Tag Archives: Ben Aaronovitch

Review: Stone & Sky, by Ben Aaronovitch

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.

My favourite Sci Fi and Fantasy 2024

Midwinter greetings.

The year isn’t over yet, so more might be added before 31st December.

TBR/L Pile books

Blog Tour Books

Non-fiction TBR/L

TBR Review: Winter’s Gifts, by Ben Aaronovitch

Series: Rivers of London (#9.5)
Characters: Kimberley Reynolds
Format: 211 pages, Hardcover
Published: June 8, 2023 by Orion
ISBN: 9781473224377 (ISBN10: 1473224373)

Description

When retired FBI Agent Patrick Henderson calls in an ‘X-Ray Sierra India’ incident, the operator doesn’t understand. He tells them to pass it up the chain till someone does.

That person is FBI Special Agent Kimberley Reynolds. Leaving Quantico for snowbound Northern Wisconsin, she finds that a tornado has flattened half the town – and there’s no sign of Henderson.

Things soon go from weird to worse, as neighbours report unsettling sightings, key evidence goes missing, and the snow keeps rising – cutting off the town, with no way in or out…

Something terrible is awakening. As the clues lead to the coldest of cold cases – a cursed expedition into the frozen wilderness – Reynolds follows a trail from the start of the American nightmare, to the horror that still lives on today…

My Review

A novella from last year that’s been sat on my TBR pile for a while! I’ve been prompted to read it by the arrival of the latest Rivers of London novella. I thought I’d better get up to date.

Kimberley Reynolds is sent to the Great Lakes in the middle of winter to deal with an incident with unusual characteristics, and is snowed in almost immediately. Stuck without back-up, and her contact missing, she must discover what’s going on, what it has to do with an exhibition by the Virginia Gentlemen in 1848 and where Henderson in. Unfortunately, she’s not the only one looking into things, and it gets complicated when the local meteorologist takes her out to the site of the 1848 winter camp. Malevolent forces are at work, a teenage genius loci comes to the rescue, and Kimberly falls in love.

Kimberley Reynolds is a character that pops up in some of the novels but to be honest, she never struck me as a interesting character, or one I’d taken much note of. However, this novella gives the reader more information about her background and develops her character. I enjoy these novellas because they allow Aaronovitch to explore characters and locations without a full novel focused on Peter. He does make an appearance, over the phone and in her head, but it’s mainly about Kimberley and her slowly blossoming romance with William, while investigating both modern and historical crimes.

The dust jacket is cool too.

Recommended for fans of the series.

TBR Review: The Masquerades of Spring, by Ben Aaronovitch

Format: 182 pages, Hardcover
Published: September 5, 2024 by Orion Publishing Co
ISBN: 9781398723887 (ISBN10: 1398723886)

Description

New York City, New York.

Meet Augustus Berrycloth-Young – fop, flaneur, and Englishman abroad – as he chronicles the Jazz Age from his perch atop the city that never sleeps.

That is, until his old friend Thomas Nightingale arrives, pursuing a rather mysterious affair concerning an old saxophone – which will take Gussie from his warm bed, to the cold shores of Long Island, and down to the jazz clubs where music, magic, and madness haunt the shadows…

My Review

A fun novella set in jazz-age New York, with a queer cast and inter-racial love. Nightingale turns up unexpectedly, and Gussie must help him rescue a fae. Interrupting things in the US, and upsetting lots of politicians, businessmen and mobsters, and people of a magical persuasion, events culminate at a drag ball, with policemen amusingly debagged, and explosions on lonely roads.

Aaronovitch conjures the air of excitement and danger that pervades New York in the 1920s and 30s, as jazz clubs and bathtub gin fill the need for escape after the horrors of war, and chronicle a forgotten period of cultural explosion, particularly exemplified by the Harlem Renaissance, in which Black culture and Queer culture flourished, before being appropriated and repressed after the second world war. He also captures the culture of corruption in the city, from police shakedowns for personal gain to gang violence. I loved the inclusion of the drag ball. I’ve heard about them, and how popular they were, but I don’t think they’re particularly well known outside of people interested in Queer history.

Gussie and Lucy are adorable, and I was sure Beauregard is some species of fae, although he might just be a practitioner with connections. I hope Lucy, Gussie and the gang all have long and fun lives, although I think they’d be old before their relationship becomes legal.

I enjoyed the ‘Jeeves and Wooster’ tone of the narrative, and Gussie is a funny narrator. He’s self-deprecating and observant, and astute enough to know when and when not to be himself, even if he has a low opinion of his own intelligence. The references to golden age crime fiction made me laugh – especially when Gussie decides to be a detective for a minute.

Enjoyable novella that introduces new aspects of the Rivers of London universe. Highly recommended.

TBR Pile/Audiobook Review: Amongst Our Weapons, by Ben Aaronovitch, narrated by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith

Audible Audio
First published April 7, 2022

The ninth novel of the bestselling Rivers of London urban fantasy series returns to the adventures of Peter Grant, detective and apprentice wizard, as he solves magical crimes in the city of London.

There is a world hidden underneath this great city.

The London Silver Vaults–for well over a century, the largest collection of silver for sale in the world. It has more locks than the Bank of England and more cameras than a celebrity punch-up. Not somewhere you can murder someone and vanish without a trace–only that’s what happened.

The disappearing act, the reports of a blinding flash of light and memory loss amongst the witnesses all make this a case for Detective Constable Peter Grant and the Special Assessment Unit.

Alongside their boss DCI Thomas Nightingale, the SAU find themselves embroiled in a mystery that encompasses London’s tangled history, foreign lands and, most terrifying of all, the North!

