Everything Is Better With Dragons

I’ve got the WordPress app on my phone now, so instead of copy/paste I photograph!

My Review

I’ve been listening to the audiobook of Stone & Sky, but I needed to go into town today so I visited Waterstones and got their only copy. It’s a signed special edition and I rather like the cover and end papers.

The fish scale pattern is rather subtle on the paper cover but you can just about see it in the photo. It’s mirrored on the end papers.

I’ve got a few Rivers of London books, and I’ve read every novel, novella and graphic novel. I’ve read quite a few of the short stories too. It’s getting to the point that my collection may need it’s own shelf in the library. When I get another bookshelf. I’m running out of space.

On this installment of Peter’s adventures, the gang go on a holiday to Aberdeenshire. Thomas, Abi, and the foxes are hunting a mysterious panther; Abdul is visiting his old friend and fellow weird creature hobbyist, Brian; Beverly decided it was time for a holiday for her, Peter and their twins, while Peter’s mum was supposed to be their babysitter. Since Peter’s dad can’t be left unsupervised, he came along, with his jazz band and their dodgy manager.

Peter gets dragged into a murder case, which becomes a missing person case, while Abi deals with her grief for her brother by hiding in trees photographing magic panthers from other worlds, until she falls in love with a mermaid. At which point she gets dragged into the same case Peted is investigating from a different angle.

Turns out, if you kidnap selkies and force them to work, and the local mermaids are involved, it gets dangerous for everyone. There’s a kraken in the North Sea, apparently.  No one actually blows up an oil platform, but it gets close.

Peter doesn’t have any legal status as a copper in Scotland, so he’s got a new mate, DS Blansheil, who gets to learn all about the weird stuff on the job. Between then they attempt to capture a giant gull with teeth, intimidate oil industry execs, and taser an American practitioner, before heading to an oil platform to find a missing person. There’s a couple of wyvern attacks, too.

The story is told by Peter and Abigail as they go about their parallel investigations and adventures. The voice actors who play them in the audiobook do convincing Aberdonian and other Scottish accents, as well as London accents. As far as I can tell. I’m unfamiliar with both but the vernacular seems correct, and Aaronovitch does name a lot of local experts who advised him.

I do like the sound of a macaroni cheese pie, although I think my blood vessels would object (heavy pastry gives me a headache and too many carbs hurt my abdomen), so if I ever make it to Aberdeen I’ll avoid that particular local delicacy.

The story starts out fairly simply – what Peter did on his summer holidays – and becomes increasingly complex until there are multiple investigations and lots of new characters. Even the foxes get in on the act. The ones in Scotland apparently own a car, driven by a merman (well, mermaid teenager, Duncan isn’t technically legal to drive).

I followed the thread of the story quite well and I enjoyed the developments in familial relationships and friendships. Also, the twins are adorable. They are going to run Peter ragged.

Abi is becoming more of a main character with her foxes and her new girlfriend; her grief for her brother Paul dominates until she is distracted by Ione, who offers her support and a release, which allows her to cry as much as she needs to. By the end of the novel she has started to process her pain and, although she still has suicidal ideation, she is looking towards the future.

Aaronovitch draws on all sorts of folklore and mythology to people his stories, often with a new twist – mermaids who live on land and transform in the sea, selkies who can’t shed their skin and wouldn’t survive long out of the water. Although they do bark like seals. Kraken who guard baby selkies. River gods who try to act tough but look a bit daft. I enjoyed his takes on the folklore he draws on and it takes his stories to interesting places.

I am also amused by Peter’s Discworld and Lord of the Rings references. I picked up several, but the one from GUARDS! GUARDS! was particularly good. I may have missed references to other worlds, but I definitely got those.

There were bits of the story that seemed not to flow, like Ione suddenly coming back into the narrative as Abi runs down the tunnel or Beverly reappearing on the diving platform. Since the narrative is written in first person it adds to the feeling of confusion that the characters are narrating, but I had to reread a couple of times to work out what was going on.

Other than minor confusions at the climax of their individual investigations,  I found this book an excellent addition to the Rivers of London universe.