-frames are so different… not to mention the lack of gore here. I also realize I’m reading the Rivers of London in a slightly odd order so… there’s that. Anyway… The Masquerades of Spring was fun. I definitely recommend giving it a read. 

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