22 Jan 2016

Rivers of London - by Ben Aaronovitch

I would generally describe myself as not being a fan of fantasy, as a genre of fiction writing. However, it occurs to me that there are broadly two types of fantasy. There is the type where one is presented with an alternative Universe, where everything is different; Terry Pratchett’s stuff falls into this category. The other type is where you are presented with an alternative view of the world that we live in, where there is more to it than we normally see; Harry Potter falls into this category. And so does this book, which is a kind of “Harry Potter for grown ups”. I realise that I am OK with this category of fantasy.

The book has a somewhat complex story line with lots of fairly well defined characters. The main protagonist, Peter, is quite clear and essentially likeable. Nightingale has an air of mystery about him, which is appealing and interesting. For the most part, I could accept and enjoy all the magic stuff, which I felt was quite well thought through. The ending of the story, however, was a little more fuzzy and abrupt than I might have liked. Also, there were numerous times when Peter seemed to know what to do next and it was unclear [to me] how he gained this knowledge. Maybe it was just the result of his magic talents.

I might be inclined to read more books in this series.

No comments: