Reviews

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

lisasibbett's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny fast-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

3.25

shareen17's review against another edition

4.0

This is a crime novel set in London where the protagonist discovers soon after finishing the police academy that a supernatural world exists. He becomes part of a very small - 2 - division of the metropolitan police force that deals with crime involving the supernatural. The story is clever and written with a dry sense of humor.

fubpg's review

adventurous dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

2.25

prynne31's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I read this because it was recommended as similar to Harry Dresden (but British). I would say that's pretty accurate.
I didn't mind the two intersecting stories, and I thought the

Punch storyline was fun and not a character you see enough of in stories.

mickid_booksnbees's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

suhbreenah's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

anniq's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

martinclark's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

gossy's review against another edition

2.0

I did enjoy the plot for this, and the world-building was fairly fun. I liked how there wasn’t a major emphasis on hiding magic despite it not being publicly known, how the protagonists just rolled with things.

The characters, however, never quite managed to truly interest me. The main character had some promising facets in theory—an interesting background and family, an inquisitive attitude that interacted with the plot in productive ways—that never actually congealed into a very compelling page presence for me. And the same was true for most of the side characters as well. There were a few sweet bonding moments, but never quite enough substance to them. And there are things I want to learn about these characters, but I didn’t learn them in this book and what I did see wasn’t in itself all that interesting.

So! Overall not bad, I did enjoy the read. In the surface flavor and narration style this reminded me a bit of a cross between the Discworld City Watch books and the Dresden Files. But it lacked something of the heart and soul of those other series, and I’m not sure I’ll be moving on to the next book; I wasn’t particularly compelled.

alidottie's review against another edition

2.0

2 and a half
This genre is a hard one for me--scifi fantasy. Sometimes I really get into it and sometimes it is hard to follow. I found this one hard to listen too. I did love the British narrator which is probably how I finished it. There were parts that I hardly caught what was going on that I'm pretty sure were more crass than I put up with normally, but since so much of it was not really registering with me, they got past me.