Rivers of London (Peter Grant, #1) (Rivers of London, #1)

by Ben Aaronovitch

My name is Peter Grant and until January I was just probationary constable in that mighty army for justice known to all right-thinking people as the Metropolitan Police Service (as the Filth to everybody else). My only concerns in life were how to avoid a transfer to the Case Progression Unit - we do paperwork so real coppers don't have to - and finding a way to climb into the panties of the outrageously perky WPC Leslie May. Then one night, in pursuance of a murder inquiry, I tried to take a witness statement from someone who was dead but disturbingly voluable, and that brought me to the attention of Inspector Nightingale, the last wizard in England. Now I'm a Detective Constable and a trainee wizard, the first apprentice in fifty years, and my world has become somewhat more complicated: nests of vampires in Purley, negotiating a truce between the warring god and goddess of the Thames, and digging up graves in Covent Garden ...and there's something festering at the heart of the city I love, a malicious vengeful spirit that takes ordinary Londoners and twists them into grotesque mannequins to act out its drama of violence and despair.
The spirit of riot and rebellion has awakened in the city, and it's falling to me to bring order out of chaos - or die trying.

• ISBN10: 0575097566
• ISBN13: 9780575097568
• Publish Date: 10 January 2011 (first published 1 January 2011)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 7 June 2013
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Gollancz
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 400
• Language: English

Reviews

[pardum]

Basically everything you want from urban fantasy. The magic has a logic system behind it and it's plausible that the fantastic can go unnoticed by the mundane world. The protagonist has a healthy sense of scepticism and humor that makes the book really enjoyable

[bookperson]

Dnf at 70%.

Action packed book with intresting premise. I usually enjoy urban fantasy, but in this case I couldn't connect with the characters and wasn't invested in the series enough to keep reading. Read it via audio, great narration.
I know that it's also available as a graphic novel, maybe I'll try it this way later.

[funbreaker4opal]

Book was good; TW for gore and baby murder though

[pamela]

There was a lot about Rivers of London that was great. It was sarcastically witty, clever, full of interesting characters with a pretty personable protagonist. unfortunately there was just something about the book that didn't draw me in and keep me. I can't even directly tell you what it was, but as much as the first half of the book grabbed my attention, the second half lost it again. I guess I didn't feel the concept had really reached its potential. All the plot elements were there and set up, ready to go, but somehow didn't quite seem to go anywhere or feel meaningful in any way. I enjoyed reading Rivers of London, but I didn't feel engrossed in it. It was just a pleasant way to spend an evening.

[MurderByDeath]

This book made the rounds awhile ago, but I got it into my head that it was darker than what I enjoy and dismissed it, until someone recently mentioned how funny it was.  Thank you whoever you are!   Not to say that I didn't have problems with it; I did - minor-ish ones including the riot of editing errors found throughout the text of my library's edition (published by Gollancz in London).  I lost count of the number of missing words, extra words and repeated words I stumbled over, until they started reminding me of the sand Peter found pouring out of his electronic devices.    Why did the face-distortion dissimulo have to happen?  By the very end, I thought I'd gotten it figured out, but I'm still guessing:   Was that a byproduct of Punch being able to come through?  When it was described after the first murder, I thought it was a disguising spell, but it became clear after the second death that that wasn't the case. (hide spoiler)   That the necessity of this was never explicitly explained bothered me; without explanation it feels possibly gratuitous.  (and makes me go all alliterative, apparently.)   The scene post-riot, with Peter on the train: Mr. P. was already elsewhere, using someone else in the riot, but now suddenly he's on the train with Peter (and how did he find Peter??) ranting like a drunk and driving the people on the train toward an orgy instead of the anger and violence he's used every other time.  Not a happy orgy, granted, but it's not at all consistent with previous episodes.   Once I discovered Lesley's role, I was eager for the book to be over, but that's not the author's shortcoming, just me not liking where he was going.   But in spite of all that, I did really enjoy this book - the humour shines from beginning to end and I really liked the characters.  It was a really entertaining read and I had a lot of fun in this alternate London.  I have Moon Over Soho on the TBR already and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next.

[malberto]

It was 5 stars until the ending, a bit anticlimactic, that being said it was one of the best UF books that I ever read, the characters are (for the most part) very likeable and interesting, the world building is a little slow and the magic mechanics are undeveloped, but all that is forgiveable because of the amazing detailed description of the city and the urban life, it really painted a picture!

[Mystereity Reviews]

Really loved this, it's like a blend of Neil Gaiman and James Oswald.

[Michael @ Knowledge Lost]

Probationary Constable Peter Grant has big dreams to become a real detective in the London police but has found himself as part of the Case Progression Unit, doing paperwork while his friend Lesley May has landed her dream job. But one unexpected encounter finds him being recruited into a small branch that deals with the supernatural.

At first glance this urban fantasy novel sounds very much like the Dresden Files series and it is; but there is a bigger injection of humour in this series that makes it very enjoyable. The humour is really what makes this novel, it’s funny and at times unexpected; for example the desire to motorboat a river goddess doesn’t occur to everyone does it? Constable Grant is a great character at times, he isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed but what do you expect? Becoming the first apprentice wizard in fifty years doesn’t happen every day and it really helps drive him.

Unlike Harry Dresden, Peter Grant is still very new to wizardry and being a detective so he doesn’t have the years of experience and cynicism behind him, which at times can be a little disappointing but for the humour element, it seems to work best. The case that this book is centred around isn’t too well explained so I felt a little lost at times and often questioned the character’s ability to draw conclusions without any information at all. But in the end this is just a fun read.

I will admit when I finished reading this book I immediately wanted to start reading book two which is a good sign of how much I enjoyed this book. I even wanted to read some more from the Dresden Files series but as always I moved onto something completely different. The desire to read the next book is still there and I’m really looking forward to immersing myself into this world again. It was a fun, pleasurable read and I think might make for some good comic relief after reading a dense novel.

This review originally appeared on my blog; http://literary-exploration.com/2013/01/08/book-review-rivers-of-london/

[tellemonstar]

NoT sure that I would compare this to Harry Potter, as it's got much more of a Harry Dresden feel to it. I'm feeling slightly ambiguous about it as there were some parts that the book really didn't need but I can't exactly pinpoint those moments either. probably the part where Peter had to go to his parents place for a while, the conversation with his dad felt a bit out of place. All in all an interesting read none the less.