idiot time
Because avoidance of problems and actual tasks is fun, I accidentally read two of the three books I picked up yesterday afternoon from the library. This has resulted in very little sleep and fragmented dreams about time travel. (The second book I read, or reread, was The Graveyard Game by Kage Baker, because bookelfe was talking about the Company novels, and also, immortal road trip! If anyone has any suggestions for other road trips featuring immortals, besides my beloved Brief Lives volume of Sandman, I am all ears.)
The first book, though, was new to me: Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch, originally published in the UK under the *much* more helpful and appropriate title Rivers of London. Newly minted police officer Peter Grant discovers magic at work in the streets of London, and has his hands full tracking a malevolent spirit turned serial killer, while also trying to resolve a messy dispute between dueling spirits of the Thames. Here's a review:
http://londonist.com/2011/01/book-review-rivers-of-london-by-ben-aaronovitch.php
It's not going to become a favorite of mine, but I enjoyed it (although I had to squint past some of the gory bits - which is when I skim bits of text with my eyes squinted to avoid reading too much at one go). It was a bit like A Madness of Angels, if that book hadn't been desperately boring and if the protagonist had had a sense of humor. One thing that I really appreciated is that Peter is mixed-race, and while that isn't the focus of the book, it still inflects the narrative through Peter's awareness of how other people might see him in certain situations (for example, on the Tube, coming from a magical showdown with a bleeding cut on his forehead). I also appreciated that while Peter is new to magic, he's inquisitive and methodical about trying to figure out how it works. And since I'm me, my favorite thing about the book is the way that London's history and its magic combine.
I don't think the second book has been published in the US yet, but I'll keep an eye out for it. [ETA: whoops, I confused these books with some other books that aren't out here yet. Never mind.]
The first book, though, was new to me: Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch, originally published in the UK under the *much* more helpful and appropriate title Rivers of London. Newly minted police officer Peter Grant discovers magic at work in the streets of London, and has his hands full tracking a malevolent spirit turned serial killer, while also trying to resolve a messy dispute between dueling spirits of the Thames. Here's a review:
http://londonist.com/2011/01/book-review-rivers-of-london-by-ben-aaronovitch.php
It's not going to become a favorite of mine, but I enjoyed it (although I had to squint past some of the gory bits - which is when I skim bits of text with my eyes squinted to avoid reading too much at one go). It was a bit like A Madness of Angels, if that book hadn't been desperately boring and if the protagonist had had a sense of humor. One thing that I really appreciated is that Peter is mixed-race, and while that isn't the focus of the book, it still inflects the narrative through Peter's awareness of how other people might see him in certain situations (for example, on the Tube, coming from a magical showdown with a bleeding cut on his forehead). I also appreciated that while Peter is new to magic, he's inquisitive and methodical about trying to figure out how it works. And since I'm me, my favorite thing about the book is the way that London's history and its magic combine.
I don't think the second book has been published in the US yet, but I'll keep an eye out for it. [ETA: whoops, I confused these books with some other books that aren't out here yet. Never mind.]