Books: Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch

My son spotted this book lying around and asked about it, and after I described in the vaguest of terms the general sense of the Peter Grant series, my son said, "Oh. It's Harry Potter for grown-ups."

Yeah, kinda.

I've enjoyed the series, of which Broken Homes is the fourth installment. I did get tripped up by the seriously bad editing job, however. I used to work in publishing as an editor, so maybe I'm oversensitive, but I think these would be errors almost anyone might notice. Like, page 7*, which refers to Richard Weil as a "dead Volvo driver." Except, assuming I've followed the action on pages 1–3 correctly, Richard Weil (identified as driver of the Volvo in the very first sentence of the book) isn't dead. In fact, he ends up taken in for questioning on suspicion of murder. Which you don't typically do with dead people, even in a Peter Grant book.

And page 216 uses Gandalf as a villain as an example. Is Gandalf a villain? Did I miss something in all those years of reading and watching Lord of the Rings? I'm going to assume Aaronovitch meant Saruman, but still, pretty glaring.

Okay, so those are nitpicky things to do with the writing, but then there's the actual editing, wherein typos too numerous to include here (yes, even taking British spelling into account) niggled at me, and a floating comma on page 94 nearly gave me a seizure . . . Seriously, these things scream "slapdash!" Did anyone read the fucking thing before printing? Proofs? Anyone?

Yes, all right, you want to know about the story. Fine. It's scatty, actually. A bit mosaic, more so than typical even for these books, by which I mean there are a lot of incidents, a few of which add up to what becomes the central plot, and a few that remain hanging, to be threaded into future plots I suppose. Aaronovitch tips his hand a bit too obviously in Chapter 17, so that the twist ending is utterly foreseeable, and the groundwork is also being vociferously laid for Nightingale to go the way of Dumbledore at some point, though I do hope we'll avoid that old chestnut. I like Nightingale and feel the books could do with more of him.

The big draw for me when it comes to these books is that as the main character, Peter Grant's tone is just the right balance of smart and smart-ass. He's fun, and because the books are filtered through his POV, they're fun to read. The world Aaronovitch has built is layered and intoxicating. It's good stuff. Mostly. Though do we always have to meet the bad guy on a rooftop?

Bottom line is: Broken Homes is a good book (even for a weak link in a strong series) and sets up some interesting dynamics for any forthcoming follow-ups. I was distracted and distressed by those editing snafus I mentioned, and I felt the book took a while to gain traction, but at least Peter keeps things amusing even when doing mundane work. Though, when you're a wizard apprentice, perhaps there's no such thing as mundane . . .

*Page numbers and editing problems refer to the hardcover first edition of this book (UK) and may not be applicable to subsequent editions. At least, one hopes not.

Book Review: Whispers Under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch

Ben Aaronovitch
Del Rey, 2012
Kindle
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Here, in the third installment of the Peter Grant series, Aaronovitch hits his stride. While I've really enjoyed all the books (Rivers of London (aka Midnight Riot) and Moon Over Soho coming before this one), I've enjoyed this one most.

For those unfamiliar with the series, Peter Grant is a police constable in London who has been assigned to the Folly—a branch designed to investigate and deal with the un- and supernatural. Which means that Peter is also a magician's apprentice. Hey, it takes fire to fight fire, so to speak.

Aaronovitch does a nice job building the mythology over the course of the books, though readers unfamiliar with London might do well to keep a map of the city next to their reading chairs. Regular references to Harry Potter, Tolkien, Doctor Who (for which Aaronovitch has written), Star Trek, and the like are nice touches of geek infusion. Aaronovitch does have a bad habit of telegraphing his plot twists, at least to anyone paying real attention. He does it less in Whispers than in the previous two books, however, and the whole of the story comes across as more organic overall.

I have an American Amazon/Kindle account, so I do wonder at the description and whether the book was heftily edited for American readers, since there was no play of FBI Agent Reynolds' religious beliefs in the version I read. Could it be they thought the whole born-again Christian thing might offend? (It wouldn't. And anyway, most really zealous Christians wouldn't be reading these books anyway. Not that that's ever stopped them from raising a ruckus.)

