[books 2013] London Falling
Nov. 18th, 2013 08:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
inulro68. London Falling by Paul Cornell
I was not convinced about this - I wasn't sure I needed more supernatural detective fiction set in London in my life, and the author is best known for writing Doctor Who, which I Do Not Do.
I didn't take to it straight away, either, finding it too police-procedural.
And then suddenly our detectives are in the creepy home of a serial killer, put their hands in a cauldron full of soil and can see things that other people can't. From there on in I couldn't put it down.
It is very police procedural, and at the same time genuinely creepy and scary. Unlike Rivers of London, where the protagonist sees something weird and is enfolded into the hierarchy that exists for dealing with the uncanny, the team here are having to make it up as they go along while pretending to find out everything by mundane means.
A lot of thought has gone into this, and there's some interesting complexity to it as well. Place is very important. There are two ways to gain power - to be "remembered", or to "make sacrifice". The detective who is most serious about making this whole magic thing work for them comes to realise that he is too complex to "be remembered" (he is black, and posh, and gay, a member of the Occupy movement AND a cop) so he has no choice but to "make sacrifice" and has to find a way to do this without becoming a monster.
Unlike the Rivers of London series which is mostly set in inner London, this book takes place mostly in Zones 3 to 5.
Can't recommend this highly enough. I pushed it on Jason on Saturday morning and haven't heard a word from him since. I eagerly await book two.
I was not convinced about this - I wasn't sure I needed more supernatural detective fiction set in London in my life, and the author is best known for writing Doctor Who, which I Do Not Do.
I didn't take to it straight away, either, finding it too police-procedural.
And then suddenly our detectives are in the creepy home of a serial killer, put their hands in a cauldron full of soil and can see things that other people can't. From there on in I couldn't put it down.
It is very police procedural, and at the same time genuinely creepy and scary. Unlike Rivers of London, where the protagonist sees something weird and is enfolded into the hierarchy that exists for dealing with the uncanny, the team here are having to make it up as they go along while pretending to find out everything by mundane means.
A lot of thought has gone into this, and there's some interesting complexity to it as well. Place is very important. There are two ways to gain power - to be "remembered", or to "make sacrifice". The detective who is most serious about making this whole magic thing work for them comes to realise that he is too complex to "be remembered" (he is black, and posh, and gay, a member of the Occupy movement AND a cop) so he has no choice but to "make sacrifice" and has to find a way to do this without becoming a monster.
Unlike the Rivers of London series which is mostly set in inner London, this book takes place mostly in Zones 3 to 5.
Can't recommend this highly enough. I pushed it on Jason on Saturday morning and haven't heard a word from him since. I eagerly await book two.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2013-11-18 07:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-19 09:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-18 09:22 pm (UTC)