Sunday, 31 March 2013
Rivers of London | Ben Aaronovitch | Review
Peter Grant has spent the past few years training to become part of London's Metropolitan Police Service. However, when he gets the news that he's going to be spending the rest of his life on the other side of the police force - the side where paperwork gets sorted and the whole day is spent in an office - things seem to be taking a turn for the worse. That's before he meets Inspector Thomas Nightingale. The last wizard in all of England. After seeing what can only be a ghost, Peter is quickly taken under Inspector Nightingale's wing and he becomes the first wizard apprentice to be taught magic in fifty years.
Once Peter starts working for Nightingale, he starts to see a lot of weirdness. He meets the Gods and Goddesses of the rivers of London as well as vampires, trolls, demons and a dog that just won't leave him alone. Join Peter in the first installment of this amazing series.
So I became aware of Rivers of London when my dad came home with it and would not stop bugging me to read it. It was only when I reached chapter two that I realised why. This book is so gripping and action packed that you will not want to put it down. Ben Aaronovitch has brought a whole new meaning to the word magic and I found it really interesting to see the different terms and conditions on how magic must be used.
The characters in this book are really memorable and really stand out. I thought it was an amazing and original idea to make gods and goddesses of the rivers of London. A couple of examples of these are Beverley Brook and Lady Tyburn. There's also the lovely Lesley May who is Peter's colleague and she helps to get information for him when they go out to work.
I loved how modern it really was. There are books like Harry Potter and Beautiful Creatures which are modern but they still seem very fantastical books. Then you have Rivers of London which takes you through lots of landmarks in London and I think this helped me to get a very realistic image of what was going on through the book and it just seemed that if there is such a thing as magic then this is how it would look like.
This book is the first book in a series and I really urge you to read it as the story gets better and better in the sequels Moon Over Soho and Whispers Underground. The fourth book is called Broken Homes and comes out in June this year!
So in conclusion, I really loved Rivers of London and give it a four and a half rating out of five. I do have to warn you that there are a few disturbing bits in it, though the story is so good I didn't really mind it. I would definitely recommend this to people who are fifteen and older and for lovers of science fiction and magic.
This book was reviewed by regular reviewer Lucy, get to know her here!