All in all, these books are my new favorite series and Aaronovitch can't write them fast enough to suit me. Also: when can we make this a television series?

Books: The Furthest Station by Ben Aaronovitch

I've written often enough about how much I enjoy the Peter Grant books, even if I thought the last couple weren't quite as good. This little novella is a return to form, a streamlined and engaging tale set in the magical world of Grant, Nightingale, and the Folly, with Grant's precocious cousin Abigail along for the ride. While the story leans a little more heavily on Abigail than I 100% enjoy, it's such a quick, fun read that I can overlook that.

Short summary: ghosts are turning up to hassle riders on the Metropolitan Line and it's down to Grant to figure out why. Kinda difficult when the riders forget the interactions almost as soon as they occur. That is, spooked commuters call the police only to wonder why the police turn up because the can't even remember calling them.

I won't say more so as not to give anything away. In short, I can highly recommend this one, though if you aren't yet familiar with Grant some of it might sail past you in a blur. This is a series that really needs to be read in order.

Books: Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch

So this is the fifth in the Peter Grant series, and I'll say (again) that if you haven't read them, you're really missing out.

For background, I'll explain that Peter is a PC (police constable) in London, assigned to the Folly, which is sort of a Hogwarts/X-Files hybrid where Peter both learns magic and investigates police cases that might involve the supernatural.

In Foxglove Summer, Peter is sent off his patch and out to Leominster and its environs to help in the case of two missing 11-year-old girls. Now, I have to say that the reason for sending him felt a bit flimsy—something to do with always checking on missing kids because wizards and witches sometimes like to use them? Stuff of fairy tales, I guess, but whatever. Off Peter goes, and the short answer is that it was a slow start, a great middle, and a shaky and abrupt ending, as if Aaronovitch was racing a deadline. The best metaphor might be that he was flying along and someone told him to land the craft, now, and so he set her down none too neatly in the clearest spot he could find.

At least the book answers the question of what Molly is, exactly.

But it leaves a lot of stuff hanging, too. There should have been more to the fact the food often turned people's stomachs, and did they ever figure out who took Stan's stash? Fairies? Hmm. Fairies hopped up on goofballs . . . All that setup for Hugh and his granddaughter, too, that just gets dropped, but maybe that will be revisited in later books. Peter still owes Hugh a gift, after all.

Fewer typographical errors this time, though a few things pricked me, like the "then" that should be "than" on page 38. (I have a list, Ben, if you want the rest.)

Overall, though, another fine book in what is probably my favorite current series.

Books: What I'm Reading & What's On Deck

Right now I'm reading Redshirts by John Scalzi. I'll post a full-on review when I'm done, but sufficient to say I'm really enjoying it so far. I picked it up because I'm waiting for Ben Aaronovitch's new Peter Grant novel to come out (Whispers Under Ground, due to deliver to my Kindle on 31 July). I wish they'd turn Grant & Nightingale into a television series already. That would be every kind of awesome.

And yes, now I will use this space to remind you that my novella "St. Peter in Chains" can be found on Kindle, Smashwords, and iBooks, with the Nook version due out any day now. Go fill in your own blank spaces between books with that quick little read of mine.

Book Review: Rivers of London (aka Midnight Riot)

Ben Aaronovitch
Del Rey, 2011
Kindle
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So the reason there are two book titles on this book review is because the book was published as Rivers of London in the UK and Midnight Riot in the US. Both titles apply, as there are a couple different things going on in the book—namely, a plot involving the rivers of London and one involving, well, a kind of supernatural influence that is causing increasing bouts of anarchy in London, culminating in (you guessed it!) a midnight riot at Covent Garden.

The book is, in fact, the first of a series about Probationary Constable Peter Grant who, on the eve of being assigned permanently to paperwork duties, is instead roped into becoming an apprentice to Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale . . . Who happens to be a wizard tasked with the singular job of working on cases involving magic. Nightingale also happens to be really, really old (though of course he doesn't look it), and part of Peter's job involves bringing his "governor" up to speed on the latest technology. Like, you know, cell phones, flat-screen tellies, and the Internet.

