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A review by jefferz
Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch
adventurous
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
3.5
Despite having a lot of wonderful elements on paper, I thought book #1 Midnight Riot/Rivers of London was messy and unable to seamlessly mix its two story arcs, lore and world-building, and an urban noir investigation together coherently. The ambiance, setting, brief history lessons and Peter’s character voice helped cover up a weakly constructed plot and investigation. Thankfully I trusted other reviewers that wrote the series gets better as it progresses which I can see now. Akin to enjoying a glass of fine wine in a jazz bar hindered by an amateur musician (or what I would imagine it would be like, I’m not a drinker personally), I found Moon Over Soho to be a cool and low-key entertaining experience provided I not look too closely at some of the finer details of its plot.
Across the board, Moon Over Soho felt like a true sophomore sequel work that was more confident and focused compared to Rivers of London. There’s a bit less action here than the obvious riot plot, but just about everything else is stronger across the board. Similar to Rivers of London, Moon Over Soho features two separate story arcs. The first involved multiple oddly timed deaths “by natural causes” of jazz musicians and the other a series of men murdered via their little buddy being chomped off by supposed jaws of death. The two cases played off each other far better than Rivers of London due to having similar pacing and an intertwined investigation compared to the previous two that outright clashed in tone. Moon Over Soho also had the advantage of also having a cool underlying theme of Jazz, music, and urban nightlife that Aaronvitch makes full use of across the assortment of Soho settings (in itself a colorful and exciting locale). With most of the necessary world-building and magic lore already established, it allowed Moon Over Soho to put all the focus on the core cases which I felt made it a more cohesive read. I really liked the way Moon Over Soho opened its first few chapters and smartly spaced-out brief refreshers from the previous book rather than info dumping that was common in Rivers Of London. The cases themselves also felt much more compelling (I still think the Rivers of London power struggle story arc was awkwardly placed and entirely underwhelming). And the lowkey British humor and witty snark that I already loved was entirely uninterrupted this time around.
The other area that I felt was greatly improved on in was the cast of characters and interactions presented. I noted that Rivers Over London suffered from a cast too large and generic to keep track of; Moon Over Soho fixed all of that effectively. Metropolitan-affiliated characters (outside of Peter, Nightingale, and Dr. Walid) are mostly limited to Officer Staphanopoulis (a newly introduced tough lesbian investigator who is a riot and perfect foil to Peter’s spastic approach) and the Rivers-family members are limited to just a few (Lady Tybalt and Ash having the only notable appearances). New characters related to the Jazz scene and the core cases are limited to a relatively small group and are only included if relevant to the investigations. Peter’s own character also feels more mature and grounded here and thankfully, his juvenile wandering eye and perverse descriptions are almost entirely cut. Instead, these elements are purposely refocused and limited to a few brief sex scenes with Jazz-enthusiast Simone Fitzwilliam. It doesn’t sound like much, but for me those few crucial improvements made all the difference between a juvenile book with cool magical history and a quality urban fantasy adult novel.
The characters also felt more nuanced and better utilized in their second time out. Aaronovitch’s cast felt more varied (and slightly more progressive?) featuring a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds (though some are less well-executed than others, there are some slang terms used that are now considered offensive by today’s standards), social and economic classes, sexualities (Staphonopoulis is a LGBTQ+ member and Ash is noted for potentially being pan and not caring what gender his one night stand is other than being pretty). Despite still being written with a heavily masculine point of view, the female characters felt like they were treated with a bit more dignity (no pointless naked in bed naps this time around) despite still feeling a bit underdeveloped on average.
