Rivers of London

Surprisingly wonderful! I usually don't like urban fantasy, but this mesmerized me.

This is ok but not quite as good as the novels

I like the one page “Tales from the Folly” stories. They are fun. The main story is good but it is basically a short story. The depth of the story just isn't there like the novels. The art is excellent.

Just something about this book didn't blow me away

I'd been hearing a lot of positive things about this series for a while and after some high fantasy reads, I thought I'd bring myself down to something a little more realistic (based in a real place at least). I thoroughly enjoyed the way in which Ben Aaronovitch wrote, if a little sexist and perverted, it was poetic and well thought out throughout. However, there was a lot of descriptions and background writing that drew me away from the story a little. Almost like he's trying to teach us about the history of London, which I understand he likely was and is possibly the book's semi-intention, but it just didn't flow with me.

The main character was probably a 3/5, he wasn't funny, he wasn't witty, he just seemed to go through the motions and end up doing the right thing. Play, as previously mentioned, nearly all the women were described by the size of their breasts and it just took away from any real picture of what any female characters looked like.

It may sound like I didn't like this book, I did! I thoroughly enjoyed the unique magic system, the clever references to London and how grounded the fantasy elements were. It would make a fantastic dark version of Harry Potter. I would still recommend this book to anyone who enjoys London or city-based books with a slight fantastical twist.

I rather enjoyed this story about a young cop working in a modern London in which magic is returning. But, it didn't grab me as much as I had expected it to after reading some reviews. Perhaps fantasy isn't quite my thing at the moment. Also, I expect if I had a good knowledge of London geography and history it would have been even more interesting.
Anyway, pretty good fantasy/crime/horror crossover.
3.5 stars rounded up.

Very interesting. I liked it. I actually read something with the Sword & Laser at the same time they did.

Really enjoyed this, an interesting mystery woven with fantasy and the supernatural. Looking forward to reading more of the series.

Audio read by: Kobna Holdbrook-Smith

In theory, the scenario of this series vaguely resembles the world of Harry Potter, in that it's set in the modern world with the addition of magic and supernatural creatures. However, Harry Potter is socially based around a boarding school, whereas this series is socially based around the Metropolitan Police of London; so this one has a completely different feel to it.

The author seems to have an intimate knowledge of the Metropolitan Police; I haven't, so I can't vouch for its authenticity. It feels authentic enough to me, although I guess that the author has friendly contacts within the Met and wants to stay friends with them. Thus, he tends to show police officers as being mostly intelligent, dedicated, and well-meaning. Maybe they are; I wouldn't know.

I like this novel and the series in general mainly for the writing and the characters; the story is gripping, but I have some reservations about it.

This is a fantasy/crime series, and Aaronovitch tends to give us crimes that are grotesque and implausible, even allowing for the fact that we're in fantasyland. Some people probably appreciate this; I'm not one of them.

Fictional crime should have something unusual and interesting about it, but grotesque and implausible I could do without; and the crimes in this first story are particularly grotesque and implausible. The sequels generally show a little more restraint.

There's plenty going on in this story, while fast and urgent action is often required. I don't know how our heroes can keep track of what's going on while they're chasing around like that.

In particular, our young hero Peter Grant often seems intelligent and quick on the uptake to an extent that's rather surprising in an ordinary constable who didn't do especially well at school. It's quite possible that school didn't bring out the best in him, but he does seem a bit too good to be true. Admittedly, this often happens with fictional heroes.

Peter is a likeable fellow, but he's been given one annoying personal defect: he has the habit of saying, “Me and X did something”.

This might be described as eccentric if he were declaring war on subject pronouns and not using them anywhere. But no, he seems happy to say, “I did something”, like any normal person, when only he is involved. Therefore, “Me and X did something” is not eccentric, it's just stupid; and Peter seems intelligent enough in other respects that he ought to realize it.

Any book about wizards in modern-day Britain is inevitably going to be compared to Harry Potter, but this is, as one would hope, something quite different from that. Partly that's the setting, which, among other things, presents a much less cohesive magical society than the Potterverse (or the Alex Verus books, for that matter), but that's really just window-dressing.

More significantly, this is very much not a YA book; there is slightly more gore and some direct, though not truly explicit, sexual references. And, of course, our hero isn't a schoolboy, but a newly qualified officer in the Metropolitan Police, who discovers he has the ability to perform magic, and is recruited into a police unit that deals with such things. A unit consisting of just one other person, to be sure, but one has to start somewhere.

The story concerns a series of murders, tying into London's theatrical history, and a growing rivalry between the spirits of the Thames and her tributaries either side of the tidal boundary. There is a lot to love in the setting, which presents a rich magical background and sets it against the real-world detail of London. PC Grant, as the hero, is certainly a fun character, and I sense that there is more potential in his backstory than we see revealed in this first book. I like the way, for instance, that his analytical mind makes sense of the magic, deducing useful information about how it all works.

Perhaps best, though, is the tone of the book, which is written with a strong streak of irreverence and fun, offset against a serious, and at times quite dark, plot. It's a contrast that works well in Aaronovitch's hands, and keeps the story moving along at a fast pace. I suspect even better may be to come in later books, as both world-building and character development build up, but as an introduction to this world and an encouragement to get me to read more of the series, this is worth the full five stars.

Second read: Downgrading from 5 to 3 stars. Some important stuff doesn't make sense upon a second reading.

First read: Wooo, what a ride! Up late every night reading, up well past midnight last night to finish. This is my type of fantasy book: grounded in the real world with magic and/or magical beings layered on top, and British humor veined throughout. Bonus points for the historical bits.

I really really wanted to love this much more than I did. I love the concept, but I just didn't enjoy the book that much.

A fun read and a novel idea; it has whetted my appetite for more. It adds a whole new slant to the tired old wizard and apprentice genre and makes it new and fun again.

A very good, fun book which weaves myth with mysticism and modern day London. Loved how accurate the description of London, and Londoners, is but didn't like that some of the fleshing out of characters and extra detail detracted from the momentum of the story and found the description of the characters lacking in character more often than not. A great book to read if you're an Anglophile or are or have ever been a Londoner.