Also in the mix: ghosts, gods, goddesses, and other creatures from outside the average.

Peter is a smart lad, too, aiming like Newton to find a scientific basis for all the supernatural phenomena in which he finds himself enmeshed.

Aaronovitch is probably best known for his work involving Doctor Who, for which he's written episodes as well as tie-in novels. However, I'd say this book, and the follow-up Moon Over Soho with which I'm now more than halfway finished, is his best work yet. Aaronovitch's cinematic background shows in his description; everything he writes in Midnight Riot is made visible in the mind's eye so to speak, and the basic premise of the series lends itself to potential television or movie adaptation.

A fast read (no idea of actual page numbers because I read it on my Kindle), fun, found it perfect for while I was traveling. To London, in fact. Though thankfully there were no riots while I was in town.

Books: The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch

I've been evangelizing for this series since I first read Rivers of London (aka Midnight Riot). But after Foxglove Summer and now The Hanging Tree, I find my enthusiasm waning. And that breaks my heart.

It could be that it's been just long enough since I read the earlier books that, when this book references characters and events, I struggle to recall what happened when and who so-and-so is. The whole thing has become unwieldy; I almost need a cast of characters or a timeline or something. (That probably exists online somewhere...)

Can I even describe the plot here? It's kind of a mess. Starts with someone overdosing at a party, and Tyburn's daughter Olivia is implicated. But then things veer off in a variety of directions, with American magicians thrown in. And of course more with Lesley and the Faceless Man which, though progress is made, I'm sort of sick of this particular plot. The "we almost caught them!" thing is getting really, really old.

In any case, this one felt disjointed, what with the hinky plot going from one thing to the next like a pinball. And I noticed the typos became more frequent as I went along, which makes me wonder whether there was deadline pressure and they cut a copyediting/proofreading pass toward the end. (Having worked in publishing, I've known it to happen. And Foxglove Summer similarly felt rushed at the end.)

Sigh.

I still think this should be a television series. And I'll continue to read the books, at least for now. Maybe these are just a slump. Though I also acknowledge how much harder it is to hold something together the larger it becomes. The Peter Grant series is starting to be behemoth. Lots of characters, lots of rules for how the magical world works . . . Might be time to contract it a bit and get back to the really good stuff.

M Reads High Fantasy

My friends insisted I need to read this book. I'm not going to name the book, but points to you if you can figure it out from the following description. I'm, like, not even 20 pages in, I don't think. And I haven't gotten to, you know, the story yet because there is a Prelude and a Prologue. WTF kind of book needs two head starts?

You have to understand, I like fantasy in concept but tend not to read epic or high fantasy novels because they require so much damn work and all feel more or less the same to me. There are a bunch of names and different races or kinds of creatures. Something or someone is evil and a band of oddballs usually have to go on a quest to stop the evil. This is my entire understanding of fantasy, even though I did enjoy Greg Keyes' Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone series and got partway through Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time. I think maybe I prefer fantasy rooted in more contemporary things, like Aaronovitch's Peter Grant books.

Okay, so this book. It starts with . . . a guy? He's not human, though, I don't think. Apparently he has to keep fighting a battle over and over again for eternity, and sometimes he wins and sometimes not? Not just him but, like, nine others like him. Between the battles he goes to be tortured in a hell-like place. But then after this one battle, he and some king guy decide they're not going to do this any more. And the guy feels kind of guilty about that, but he really doesn't want to go back to being tortured, so they all just leave.

Oh, and there are swords. But they leave the swords, too.

THEN. Fast forward some 4500 years, and there's an assassin at a feast. He's going to kill a king. He has to wear all white because the people who hired him say it's only fair that the victim see him coming.

That's as far as I've gotten. I'm in the Prologue, waiting for the murder part. BUT. The assassin did pass through some hall or something that had statues of the guys from the Prelude? He called them Heralds, but for some reason one of the Heralds doesn't have a statue. I'm guessing this is a cultural thing since they've already made a big deal about the differences in the cultures here. That's another thing about high fantasy—the world building is incredible (when done well), but it's quite a burden on the reader when the info is being shoveled at you. These people have black skin and dark eyes, these ones are white with light eyes . . . I'm never going to keep all the names straight either. It's really overwhelming.

