Reviews - Ríos de Londres

5.88k reviews for:

Ríos de Londres

Ben Aaronovitch

3.75 AVERAGE

d2k's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

floso1234's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

raven_gr's review against another edition

2.0

adventurous medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

chrsevs's review against another edition

3.25

funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

mgforcier's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous emotional funny mysterious fast-paced

gigglewigglepanda's review against another edition

4.0

This was really quite fun.
It is a debut and the start of a series, so there were some things that didn't work entirely for me. The pace was a little rough, with some sequences lasting 50 pages, but then the final confrontation was barely 10 pages. The character of Peter has his moments of truly eye-roll-worthy proportions, especially with regards to the female characters, but thankfully for me it wasn't too overbearing.
I did really like the world building, it was a lot of fun and can really go all sorts of places in future books. I enjoyed the darker tones of the story, mixed with the humor, it just worked for me. I liked the rest of the characters as well.
I'm really looking forward the book two.

kat_smith24's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Content Warnings

bookwyrmknits's review against another edition

3.5

dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

I have had this book recommended to me a lot, and I'm glad I finally picked it up and read it. I must also admit, though, that I was concerned before reading it because I'd seen many reviews of it which highlighted the main character's tendency to think of women as sexual objects first, and people second. While this observation is true, it also felt appropriate to the time period I'd thought this book was published in. Looking at the stats, the book was published in 2011. I was honestly surprised at that. It feels more like a late 90's or early 2000's book based on the way the characters are presented. And Peter Grant's attitudes fit in with books written in that era (the 1990's). I haven't decided yet how much of this series I'm planning to read, especially if the later books still have that same era feel to them. We'll have to see. But! Enough of that. Here's what I thought of this book specifically.

I thought the plot was a lot of fun and the introduction the reader gets (through Peter) to the magical side of the London police force was nicely paced. I didn't feel like information was withheld for plot reasons, but because we were learning about magic by watching an apprentice, who was being taught for "safety, accuracy, and speed—in that order." The pacing on this book, though, dropped off significantly after the first third of it or so. At that point, the action scenes get interspersed with magic lessons and meeting people... mostly the titular rivers of London. Not being a Londoner, or having ever been to the UK at all, the only river name I recognized was the Thames. I'll admit that I got a bit sick of looking up river names to figure out how large and important they (and therefore the river spirit / god that was named for them) were.

As far as the characters go, I was mostly indifferent to them. (Toby the dog was one of the better characters, and I liked Beverly Brook as well.) Peter Grant, our main character and narrator, was fine, I guess. Despite the negative reviews I'd read in advance, I didn't find his attitude actually misogynistic... I just got SO SICK of him lusting over nearly every woman he came into contact with. I didn't dislike any of the characters, but I didn't particularly like them, either. Honestly, the reason I rated this book as high as I did is because the plot was interesting and I do enjoy a good urban fantasy. If you are not a fan of that sub-genre, or if gore in books bothers you, maybe reconsider this one.

Content Warnings