Rivers of London by: Ben Aaronovitch

 

For those reading this without knowing who I am, Ben Aaronovitch is the writer of my favorite Doctor Who television story; Remembrance of the Daleks, its novelization; the equally interesting if not a bit too long Battlefield; and several amazing installments in the Virgin New Adventures line of books.  He is an author whom I was already familiar with when approaching Rivers of London, or as it was known in the United States when I purchased my copy Midnight Riot.  His work on Doctor Who is unabashedly left wing so it is a bit surprising when the main series he has been publishing in both novel and graphic novel form, the Peter Grant series, is clearly based in a love for the police procedural.  Rivers of London follows the format of a police procedural though not without Aaronovitch’s understanding of left wing politics and modern society: Peter Grant is a person of color who has joined the Metropolitan Police because it was one path generally available to him and is seen by his coworkers, especially his white superiors, as less capable.  The reader first meets Peter as he finds out he is to be resigned to filling out paperwork for a stretch of his career while close friend Lesley May is expected to progress onto casework.  Aaronovitch is straddling a very fine line here, being aware of systemic racism and how it affects the lives of people of color while not telling a story of a person of color having to prove themselves.  There is a clear understanding, at least with the first novel, that there are some stories that while Aaronovitch certainly could tell and make work, he should not be the one telling them due to them being perhaps too far outside of his lived experiences.

 

Rivers of London is squarely in the genre of urban fantasy, Peter Grant accidentally having an encounter with a ghost that leads him to become apprentice to wizard Detetctive Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale.  While some upon hearing the premise of magic detectives investigating a brutal murder while working with the local police department as close to the early novels of The Dresden Files, Rivers of London is quite different.  Peter as a character is intensely skeptical, while not passing his A levels with flying colors in science he has a logical mind and attempts to apply the scientific method to the magic and mythical.  Nightingale is our wise mentor figure, and Aaronovitch mainly uses him as a guide before largely writing him out of this first novel so Peter can use his training on his own, though Aaronovitch is smart to not have Peter immediately become an expert in magic.  In terms of a magic system, Aaronovitch takes plenty of time to Peter’s training, sometimes to the detriment of the pace of the novel itself, while the main case splits into two distinct plot threads.  The way the plot threads interconnect are serviceable, if a bit too scattershot in the way it treats some of the supporting characters.  Lesley as a character especially doesn’t come out of Rivers of London very well, being turned into a damsel in distress in what easily could have become a case of fridging despite a lack of a romantic connection.

 

The titular rivers are perhaps the most interesting characters, despite many of them being minor characters.  Mama Thames is the goddess of the Thames, with her many children being other rivers and tributaries of the city.  London itself is almost a character with Aaronovitch using the setting to ground the novel in something he knows like the back of his hand.  The goddesses of the rivers are also interesting as Aaronovitch uses them to continually diversify his characters, reflecting the multicultural nature of London historically and in the present which makes a nice change.  Thames is a delight when she appears and Beverly Brook is used as Peter’s sidekick/love interest to a mostly nice effect.  Rivers of London may not be Aaronovitch’s best work, but it’s a book that feels alive with its setting and character while laying the groundwork for what might be another of the great modern fantasy series.  The start is slow, it takes right until the very end for the threads to come together and your mileage may vary on the clear sequel hook included in the final chapter, but it’s a book that I had a very good time with.  7/10.