Book #46 Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch

Foxglove Summer

Reviewing this book is making me super unhappy, because I liked it and really like The Folly series and The Folly concept, but I have to sum up the book and be clear about the flaws I felt as I read.

This is the 5th book thus far of the "PC Grant adventure series" (trainee magician policeman investigates crimes that have supernatural elements) it is a good episode that I ultimately feel like enjoyed, but I enjoyed it with reservation, with qualms and criticism.

Two girls have gone missing from a small country town, Peter Grant realises it's not a human kidnap, but what has taken them and why??

Firstly Aaronovitch references Soham quite early on. Openly acknowledging the similarity in the initial disappearance here does not make it any the more tasteful. That it begins with such a strikingly similar circumstance and is a fanciful story involving fairies, unicorns, and changelings just compounds the issue.

So, that's one problem, it's in poor taste.

Moving on, the second novel in this series, Moon Over Soho introduced us to the "Ethically Challenged Magician" who has barely been seen since, Book 4, Broken Homes, introduced a second mysterious bad guy "Faceless Man" who does not feature in Book 5.

In an ongoing TV series, if it was an Episode Of The Week kind of thing, this might work because the overall arc would play itself out quite quickly. In a novel series, it doesn't really work, and feels like plot threads, and by extension readers,  are just left hanging in mid-air without resolution. Foxglove Summer is like an Episode Of The Week in novel form, which doesn't much acknowledge or have any continuity from what has gone before.

Peter receives a message to say he has about a year before "it all kicks off" which, given the way the current timeline of Folly books works means about 12 more stories before we get to grips with who these bad guys are.

Dare I say it but is Ben Aaronovitch, a screenwriter beginning to write these novels with an overt eye to adaptation because the way these last 4 books have been written would work if these stories were being televised and continued on a weekly and not an annual basis, I can't quite detail why that is without spoiling both this novel and the series previous installments. 

As things stand the lack of plot continuity from installment to installment is a massive frustration as a reader. However, I will be continuing with this series because as I've said previously, I like the concept and the characters. But it's not a fantasy novel series, it's exactly as if someone took Doctor Who and made each 40 minute episode a novel, there's a semblance of an ongoing thread like "What's Bad Wolf?" or "Who's that Missy then?" but not every episode moves the overall arc onwards.

And it's annoying. The lack of Nightingale was annoying too.

7/10 
          

Book #48 Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch

Broken Homes

Length Of Time In Possession : 2 weeks

Broken Homes is the 4th in Ben Aaronovitch's Folly Series, following PC Peter Grant, a young copper who at the beginning of the series, met a ghost and suddenly found himself a member of the Metropolitan Police's magic division.

The novel carries on the storylines from previous books, so I won't delve too far, for there would be spoilers. This time the mystery revolves around a housing estate called Skygarden.

It continues to expand the magical universe it is set in as Peter, Lesley, and Nightingale continue to hunt the Faceless Man, and the Little Crocodile society, it also brings back the always good value Rivers sisters, Fairy Zach, and others we met in the previous novels which is nice.

I also liked how we are given more detail about how Peter is slowly learning and studying his magical craft, necessary in the development of a clumsy apprentice.

There is good characterization of newly introduced surrounding players who pop off the page easily with pithy but greatly visual description.

I really enjoyed this one, having had some issues with both books two and three, I loved a certain passage which made a remark about schizophrenia, applicable to mental illness in general.

I also really loved the twist, which I never saw coming at all.

I knew if I stuck with this story it would pay off if I ignored the bits about the first two sequels I found a bit shaky, and kept up with it. I think Broken Homes is a return to form for this saga, but obviously if you've not read it you do have to start with Rivers Of London.

I'd absolutely love to see this optioned as a TV series, its sense of Britishness would work more on the small screen than the large.

Verdict : 8/10
Destination : ebook storage      

Book #58 Whispers Underground by Ben Aaronovitch

Whispers Underground

Whispers Underground is the third book of Ben Aaronovitch's The Folly series charting the career of PC Peter Grant who in the original novel Rivers Of London was drafted into the magic department of the police force.

Firstly, I love the world which Aaronovitch has created here with The Folly, I like Peter Grant and Lesley May, and the cast of supporting characters. I enjoyed the fact that the Folly Universe was expanded with this novel to include new kinds of "different people" and "unexplained phenomena".

I enjoyed the return of the sassy Rivers girls, who are all great characters, but, I would have liked to have seen Peter and Lesley learn more spells and develop more skills, though I like the conversational style of narrative I felt like there was a lot of moments of hasty exposition, to justify how Peter knew something or could do something, as though the author came up with a cool idea, then realised, after the fact that there had to be a reasonable explanation for this development.

I also found it a little odd that the story of the Ethically Challenged Magician which was our cliffhanger from Moon Over Soho was only continued on from the previous book in a minor sense.

Though the "I won't tell anyone about this because they won't believe me and think I'm mental" is a handy Get Out Of Jail Free card for  explaining how information about these phenomena doesn't break into the public sphere, I also believe it's a truism, which makes it useful for the author!