And Peter must solve this case soon because back home his partner Beverley is expecting twins any day now. But what he doesn’t know is that he’s about to encounter something–and somebody–that nobody ever expects…

Effortlessly original, endlessly inventive and hugely entertaining–step into the world of the much-loved, number one bestselling Rivers of London series.

Continue reading “TBR Pile/Audiobook Review: Amongst Our Weapons, by Ben Aaronovitch, narrated by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith”

TBR Pile/Audiobook Review: False Value, by Ben Aaronovitch, Narrated by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith

Audible Audio, Unabridged UK Edition, 12 pages
Published February 20th 2020 by Orion Publishing Group Limited

Peter Grant is facing fatherhood, and an uncertain future, with equal amounts of panic and enthusiasm. Rather than sit around, he takes a job with émigré Silicon Valley tech genius Terrence Skinner’s brand new London start up – the Serious Cybernetics Company.

Drawn into the orbit of Old Street’s famous ‘silicon roundabout’, Peter must learn how to blend in with people who are both civilians and geekier than he is. Compared to his last job, Peter thinks it should be a doddle. But magic is not finished with Mama Grant’s favourite son.

Because Terrence Skinner has a secret hidden in the bowels of the SCC. A technology that stretches back to Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage, and forward to the future of artificial intelligence. A secret that is just as magical as it technological – and just as dangerous. 

My Review

The blurb is a lie. Everything is a deception. No, really, Peter has gone undercover, using his gardening leave and the investigation that caused it (death in custody of a suspect – see Lies Sleeping) as a cover. What he finds is a 19th century mystery and a tech guru who thinks he’s created the first true A.I. using a completed analytic engine and a song about Ada Lovelace.

Going under cover brings conflicts for Peter and Beverley, especially after they get to know Peter’s immediate superior and his family (Beverley Brook runs along the end of their garden), and the Librarians of New York start interfering in the operation.

There is the usual explosions and car chases, Peter getting trapped by magical devices, Nightingale being acerbic, Discworld references, and this time with bonus heavily pregnant Beverley.

I listened to this one while I was out and about, or at home crocheting. Kobna Holdbrook-Smith is really good at giving Peter Grant a voice. His intonation and reading speed is perfect.

Highly recommended.

TBR Pile Review: Lies Sleeping, by Ben Aaronovitch

Paperback, 406 pages
Published May 16th 2019 by Gollancz (first published November 13th 2018)

The Faceless Man, wanted for multiple counts of murder, fraud, and crimes against humanity, has been unmasked and is on the run.Peter Grant, Detective Constable and apprentice wizard, now plays a key role in an unprecedented joint operation to bring Chorley to justice.

But even as the unwieldy might of the Metropolitan Police bears down on its foe, Peter uncovers clues that Chorley, far from being finished, is executing the final stages of a long term plan. A plan that has its roots in London’s two thousand bloody years of history, and could literally bring the city to its knees.

To save his beloved city Peter’s going to need help from his former best friend and colleague–Lesley May–who brutally betrayed him and everything he thought she believed in. And, far worse, he might even have to come to terms with the malevolent supernatural killer and agent of chaos known as Mr Punch. 

My Review

I thought I’d read this one, but after finishing the audiobook of False Value I was checking the TBR pile and found it, so clearly I hadn’t. It wasn’t in my Audible library either (it is now) so I hadn’t listened to it instead. Why am I getting Lies Sleeping and False Value read, I hear you cry? Well, the latest Peter Grant novel, Amongst Our Weapons is published this month. It arrived in my Audible library today and I’m waiting for my special edition from Goldsboro Books to be delivered. It isn’t available until 14th April, but I’ll probably have listened to the audiobook by then. It’ll be nice and pristine on my bookshelf.

So what happens in Lies Sleeping? Peter et al. are hunting the Faceless Man. Still. He, Martin Chorley, has a cunning plan to ‘make it all better’, by killing Punch, the spirit of riot we first meet in Rivers of London. There’s an ancient sword, goat sacrifices and attacks on archaeological sites. To find out what all the fuss is about, Peter has to meet old gods, some dead Romans and try not to die, too much.

And Beverley is pregnant.

I enjoyed this book. I always enjoy the Peter Grant books; there are a lot of geeky in-jokes and references to Discworld, why wouldn’t I enjoy them? There are cynical comments about policing in London and the state of the country. I like Peter and the gang, and find the plots gripping.

I’ve been struggling a bit with my mental health because of that heritage project I wrote about a few weeks back, all the horror is taking a toll on my brain, so I’ve been resting, and today, after three quite busy days all I’ve had the energy to do is curl up on the chair with this book and get lost in Peter’s adventures. I find the predictable characters (predictable because I’m familiar with the characters and worldbuilding, not because they’re badly written) soothing. Like Discworld, Peter Grant’s version of London, built by Ben Aaronovitch on the real thing but with a fantasy twist, is a safe retreat. I know there will be explosions, Peter will get into trouble, Molly will feed everyone, Beverley and her sisters will do something entertaining, some major disaster will happen, or be averted by the skin of someone’s teeth, there will be satirical comments about policing and the Government, and references that only fantasy geeks will get. It’s easy to read, get lost for 400 pages and then come back with a more relaxed frame of mind.

I like this book, but you probably should read the other 6 first, or nothing will make sense.

Review: ‘Broken Homes’ by Ben Aaronovitch

2013
Gollancz

Book 4 of the ‘Peter Grant Series’

image

Peter, Lesley and their boss Thomas Nightingale (and Toby the dog) are back, continuing their search for the Faceless Man, while still dealing with all the weird stuff the rest of the Met would rather not admit existed. After several murders and the Spring Court, they track the Faceless Man and his organisation to a housing estate at Elephant and Castle.

Continue reading “Review: ‘Broken Homes’ by Ben Aaronovitch”