LOSING MYSELF IN PAPER, NOT SCREENS : "RIVERS OF LONDON"

Ok. I need to tell you all about my latest obsession. This series. This series right here. See, reading-wide I was at a tad bit of a loss as to what to do after I finished reading Game of Thrones. I know some of you sympathise, a lot of people I have spoken to have gone through the same “syndrome”. I mean come on, you’re immersed in thousands and thousands of pages of gripping narrative and suddenly “bang” you have to wait for the next one for God only knows how long. I mean, the latest one was released 2 years ago apparently (I say apparently because I wasn’t following it “live as it were. I waited for the prices to be reduced and bought the lot).  The writer, George  Martin has admitted he has to pick up the pace but that’s about as far as it went . No dates, no nothing. So I have to resign myself to the fact that I’m going to be waiting on that book for a while and find a replacement. Yes but how? I actually wanted to go on with something fantasy-related as it were. My films and work tend to be very “real life” these days, so bizarrely the more fantasy my books are the better. I dunno, it’s probably just a phase. The point is, there I was:  Looking for a fantasy novel and in possession (so to speak) of rather high standards, courtesy of Tolkien, George Martin and the likes. I heard the raves on Rivers of London. Some of them actually emanated from my friends. I tentatively picked up the first book – well, it couldn’t hurt. And my God… Not hurt? Not since the Harry Potter books have I read anything at the speed of a hundred pages a day. Definitely not things I wasn’t writing a dissertation on. Rivers of London came and went in a flash and you will doubtless see me stumbling out of a bookshop near you armed with everything Ben Aaaronovtich has written. Look for someone quite short in a purple raincoat. Yep, that’s me.

Meet P.C. Peter Grant. He is pretty much a young man of our times. He is just starting out on a career in the police force and having finished his initial training and obligatory bout of “grunt work”, he is about to be “recruited” to his destined department. Thing is, what with his ability to get so easily distracted and all, he is headed straight for a desk job, as far from action as the force can put him , much to Peter’s disappointment and despite all his grand dreams. That is, until, after a particularly gruesome murder, he ends up taking a statement from a ghost by mistake. Realising he has just met a witness who has been dead for 200 years startles Peter, but when he tells his superiors, it startles them even further. The result, however, is not a padded cell as Peter suspected it might be. He is, instead, recruited to a secret department of the police that deals with the supernatural. The good news is, Peter is no longer destined to be a pen pusher. The somewhat confusing news is, he will be an apprentice wizard instead.

As you have probably guessed this book is a combination of Harry Potter and the X files. Nothing beats a good hybrid, and I honestly can’t think of two better shows to “hybrid” (yes, this is a verb. Well it is in my universe. Mom, don’t block my creativity). I love the character of Peter Grant. Aaronovitch does a FANTASTIC  job of writing how a real person from our century would actually react to coming face to face with magic. What I like the best is, that Peter actually tries to come up with something as close to a scientific explanation as he can under the circs. This is good. Because often magic has a kind of dogmatic “it was so and cannot be explained” aura, which it shouldn’t, not in a century of science and discovery. Not to mention the fact that dogma of any kind is generally a bad thing and has no place in a novel – that’s my view anyway. And he has very 21^st century problems that centre largely around his smartphone. But I’ll let you discover those as you go along.

Aaronovitch also imbues Grant with a dry, British sense of humour which I love. And he also clearly has extensive knowledge of London and life in the city. As a Londoner myself there were so many actual locations I know and so many situations I am familiar with. All this of course adds to the “realism” of the book, especially if you live in London. But shall I tell you something? If you live in a big city, you’ll probably know what he means in a lot of cases, even if you don’t live in London.

So the book accomplishes the rather extraordinary job of bringing together a beautifully realistic snapshot of 21^st century London and magic, mystery and mythical creatures. Honestly, if you love one or the other – or possibly even both – you need to take a look at this series… 

P.S Don't get confused by the links of a book called "Midnight Riot" on the blog by the way, it is the exact same book, it was just published under a different name in the States. And I can't seem to be able to find a link to the UK version :/