![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
2011 Late June book: Aaronovitch
Jun. 27th, 2011 08:34 pmDisclaimer: I won this book from Graeme Flory, Graeme's Fantasy Book Review. It was provided to him by Del Rey.
It has taken me a long time to get through Moon over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch. I can't figure out why. It has lots of things that I like.
1. It's set in London and mostly in an area that I'm familiar with.
2. Police procedural
3. Smart-ish main character. I think Leslie is smarter, and it looks like she'll have a bigger part in the next book.
4. Has an interesting twist that Peter Grant (main character) is trying to put magic on a scientific footing.
5. Well written.
Anyhoo, I bogged down in this one several times, and did the same thing in the first book, Midnight Riot (UK title: Rivers of London). You can read my comments about that book here. At the time, I wasn't sure about buying the 2nd book. Then I won a copy in one of Graeme's drawings. Since then, I read about 50 pages, stopped, took it on 2 or 3 trips, managed to get a few chapters on, stopped, and finally plowed through it (after re-reading several chapters) over a few days. There did seem to be fewer explanations-to-our-US-readers then in the first book. Much appreciated! I also liked the jazz connection, although I'm more of a swing girl, rather than the musician's musician type of jazz that Peter's father plays.
So, a bit about the story. Peter Grant is a constable who can work magic and is apprenticed to the last practicing magician in London, who's also on the force. He's now getting called in to any odd crimes. In this book, a jazz musician is found dead. It looks like heart trouble, but they discover it was really done through magic. Several other deaths in the past are similar, and then more bodies start piling up. I thought that he was a bit stupid in this book, but maybe it was just the hormones. There's a nice running battle with a baddie near the end that I enjoyed and we get a nice reveal at the end with Leslie. I'm definitely picking up the next book, Whispers Under Ground, scheduled for US release in January 2012.
p.s. Sad mood because a colleague and friend at work has lost his son.
It has taken me a long time to get through Moon over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch. I can't figure out why. It has lots of things that I like.
1. It's set in London and mostly in an area that I'm familiar with.
2. Police procedural
3. Smart-ish main character. I think Leslie is smarter, and it looks like she'll have a bigger part in the next book.
4. Has an interesting twist that Peter Grant (main character) is trying to put magic on a scientific footing.
5. Well written.
Anyhoo, I bogged down in this one several times, and did the same thing in the first book, Midnight Riot (UK title: Rivers of London). You can read my comments about that book here. At the time, I wasn't sure about buying the 2nd book. Then I won a copy in one of Graeme's drawings. Since then, I read about 50 pages, stopped, took it on 2 or 3 trips, managed to get a few chapters on, stopped, and finally plowed through it (after re-reading several chapters) over a few days. There did seem to be fewer explanations-to-our-US-readers then in the first book. Much appreciated! I also liked the jazz connection, although I'm more of a swing girl, rather than the musician's musician type of jazz that Peter's father plays.
So, a bit about the story. Peter Grant is a constable who can work magic and is apprenticed to the last practicing magician in London, who's also on the force. He's now getting called in to any odd crimes. In this book, a jazz musician is found dead. It looks like heart trouble, but they discover it was really done through magic. Several other deaths in the past are similar, and then more bodies start piling up. I thought that he was a bit stupid in this book, but maybe it was just the hormones. There's a nice running battle with a baddie near the end that I enjoyed and we get a nice reveal at the end with Leslie. I'm definitely picking up the next book, Whispers Under Ground, scheduled for US release in January 2012.
p.s. Sad mood because a colleague and friend at work has lost his son.