I did feel a bit "Clay pots and plates?...couldn't it have been something a bit more...magical...?" about the objects of interest but I liked the cliffhanger and I look forward to the fourth. 7/10

Book #31 Thornyhold by Lady Mary Stewart

Thornyhold

Thornyhold by Lady Mary Stewart is the second of her books I have read after The Crystal Cave. It is a simple little tale of a girl named Gilly who has a godmother Gaellis with a magical quality to her.

When Gilly inherits her cottage Thornyhold, she discovers that Gaellis was known as a witch, and the local people have expectations that she will follow in her godmother's footsteps..... 

This book is short and the quality of the prose is really simplistic - it was nice, to have an easy read and it's a nice story, but there's not a lot I can really say about it other than it's "nice".

Lady Mary's clear interest in magic and Druidry interests me also though, and because her books are so easy going, their simplicity by no means puts me off reading more of them. Everybody needs to read a sunny, nice book every now and then 7/10

Book #15 The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

The Night Circus

I'm going to start by saying The Night Circus is enchanting, truly and I really think you should read it. Particularly if you enjoy books that are set in the 1800's or at the turn of the century and have that "Victorian style" to them as I do. Erin Morgenstern has pulled that literary effect off really well.

From the start, the descriptions of the circus allow your creative imagination to run wild, it only opens at night, it has monochrome tents, a massive bonfire, hot sweet treats, a contortionist covered in tattoed symbols, a wishing tree, an ice garden and other such magical displays await within each tent.

At first it is difficult to see how the circus intersects with the other story we are introduced to. Two children, Celia Bowen and an unnamed boy, are sworn into combat against each other at a young age, a battle of two mentors in a case of nature versus nurture, their task is to grow up learning the craft of magic and to become practitioners, entering into a challenge when the moment arrives.

The moment arrives with the circus. The circus becomes that arena.

The Night Circus is brilliant. Enchanting really is the best way of describing it. All the characters have that certain je ne sais quoi, that piques your interest in them and keeps it there. You never really know any of them fully, but, that's part of the point, they have a mystique and that's why they are intriguing.
I loved the relationship between Celia and Marco as it unfolds but was frustrated with the fact that they both misunderstand the nature of the task at hand, seeing it as a talent contest rather than a duel.
A duel element with their competitive mentors assuming more of an influence may have given this novel a darker edge. But again, the fact that the darker edge it does develop in another way, perhaps negates this, but I still would have liked to have seen an aspect of it, at least at the start.

I loved all the characters and the fact that the contest had far reaching and sinister overtones. I would recommend this book to anyone, and will probably buy it for friends. 10/10   

Book #48 The Portable Door by Tom Holt

The Portable Door

The Portable Door by Tom Holt was recommended to me by several followers on my Twitter account as a good fun fantasy novel, and a good introduction to Holt himself a writer these followers liked.

In The Portable Door, following what appears to be the world's oddest and most disastrous job interviews Paul and Sophie are appointed as junior clerks to J.W Wells & Co. From the start, their office is odd, and they can't really quite make out what it is that the company does....

I think I need to say again, that fantasy isn't really my thing, I've never been into Pratchett or his peers, and the closest I've come to really loving a fantasy novel is Neil Gaiman's American Gods, which, in theory, I loved more for its interesting philosophical questions than any fantasy element. Anyone I've ever recommended that book to has likewise been very impressed with it.

However, Jen recently recommended me the 'A Song Of Ice And Fire' Series which I read in April and are reviewed in this blog. I now consider myself a massive fan of the series. So, when the TV series began in the States, and a review in the New York Times by Ginia Bellafante said :

The true perversion, though, is the sense you get that all of this illicitness has been tossed in as a little something for the ladies, out of a justifiable fear, perhaps, that no woman alive would watch otherwise. While I do not doubt that there are women in the world who read books like Mr. Martin’s, I can honestly say that I have never met a single woman who has stood up in indignation at her book club and refused to read the latest from Lorrie Moore unless everyone agreed to “The Hobbit” first. “Game of Thrones” is boy fiction patronizingly turned out to reach the population’s other half.

 I was INCENSED by what I saw as horrifying sexism, and also by its implication that the incest subplot was particularly attractive to women, whereas I have known women to cease reading the novel because of the storyline. I hated the implication that women, or rather normal women, could not or should not enjoy A Song Of Ice And Fire or fantasy novels in general.

Therefore it pains me to say that to a certain degree I felt that The Portable Door was a decidedly male novel. In my head, its average reader, is a man, possibly spotty, who does a mundane day job, probably in computing, has difficulties socially, and potentially lives with his parents and/or has a large collection of comics. I've been involved with a man not unlike that, and it's him I see as the target audience for this novel. On the other hand, I am a woman who owns a Spiderman hoodie, loves superhero movies and knows far more about computers than I do about either make up or shoes. So, this leaves me a bit torn, I am possibly guilty of as big a sin as Miss Bellafante by considering this book "male". In the end I have to say that there's something in the narrative voice that makes me feel that way, something that isn't present in A Song Of Ice And Fire, like Holt, in his mind, has a solely male audience too.