That said, I'll keep reading. My friends are so into this, I just have to see what it's about. Perhaps I'll update you as I go along.

Books: Series

I avoid getting involved with series of books. As a rule, sereis take up too much reading time and therefore make reading feel monotonous. People are always trying to convince me to try this or that series, and I've tested a few, but most I don't get past one or two books. There's just too many of them, and if you start in too late it takes too much effort to catch up.

If a series promises to be relatively short, I'm more apt to give it a try. Or if the books themselves are not too long. Ideally they come out regularly, like one a year. That's just the right amount of time between books in a series.

Now of course I read Harry Potter. And the Anne Rice vampire books. All the Hercule Poirot novels, too. That was all back in the day. I read Diana Wynne Jones's Chronicles of Chrestomanci as well, which were very good (there's only the four, and they're different enough not to feel all alike).

People suggested Jim Butcher, and I tried both Dresden and the Codex Alera, but never made it past the first books of each. With Dresden there were just too many, and with Alera . . . Eh.

I read the first couple Thursday Next books by Jasper Fforde, too. I liked them all right, I guess, but feel no driving need to read more of them. (Though since Hamlet is my favorite Shakespearean play, I should probably at least give Something Rotten a try.)

What I really liked by Fforde was Shades of Grey, and I'm waiting . . . and waiting . . . for more of that series. But I think he's planning to do a prequel before he gets around to a sequel. Ugh.

I started reading that whole Game of Thrones bit but didn't make it past the prologue. I'll try it again later, perhaps.

I did like Greg Keyes' Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone series, though it started stronger than it ended. I tried the Age of Unreason series but didn't even finish the first book. It wasn't bad or anything, just not what I was in the mood for at the time.

There are currently only two series I actively search out and read now. The first is Imogen Robertson's Crowther and Westerman books. There are four, but I've only just started the third, Island of Bones. I really like these characters and Robertson's writing style, but the books can be heavy, so I space them.

The other series I read is, of course, Ben Aaronovitch's Peter Grant novels. And this series is the one I most love. I eagerly await each installment and devour it in a handful of days (or mere hours if the kids stay out of my way). The next one isn't due out in the States until next year, though I think I'll be able to grab a copy while in London. I shall pencil in a bookstore visit on my schedule. I find this particular series worth my time and commitment. Which do you?

Movies: The Pirates! Band of Misfits!

Voices By: Hugh Grant, Martin Freeman, Imelda Staunton, David Tennant
Directed By: Peter Lord, Jeff Newitt
Written By: Gideon Defoe
Sony, 2012
PG; 88 min
3.75 stars (out of 5)
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Well, my seven-year-old can identify Martin Freeman at one hundred paces, and in animated form to boot ("That's the guy who's going to be Bilbo! It even looks like him a little bit!"). Hmm.

In short, a cute movie that I probably enjoyed more than my children, their chief pleasure seeming to be that I was amused. They didn't at all understand the bit about eating endangered species, but became very excited over Ham Nite (because they all like ham). Also, my two youngest couldn't read the signs Mr Bobo held, and my oldest couldn't read them quite fast enough, so I spent a lot of the movie translating. (I would have tried to explain that Queen Victoria wasn't quite the villainess the movie suggested her to be but decided that was a rabbit hole I wasn't willing to start down.)

Still, in all a win. My kids like Wallace & Gromit and find the stop-animation/claymation style visually interesting. It was probably more their lack of pirate knowledge that worked against this film on the whole. But none of it was very scary, which was good for the little ones, and there were still just enough tense moments to keep my oldest engaged. I don't know that I'd bother to add it to our DVD library or anything, but The Pirates! is a safe bet for, say, something to watch in the car or on a plane. At home the kids might not care to sit through it again—they'd likely go find something else to do—but when captive, as it were, they'd willingly watch it once more.