November 2017 Group Read: Rivers of London, by Ben Aaronovitch

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

Paul will be your host for reading & talking about Rivers of London . Have a great time!

[Bonnie]

Looking forward to it. Just started and really liking it. Having a little trouble with the police and English phrases and wording, but not enough to be buggy.

[Mariah]

I'll be joining you soon ... I have my library copy ready, just finishing off my current read!

[Faith]

This book is great as an audiobook. The narrator is perfect for this series.

[Charissa]

Tried it, didn't care for it. Enjoy the read.

[Bonnie]

Just finished the book. I admit I was excited by the genre as it seemed unusual and unlike anything I'd read before. Initially I was loving the book but over time I found myself really distracted by some of the author's attempts at description. These attempts didn't enhance the read but rather took away from it for me. The plot of the book got hazy and sometimes lost. I had to reread many sections to better understand what was going on. I'm a great lover of fantasy and science fiction so normally I'm a real sponge when it comes to this sort of thing but this book just wasn't a good fit for me however I think the genre has real potential. Hope the rest of you have better luck than I did!

[Suzy]

I listened to this and I'm sure the narrator contributed to at least 50% of my enjoyment! I liked this well enough that I immediately moved to book 2, which I just finished this morning. I've not done UF, nor am I a lover of fantasy in general, but this one really hooked me. But I totally understand, Bonnie, about the plot getting hazy and lost - I too wondered much of the time in the middle of the book where the heck it was going and also had to backtrack to figure things out. But I decided to just flow with it. I'll share a bit from my review and then wait for others to comment for deeper discussion. From my review:

This was smart, hip, ultra-contemporary, full of humor and ultimately satisfying even if I didn't know where it was going most of the time!

[Bonnie]

I didn’t eve consider an audio version but that’s a great idea! The right narrator could make a real difference.

[Stephen]

It is the perfect marriage between narrator and book series. There is even Comic Books based on the series! I did not read this book for a while because of the US title Midnight Riot, but friends raved about the series.

[Suzy]

Stephen wrote: "It is the perfect marriage between narrator and book series. There is even Comic Books based on the series! I did not read this book for a while because of the US title Midnight Riot..."

Yes to "perfect marriage"! I thought many times that I might not like these in print. Oh, and thanks for the reminder about the graphic novels. I'm going to check them out from my library.

[Patricia]

I thought this a fun and silly read with faces falling and all. Don’t think I will continue the series although I did like the history lessons.

[Bonnie]

Finished and rated it 4 stars. I loved the characters and setting. I found the story-line meandered a bit and was gorier than I like, but I could skim some of that and will be continuing the series.

[MissLemon]

Just finished and really enjoyed it, thank you for introducing me to this series, I will be reading more I hope !

Reminded me quite a lot of early Terry Pratchett, especially the Neil Gaimen co written Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, and of course American Gods. Terry Pratchett is my favourite author and I miss reading new books by him, so this was a treat for me.
I'm not a Londoner, but I have visited the area in and around Covent Garden quite a lot, so I enjoyed those references and had the advantage of being able to visualise the Royal Opera House Riot. I can understand why those unfamiliar with London might not find the book as easy to follow, but it's interesting that people are using the word 'meandering' in relation to the plot. That's what the Thames does, so perhaps this was intentional?

Wasn't so keen on the 'magic tricks' and I'm not sure I even followed what happened near the end (view spoiler)[ to enable the chase back through time, (and is Molly a Vampire?) (hide spoiler)], but liked Peter Grant and want to find out more about the enigmatic DCI Nightingale.

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

Yikes! Where's the moderator?????

[MissLemon]

Just read The Home Crowd Advantage which is a (very)short story listed as #1.5 in this series. It's free to read on the authors blog ( link on the books Goodreads entry)

Set at time of London 2012 Olympic Games, but referring neatly back to the London 1948 games. As I said, very short and left me wanting more (view spoiler)[especially as there weren't any ghosts (hide spoiler)] but good for completists like me!

[MissLemon]

Nancy wrote: "Yikes! Where's the moderator?????"

Looks like he's forgotten us Nancy

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

Oh dear. Well, continue on, my friends!

[Suzy]

Nancy wrote: "Oh dear. Well, continue on, my friends!"

I had noticed his absence also, but we're doing great without a moderator, it seems!

