rionaleonhart: final fantasy vii remake: aerith looks up, with a smile. (looking ahead)
The original purpose of THE BOOKENING was to prepare me for a potential job interview, and as I didn't actually get an interview I'm no longer reading with such urgency. Still, I enjoyed reading a load of books and posting about them here, so THE BOOKENING will continue at a slightly more sensible pace!


THE BOOKENING TITLE #6: A Darker Shade of Magic, VE Schwab.

This is an odd one to read straight after Rivers of London. They're both technically 'magical London' books, but Rivers of London feels very grounded in the real London; I read it and I know it's set in my city. I found I enjoyed A Darker Shade of Magic more when I ignored the 'London' aspect, because I kept getting distracted by the fact that I didn't even feel like I was in England, let alone London, even in the parts set in our world. There was a general lack of detail rooting us in the city, and there was some American vocabulary that really stood out, particularly as the book seemed to be set in vaguely Victorian times. Stop running around in your pants, everyone; you'll cause a scandal!

That said, I enjoyed this. Schwab is very good at intricate, interesting worldbuilding, even if the world in question doesn't really feel connected to its real-life counterpart.

As with This Savage Song, this book introduces two protagonists separately, lets you get to know them, and only then has them meet for the first time. As far as I'm concerned, this is great. I love it when two established characters meet at last and we get to find out how they interact with each other. I also really like the 'they're not in a romantic relationship; they're just friends who occasionally kiss' vibe I get from Kell and Lila, although I don't know whether that'll change in later books in the series.

(Is it just me, or is everything part of a series? I'm sort of craving a good one-off fantasy book.)

Another thing I'm fond of: characters being thrown into another world (or another time) and having to manage in a completely unfamiliar setting. Unfortunately, neither 'seeing characters get to know each other' nor 'seeing a character come to terms with a new world' are qualities that can be sustained for very long, so I suppose they'll be less prominent in the sequel.

I'm very concerned about Holland. That was a slightly awful thing that happened to him at the end, and I'm sort of shocked that Kell did it without a second thought. I hope that's not the end of Holland's story. I'm also a bit disappointed that we never actually got to see Black London, but I feel there's a good chance it'll show up in later books.

The relationship between Kell and Rhy has a lot that intrigues me! I sort of wish we'd seen more of Rhy earlier on, so we could have a better impression of their dynamic by the point at which Rhy gets into real trouble. 'I would do literally anything for your sake' relationships are great, but they work best if we get to see how they relate to each other under normal circumstances before we see one character going to extreme lengths for the other.

I generally want more of Rhy, really. He seems like a character I could really love ('fierce love for his sibling' and 'habitually flirts with everyone' are both qualities that I have a terrible weakness for), but he got so little page time!

Finally, my favourite exchange from the book:

Rhy laughed silently. "I apologize for anything I might have done. I was not myself."
"I apologize for shooting you in the leg," said Lila. "I was myself entirely."
rionaleonhart: the mentalist: lisbon, with time counting down, makes an important call. (it's been an honour)
I went into a bookshop with the specific intention of buying Rivers of London and realised too late that I didn't know the name of the author. With an inward sigh of despair, I trudged into the 'Sci-Fi and Fantasy' section, prepared to comb through all the shelves alphabetically.

Thank God for the name 'Aaronovitch'.


THE BOOKENING TITLE #5: Rivers of London, Ben Aaronovitch.

'Vagina dentata,' said Nightingale. I wasn't sure that I was reassured by the thought that it was common enough for there to be a technical term for it.

Usually, when I enjoy a book, it's because I like the characters or the world or the concepts. Occasionally you'll find a book that's enjoyable because the narrative voice is just so much fun to read. Peter Grant is a great narrator, and I think the constant undercurrent of his wry humour is what really makes Rivers of London. It feels like you're sitting down with him in the pub and he's telling you a story.

There were aspects of this book that impinged slightly on my enjoyment of it. It contained a lot of horrific gore, which I wasn't entirely prepared for, although that's not really the book's fault; I think I expected it to be aimed at a younger age range than it was. It's also a bit male-gazey, although it is at least narrated by a mildly sexually frustrated young man, rather than being one of those books that feels the need to monitor everyone's breasts at all times even if the main character has no reason to be looking at breasts. And I don't like saying that books need better editing, because I'm a copy-editor and I know how thankless a task it is; people will see the one typo that slipped through, but they'll never see the thousands of mistakes you corrected. That said, this book could have done with better editing.

Ultimately, though, this was fun! I hugely enjoyed Grant's voice, and the asides about the history of London were interesting. I liked the friendship between Grant and Lesley. I wanted to care about the relationship between Grant and Nightingale, and there were a couple of moments where I thought 'is this the moment I get invested in these two??', but in the end I didn't feel they had as much of a connection as I'd hoped for. I've gained the impression that they're a popular pairing, though, so perhaps their relationship is stronger in later books. (Not sure yet whether I'm actually going to pick up the other books in the series, but we'll see.)

Also, at one point the protagonist makes out with a little brook that runs near my childhood home. There's no other book I can say that about.