But perhaps the best character improvement and moments were Peter’s interactions with Leslie. I wasn’t really a fan of Peter and Leslie’s vaguely romantic buddy cop banter to begin with, but Moon Over Soho replaced it with a more nuanced and deliberate dialogue. Rather than feeling guilty about what happened to her, the focus on his internal turmoil on the ramifications of her condition and their uncertain friendship were much more interesting conversations. Meanwhile Leslie has been effectively removed from work due to her obvious medical needs but still craves investigative work (she was a fully professional officer after all). Despite being largely sidelines and playing a supportive role in this book, she has more character growth and impact in the few chapters she appears in than all of Rivers of London. The quiet and poignant final chapter where Leslie finally takes off her mask to Peter and presents a surprising cliffhanger was one of the strongest chapters for me in all of Moon Over Soho.
Unfortunately, when you look beyond the wonderful ambiance, setting, and tone, the core plot’s overall weakness becomes more evident. Despite having strong opening chapters for the two core murder mysteries having a compelling investigation that weaves the two narratives together, the conclusion felt contrived and underwhelming to me. After reading Moon Over Soho, it’s clear that this novel was meant as a setup for bigger story arcs by introducing a larger villainous character, expanding the scope of magic users, and the overall history and politics of the area. While that’s great for the series, the tradeoff is an individually inconclusive and weak ending for Moon Over Soho. The culprit and their magical lore for the jazz deaths also fell into overdone territory. Aaronovitch attempted to include a last-minute moral dilemma involving manslaughter vs intentional murder and repentance, but the whole idea felt thrown-in and unusually idealistic compared to the rest of the book. The other case has a discussion point on black magic use and human experimentation but it’s so brief and undeveloped, it comes off as more of a red herring than a crucial clue. I also still don’t understand why the culprit started randomly revealing their identity and history to Peter and the entire concluding arc crammed into 20-30 pages felt underwritten and abrupt. I was planning to rate this somewhere around a 4 – 4.5 but ultimately knocked it to 3.5 rounded down based on the reveal of the culprit and the ending.
Despite it getting the same score as Rivers of London (Rivers was just barely a 2.5 rounded up vs Soho being a high 3.5 rounded down), I thought Moon Over Soho was an overall much stronger and polished book. I loved the jazz music theme and Moon Over Soho improved on just about every point of criticism I had with its predecessor. I honestly wasn’t sure I wanted to continue Peter Grant’s adventures after book #1, but book #2 successfully recovered my interest and opinion of the series. And from what I’ve seen of the synopsis, it looks like book #3 is going to be even better and perfect to my interests in fantasy (back to a ghost case like book #1)!
Across the board, Moon Over Soho felt like a true sophomore sequel work that was more confident and focused compared to Rivers of London. There’s a bit less action here than the obvious riot plot, but just about everything else is stronger across the board. Similar to Rivers of London, Moon Over Soho features two separate story arcs. The first involved multiple oddly timed deaths “by natural causes” of jazz musicians and the other a series of men murdered via their little buddy being chomped off by supposed jaws of death. The two cases played off each other far better than Rivers of London due to having similar pacing and an intertwined investigation compared to the previous two that outright clashed in tone. Moon Over Soho also had the advantage of also having a cool underlying theme of Jazz, music, and urban nightlife that Aaronvitch makes full use of across the assortment of Soho settings (in itself a colorful and exciting locale). With most of the necessary world-building and magic lore already established, it allowed Moon Over Soho to put all the focus on the core cases which I felt made it a more cohesive read. I really liked the way Moon Over Soho opened its first few chapters and smartly spaced-out brief refreshers from the previous book rather than info dumping that was common in Rivers Of London. The cases themselves also felt much more compelling (I still think the Rivers of London power struggle story arc was awkwardly placed and entirely underwhelming). And the lowkey British humor and witty snark that I already loved was entirely uninterrupted this time around.
