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hawkwing_lbBooks 2012: 121-122
121. Ben Aaronovitch, Whispers Under Ground. Gollancz, 2012.
I have to say, the dustcover on the UK hardback is a delightful thing. An impressionist map of London, full of quirky text labelling the likes of "Guy + Madonna + Baby Band," and "Churchill + Marconi were ere," and "David Cameron Trustafarian," it has the same crooked sense of humour and London pride as the text it covers.
The third volume in the series that started with 2011's Rivers of London (US Midnight Riot) and continued in Moon Over Soho, Whispers Under Ground sees PC Peter Grant, apprentice wizard and officer of the London Metropolitan Police, involved in an investigation into the murder of James Gallagher, the art-student son of a US senator. Meanwhile, along with his mentor, Inspector Nightingale, and PC Leslie May (still officially on medical leave), he's attempting to trace the movements of the "ethically challenged" magician who caused so many problems at the end of Moon Over Soho.
It turns out Gallagher's death is connected to mystical goings-on down in the London Underground, and in the sewers below the city. PC Grant's investigation keeps running over suspicious FBI agent Kimberley Reynolds, in London to "observe" the murder investigation, who keeps slipping out on her minders to do her own investigating. Unbreakable pottery, art shows, goblin markets, and Sten guns in the sewers of London all have their part to play. So does police bureaucracy and the awkwardness Grant has with being part of a department still on record comprising only two members. (A special police department. And coppers don't like mystical shit.)
Whispers Under Ground is a much smoother, more composed book than its predecessors. Its pace is still hectic, but not quite so breakneck as before, and the police procedural aspects of the plot are better integrated into the narrative. What I'm saying is, there are fewer hairpin turns and blind corners, and developments loom less suddenly out of nowhere. (Offside, ref!)
Better constructed than its predecessors, Whispers Under Ground plays well to the series' strengths. The strong sense of London as a place filled with an incredible variety of people, Grant's grounding in copper-ness -- his colleague Leslie is still the better copper, and Grant is still okay with that -- the wit, and the wisecracking. (Grant is a geek. If there's one tiny problem with Whispers Under Ground, it's that the Harry Potter, Terry Pratchett, and Avatar: The Last Airbender references at times come a little thick on the ground.) The variety of well-rounded, human, female characters -- never guaranteed, especially in a first-person book narrated from a man's point of view -- and the presence of gay people. And the fact that Grant is not white -- it's not a big thing, but it is a thing, one whose consequences are acknowledged in many small ways throughout the book. And the author's evident glee in London history comes through vividly.
Once again, Aaronovitch has written an incredibly fun police procedural urban fantasy, with entertaining, realistic characters, grounded in a sense of place. I recommend it.
122. Barbara Hambly, Bride of the Rat God. Open Road Media ebook, 2011. (First published 1994.)
There's much to be said for ebooks, but where really good books are concerned, I'm biased. I prefer paper. And this? This is a really good book.
Open Road Media has released almost all of Hambly's backlist as ebooks at this point, and Bride of the Rat God is one of the ones I had yet to get around to reading. Much like Stranger at the Wedding, a book whose title likewise failed to entice me, Bride of the Rat God now rates in my Top Ten Barbara Hambly books ever. (Possibly Top Five, but that's a list that changes with my mood. (And, as an aside, people? Anyone ever having cause to bribe me need only present me with out-of-print Hambly paperbacks. I have none, and want them all. Ebooks are not the same.))
Moving swiftly on. Okay, so. Bride of the Rat God. 1920s Hollywood. Norah Blackstone, sister-in-law and companion to famous Hollywood star Chrysanda Flamande (formerly Christine, formerly Chava) is our protagonist. Because of a cursed necklace, terrible things are happening, and Chris's life is in danger.
As ever, the attraction with Hambly is less the perfectly cromulent plot, and more the vivid evocation of atmosphere, the real, human, humane characters, the lucid prose. Hambly runs to themes -- a certain kind of creeping horror juxtaposed onto the mundane, a female protagonist of a bluestocking bent, the human protagonists struggling against a force which in sheer might can overmaster them all.
There are things wrong with this book. But I do not care that much, but the things it gets so right hit me right in the squids.
121. Ben Aaronovitch, Whispers Under Ground. Gollancz, 2012.
I have to say, the dustcover on the UK hardback is a delightful thing. An impressionist map of London, full of quirky text labelling the likes of "Guy + Madonna + Baby Band," and "Churchill + Marconi were ere," and "David Cameron Trustafarian," it has the same crooked sense of humour and London pride as the text it covers.
The third volume in the series that started with 2011's Rivers of London (US Midnight Riot) and continued in Moon Over Soho, Whispers Under Ground sees PC Peter Grant, apprentice wizard and officer of the London Metropolitan Police, involved in an investigation into the murder of James Gallagher, the art-student son of a US senator. Meanwhile, along with his mentor, Inspector Nightingale, and PC Leslie May (still officially on medical leave), he's attempting to trace the movements of the "ethically challenged" magician who caused so many problems at the end of Moon Over Soho.
