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[books 2013] Rivers of London
4. Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
This month's Bibliogoths book.
Just what I need - another supernatural detective series in my life. This one's closer to Charles Stross' Laundry series in that it centers around the latest recruit to the Metropolitan Police's unit for dealing with the weird and wonderful.
It's an odd book - I was absolutely glued to parts of it, and found that it dragged in others. The main character is a bit of an idiot, but that's the point - we learn with him. I think the odd pacing has to do with the two simultaneous investigations - a pissed-off ghost making people do violent things, and arbitrating a dispute between the different personificatios of the titular Rivers of London. Although I don't intrinsically have a problem with mixing supernatural elements - what is the modern novel for, otherwise - in this case, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
Overall, a lot more that I liked than I didn't; part of its clunkiness is in its obvious setting-up for a series. I will definitely be reading the other books, but from the library.
This month's Bibliogoths book.
Just what I need - another supernatural detective series in my life. This one's closer to Charles Stross' Laundry series in that it centers around the latest recruit to the Metropolitan Police's unit for dealing with the weird and wonderful.
It's an odd book - I was absolutely glued to parts of it, and found that it dragged in others. The main character is a bit of an idiot, but that's the point - we learn with him. I think the odd pacing has to do with the two simultaneous investigations - a pissed-off ghost making people do violent things, and arbitrating a dispute between the different personificatios of the titular Rivers of London. Although I don't intrinsically have a problem with mixing supernatural elements - what is the modern novel for, otherwise - in this case, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
Overall, a lot more that I liked than I didn't; part of its clunkiness is in its obvious setting-up for a series. I will definitely be reading the other books, but from the library.
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Of course, that could just be a similar example of a set of story archetypes holding hands.
Novice's journey, stern and mysterious guide/master, hidden adept... I seem to have fallen into TVTropes...
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Or maybe I'm over-thinking this.