I didn't particularly like either awkward, slightly neurotic Paul, or rude, abrasive Sophie and that's a problem, considering they are the 'leads' in the novel. I think it also suffers from my having read it in too close a proximity to Rivers Of London and Moon Over Soho. Those books deal with a magic department within the Metropolitan Police and The Portable Door is about a company dealing in magic, so there is some similarity, but the former are just better books.

Where I DID like it though, was really, when it got going, and Paul and Sophie discover more and more about the organisation in which they work. There's magic, and goblins and a pretty decent mystery going on. Paul gets sexually harrassed by his boss's Mum, and that's quite a fun subplot.

Another criticism is that I wondered why it always seems necessary in some novels to have a romance between the protagonists, a man and a woman never seem able to be just mates with a really great friendship or working partnership. It sort of leaves you thinking : "You're going to get together anyway, so just get together now and let's have done and get on with the rest of the story".

When reviewing Moon Over Soho, I mentioned that its "current" vibe may inevitably date it. In this novel Holt references Esther Rantzen's chat show and "Cilla's Blind Date" neither of which have been broadcast in about ten years, the references aren't strictly necessary either and I think its something writers need to consider. Although, there is nothing worse than what Sebastian Faulks did in 'A Week In December' where he invents new names for things you recognise from popular culture such as calling the Costa Award by some other name or calling MySpace "YourPlace", so you know what he's actually referring to but the name is all wrong, terribly annoying and pointless. That's a terrible book anyway avoid it like the plague.

In the end, I warmed to The Portable Door, after say the first third, once the action got underway. At the end of the day, I'm a sucker for magic, and that's what saved it, but I am incredibly torn in my overall opinion. Ultimately, there are two further books in The Portable Door story, 'In Your Dreams' and 'Earth, Air, Fire and Custard'. As with Shikasta and The Crystal Cave, I'm interested enough to eventually read the follow ups to see how it all turns out but not so interested that I'll be rushing immediately to do so, the way that I did with A Song Of Ice And Fire.

There was one quote I particularly liked regarding the perils of dealing with people who know magic and that was:

The very worst your kind can do to each other is kill someone. That's practically Vegan when you consider what we get up to sometimes. 

Overall my reaction to the book was mixed and I think I'll only give it a 6/10

Book #42 Rivers Of London by Ben Aaronovitch

Rivers Of London

Ok, so, I've been on holiday for a week, not got much reading done, was pretty much a pound the streets and go-see holiday rather than a sit on your bum by the pool with a book holiday. I did try but the only book I managed to complete was Aaronovitch's Rivers Of London.

It seems that whenever I make a certain claim, a book will show up to contradict me. In this case, I was bemoaning the fact in my review of The Interpretation of Murder that the crime genre has not seen anything original in a good while despite attempts to give it a new twist. This book likewise attempts the new twist on the genre and yet somehow inexplicably pulls it off.

In Rivers Of London, Aaronovitch takes young London copper Peter Grant, whom, it is hinted at is somewhat inept, and places him at a the scene of a murder guarding it overnight alongside Lesley, a colleague he wishes to be more than just friends with, when he is approached by one Nicholas Wallpenny who claims to have witnessed the crime. During Peter's attempt to take a statement Wallpenny dematerialises revealing himself to be a ghost.

Thus begins a tale of ordinary London policing interlocked with a tale of vampires and wizard police officers, sequestration and ghosts, and a dispute between two powerful water spirits. This book shouldn't work, it really shouldn't, the crime genre, the magic genre, and the vampire genre are such well worn avenues of late that they have become truly pedestrian. With all the elements of recent popular fiction thrown in together this book should have been bad, a bit needy, trying to cover all bases and be liked. In some ways it's a bit annoying that its not, because it makes you wonder how he managed to pull it off.

The main strength of the book is that it's entertaining, the prose is vivid and comical, it has a real caper feel to it, with Peter spending most of his time wondering how the hell he ended up involved in yet another disaster. The main storyline of the crime itself is clever and probably, if I knew much about the history, very well researched. The second storyline the resolution of a dispute between two water spirits each claiming to own the Thames has a very mythological quality, and if it reminded me of anything it was of Neil Gaiman's American Gods (but not enough to consider it plagerist) which from me, is a huge compliment.

All in all, if you are into the new "vampire genre", or "magic genre", fantasy books, like Terry Pratchett say (of whom I have to say I've never been a great fan) or if you don't mind crime that's a bit silly and tongue in cheek, you'll like this. If however, you prefer gritty realism with your crime like Stuart MacBride say, or Peter Robinson, you would probably find this annoying. Personally, I really enjoyed it and will definitely be reading the recently published sequel 'Moon Over Soho' 9/10