It turns out Gallagher's death is connected to mystical goings-on down in the London Underground, and in the sewers below the city. PC Grant's investigation keeps running over suspicious FBI agent Kimberley Reynolds, in London to "observe" the murder investigation, who keeps slipping out on her minders to do her own investigating. Unbreakable pottery, art shows, goblin markets, and Sten guns in the sewers of London all have their part to play. So does police bureaucracy and the awkwardness Grant has with being part of a department still on record comprising only two members. (A special police department. And coppers don't like mystical shit.)
Whispers Under Ground is a much smoother, more composed book than its predecessors. Its pace is still hectic, but not quite so breakneck as before, and the police procedural aspects of the plot are better integrated into the narrative. What I'm saying is, there are fewer hairpin turns and blind corners, and developments loom less suddenly out of nowhere. (Offside, ref!)
Better constructed than its predecessors, Whispers Under Ground plays well to the series' strengths. The strong sense of London as a place filled with an incredible variety of people, Grant's grounding in copper-ness -- his colleague Leslie is still the better copper, and Grant is still okay with that -- the wit, and the wisecracking. (Grant is a geek. If there's one tiny problem with Whispers Under Ground, it's that the Harry Potter, Terry Pratchett, and Avatar: The Last Airbender references at times come a little thick on the ground.) The variety of well-rounded, human, female characters -- never guaranteed, especially in a first-person book narrated from a man's point of view -- and the presence of gay people. And the fact that Grant is not white -- it's not a big thing, but it is a thing, one whose consequences are acknowledged in many small ways throughout the book. And the author's evident glee in London history comes through vividly.
Once again, Aaronovitch has written an incredibly fun police procedural urban fantasy, with entertaining, realistic characters, grounded in a sense of place. I recommend it.
122. Barbara Hambly, Bride of the Rat God. Open Road Media ebook, 2011. (First published 1994.)
There's much to be said for ebooks, but where really good books are concerned, I'm biased. I prefer paper. And this? This is a really good book.
Open Road Media has released almost all of Hambly's backlist as ebooks at this point, and Bride of the Rat God is one of the ones I had yet to get around to reading. Much like Stranger at the Wedding, a book whose title likewise failed to entice me, Bride of the Rat God now rates in my Top Ten Barbara Hambly books ever. (Possibly Top Five, but that's a list that changes with my mood. (And, as an aside, people? Anyone ever having cause to bribe me need only present me with out-of-print Hambly paperbacks. I have none, and want them all. Ebooks are not the same.))
Moving swiftly on. Okay, so. Bride of the Rat God. 1920s Hollywood. Norah Blackstone, sister-in-law and companion to famous Hollywood star Chrysanda Flamande (formerly Christine, formerly Chava) is our protagonist. Because of a cursed necklace, terrible things are happening, and Chris's life is in danger.
As ever, the attraction with Hambly is less the perfectly cromulent plot, and more the vivid evocation of atmosphere, the real, human, humane characters, the lucid prose. Hambly runs to themes -- a certain kind of creeping horror juxtaposed onto the mundane, a female protagonist of a bluestocking bent, the human protagonists struggling against a force which in sheer might can overmaster them all.
There are things wrong with this book. But I do not care that much, but the things it gets so right hit me right in the squids.
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no subject
Date: 2012-07-05 07:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-05 07:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-05 07:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-05 07:39 pm (UTC)I have to say, the UK hardbacks do make a very pretty set. I hope they keep the map theme on the covers.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-05 08:24 pm (UTC)I'm sorry about the pain, though.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-05 08:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-05 09:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-05 09:01 pm (UTC)(Ahem. I really like these books? A lot? So, you know. I hope you do too.)
no subject
Date: 2012-07-05 09:04 pm (UTC)Please explain what you mean?
no subject
Date: 2012-07-05 09:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-05 09:25 pm (UTC)Or, you know. Words to that effect.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-05 10:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-05 10:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-05 10:26 pm (UTC)...wait, they only have the paperback version of Moon Over Soho. Still not a complete set. Argh!
no subject
Date: 2012-07-05 10:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-05 10:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-05 10:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-06 04:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-06 04:10 am (UTC)(hmmm...since I can't read the third book for ages anyway, it's not like it's going to hurt me that much more to wait for the second until I can get one with a UK cover sent to me....)
no subject
Date: 2012-07-06 04:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-06 04:15 am (UTC)You have no idea how sad I am that my set of Megan Whalen Turner's Attolia series is a mix of hardcover and paperback. Because that was the only way I could get signed copies of each title.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-06 07:36 am (UTC)I was actively put off buying 'Bride of the Rat God' by the title, which was stupid... I should have known that anything by Barbara Hambly would be brilliant. It's a gem.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-06 10:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-06 10:11 am (UTC)*wants paperbacks*
But at least the ebooks are available. :)