[Bonnie]

Carolyn wrote: "Just read The Home Crowd Advantage which is a (very)short story listed as #1.5 in this series. It's free to read on the authors blog ( link on the books Goodreads entry)

Set at ti..."

thanks, will check it out.

[Stephen]

I have read all the books. There is even a short story that is free on Audible.com if you are a member called A Rare Book of Cunning Device. Ben Aaronovitch is one of my Pre-order authors, along with Jussi Adler-Olsen, Patrick Rothfuss and James S.A. Corey. You get the backstory of Nightengale in bits and pieces as the series progress. Kobna Holdbrook-Smith is the narrator of all the stories and is a good example of the performance enhancing the story.

[Mariah]

Just finished it, and gave it four stars. As I comment in my review, I love anything esoteric, so combining that with crime and history should have been right up my street. But I think I was hoping for charm and subtlety, not comic book action!
Pleased I read it though ... it deserves four stars, even though not quite my cup of tea.

[Suzy]

Mariah wrote: "Just finished it, and gave it four stars. As I comment in my review, I love anything esoteric, so combining that with crime and history should have been right up my street. But I think I was hoping..."

Interesting you mention "comic book action" because these are available in graphic novel form. I plan to check out that format just to see. I liked this book well enough to move immediately into book 2 - both in audio. The narrator is fabulous!

[Mariah]

Suzy wrote: "Mariah wrote: "Just finished it, and gave it four stars. As I comment in my review, I love anything esoteric, so combining that with crime and history should have been right up my street. But I thi..."
Not sure I would go for the comic books, Suzy (although ... whispering here ... in my youth I was an avid reader of Spiderman comics) (!). But I will certainly give the audio books a go if the narrator is good, thanks for the tip!

[N.E.C.C.]

I love the whole supernatural thing and it was really nice to mix it with mystery.
I think the book could've been a little bit shorter and i got lost a couple of times nearly the end but overall, it's a great book and i can't wait to get my hands on the next book of this series.

[Charlotte (Buried in Books)]

I absolutely adore this series. It has a wonderful sense of humour. Yes, it can confuse at times but it’s worth sticking with it. There are some great one liners.

One of the later books in the series contains one of my favourite quotes about reading “in the winter, she curls around a good book and dreams away the cold”.

[Linda]

I found this book rather engaging. I really liked the supernatural aspect to the mystery. I look forward to the next book.

[Moonlight]

When I choose a book to read, I usually choose based on an on-line search. Something has to compel me to click on the book and find out more about it. Something has to stand out. In a brick and mortar store, the title and cover art carries about the same weight. In an on-line search, title is far more important. I chose this book because I was intrigued by the title "Rivers of London". I liked the cover art too. Together the two things compelled me to read more about it.

I purchased the book before the voting for the group read was concluded because I thought "Rivers of London" was a book I would read regardless of whether the rest of the group read it. I got "Midnight Riot" delivered to my e-reader. After verifying that it wasn't some strange error that had me purchase one book and receive a different one, I was ....disappointed.

I tagged the book as currently reading but actually picked up and read another book before this one. Since then, I have begun reading the book and am nearly finished now. I am far enough along in the book to know why the UK and US editions were titled the way they were. I am enjoying it. But I remain disconcerted at the strong reaction I had to the changes in book title and cover art.

I find the US title "Midnight Riot" mundane and boring. And the cover art on the US edition looks like a thousand other books. I probably would have passed over it for something else if "Midnight Riot" was the only title presented to me.

As I eye other books in the series, I wonder about title changes and whether I will find them as distracting as a I found this one.

[Susanna - Censored by GoodReads]

The US title is by far the worse one, and I really don't get why they changed it.

[Suzy]

I agree about the US title for the first book - title and book cover are unappealing and it's confusing that there are two titles. It looks like it's the only book in the series though with two different titles/covers and the covers for the other books are in sync with Rivers of London. Phew!!

I plan to start book 3 in the series this week - I fell in love with it, even if I didn't always know where things were going in the first book. The audiobook narrator is fantastic!

[Gina]

I liked the book for the most part, other than little nitpicks I wont get into here (they're in my review on my page if you're really interested). It felt very American Gods/Anansi Boys inspired (inspired, not copied), which is great because I love those books!

Does anyone know if the US version is different, besides the title? I know sometimes US versions of UK books will tone down the slang a lot, or at least change it to something more US-familiar. I didn't mind it, personally. I had to look a lot of terms up, but I'd rather learn them for next time than be sheltered from them.