The other area that I felt was greatly improved on in was the cast of characters and interactions presented. I noted that Rivers Over London suffered from a cast too large and generic to keep track of; Moon Over Soho fixed all of that effectively. Metropolitan-affiliated characters (outside of Peter, Nightingale, and Dr. Walid) are mostly limited to Officer Staphanopoulis (a newly introduced tough lesbian investigator who is a riot and perfect foil to Peter’s spastic approach) and the Rivers-family members are limited to just a few (Lady Tybalt and Ash having the only notable appearances). New characters related to the Jazz scene and the core cases are limited to a relatively small group and are only included if relevant to the investigations. Peter’s own character also feels more mature and grounded here and thankfully, his juvenile wandering eye and perverse descriptions are almost entirely cut. Instead, these elements are purposely refocused and limited to a few brief sex scenes with Jazz-enthusiast Simone Fitzwilliam. It doesn’t sound like much, but for me those few crucial improvements made all the difference between a juvenile book with cool magical history and a quality urban fantasy adult novel.
The characters also felt more nuanced and better utilized in their second time out. Aaronovitch’s cast felt more varied (and slightly more progressive?) featuring a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds (though some are less well-executed than others, there are some slang terms used that are now considered offensive by today’s standards), social and economic classes, sexualities (Staphonopoulis is a LGBTQ+ member and Ash is noted for potentially being pan and not caring what gender his one night stand is other than being pretty). Despite still being written with a heavily masculine point of view, the female characters felt like they were treated with a bit more dignity (no pointless naked in bed naps this time around) despite still feeling a bit underdeveloped on average.
But perhaps the best character improvement and moments were Peter’s interactions with Leslie. I wasn’t really a fan of Peter and Leslie’s vaguely romantic buddy cop banter to begin with, but Moon Over Soho replaced it with a more nuanced and deliberate dialogue. Rather than feeling guilty about what happened to her, the focus on his internal turmoil on the ramifications of her condition and their uncertain friendship were much more interesting conversations. Meanwhile Leslie has been effectively removed from work due to her obvious medical needs but still craves investigative work (she was a fully professional officer after all). Despite being largely sidelines and playing a supportive role in this book, she has more character growth and impact in the few chapters she appears in than all of Rivers of London. The quiet and poignant final chapter where Leslie finally takes off her mask to Peter and presents a surprising cliffhanger was one of the strongest chapters for me in all of Moon Over Soho.
Unfortunately, when you look beyond the wonderful ambiance, setting, and tone, the core plot’s overall weakness becomes more evident. Despite having strong opening chapters for the two core murder mysteries having a compelling investigation that weaves the two narratives together, the conclusion felt contrived and underwhelming to me. After reading Moon Over Soho, it’s clear that this novel was meant as a setup for bigger story arcs by introducing a larger villainous character, expanding the scope of magic users, and the overall history and politics of the area. While that’s great for the series, the tradeoff is an individually inconclusive and weak ending for Moon Over Soho. The culprit and their magical lore for the jazz deaths also fell into overdone territory. Aaronovitch attempted to include a last-minute moral dilemma involving manslaughter vs intentional murder and repentance, but the whole idea felt thrown-in and unusually idealistic compared to the rest of the book. The other case has a discussion point on black magic use and human experimentation but it’s so brief and undeveloped, it comes off as more of a red herring than a crucial clue. I also still don’t understand why the culprit started randomly revealing their identity and history to Peter and the entire concluding arc crammed into 20-30 pages felt underwritten and abrupt. I was planning to rate this somewhere around a 4 – 4.5 but ultimately knocked it to 3.5 rounded down based on the reveal of the culprit and the ending.
Despite it getting the same score as Rivers of London (Rivers was just barely a 2.5 rounded up vs Soho being a high 3.5 rounded down), I thought Moon Over Soho was an overall much stronger and polished book. I loved the jazz music theme and Moon Over Soho improved on just about every point of criticism I had with its predecessor. I honestly wasn’t sure I wanted to continue Peter Grant’s adventures after book #1, but book #2 successfully recovered my interest and opinion of the series. And from what I’ve seen of the synopsis, it looks like book #3 is going to be even better and perfect to my interests in fantasy (back to a ghost case like book #1)!