The Furthest Station (Peter Grant, #5.7) by Ben Aaronovitch

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Date read: July 21 to 24, 2017

At the end of my write-up for The Hanging Tree, I said something along the line of wanting a break from the faceless man arc and more adventures of Peter doing some magical policing around London. Lo and behold, my request was granted in the form of this novella, or so I like to think. In truth, Ben Aaronovitch must have had this novella planned long before The Hanging Tree finished downloading in my inbox. The announcement just took me by surprise and the brief summary was basically what I asked for, so naturally I thought it was for me. Naturally.

This book was basically a solid 4-star most of the way through. And then that twist at the end happened that turned the investigation. 5 stars, easily, in the end.

Many spoilers scattered below, so that I don’t forget them.

Sargent Kumar (from Whispers Underground) called Peter and Nightingale in to help investigate what appeared at first to be a ghost infestation in a subway tunnel. Multiple people were reporting brief sightings in which figures clearly not of this world tried to harass or accost them, and what’s weird was it wasn’t the same ghost, but it appeared to be a different ghost each time. What’s weirder still were these people not being able to recall much of the incidents after reporting them; some even forgot they had spoken to the police at all, and the ones who did remember all said, before vanishing, the ghosts had a message to deliver and it had to be delivered to the police.

After following some leads and dead ends, Peter brought Abigail in to help with splicing and deconstructing hours and hours of CCTV footage. So it appears Nightingale has decided to take on another student, when she comes of age, of course. Right now though, she’s showing a great deal of talent for magic and will probably turn out to be a faster learner than Peter. And she has a friend in the foxes, which doesn’t really mean anything at this point. Interesting development; looking forward to seeing more.

On Peter’s end of the case, it was all very standard Falcon procedure, and all of it was hilariously described in his usual dry sardonic voice.

“Preliminary Falcon assessment,” said Jaget.

“We at the Folly have embraced the potentialities of modern policing,” I said

[…]

He would have liked blood samples as well, but we’ve found that people are strangely reluctant to give up their bodily fluids to the police for science.

[…]

From a policing perspective, motive is always going to be less important than means and opportunity. Who knows why anybody does anything, right?

[…]

The woman who answered the door gave a familiar little start when she saw us and hesitated before saying–“Ah, yes.”

We know that reaction well–it is the cry of the guilty middle-class homeowner.

This sort of thing always create a dilemma since the scale of guilt you’re dealing with ranges from using a hosepipe during a ban to having just finished cementing your abusive husband into the patio.

[…]

They started with a bell ring, a police knock, then a fist bang accompanied by shouts of “we’re the police” which was then bellowed through the letterbox.

Peter, being Peter, had quite a few hilarious turns in the investigation. He even managed to lure a ghost to him, using Toby as bait, to get her “statement,” which was the big lead he needed that turned this case from a weird ghost problem to a missing persons investigation, which then lead to a kidnapped woman trapped behind a solid brick wall in a cellar full of empty jars that used to hold ghosts.

Now I feel bad for previously saying Peter was bad at his job. So I wanna go on record and apologize. He may not be as advanced in his career as I’d like him to be, being a slower to catch on to magic than Leslie, but I must give credit where credit is due: he is quick on his feet and always manages to find a workaround for magic he isn’t yet capable of handling. Remembering those glow bats from Foxglove Summer and using Toby as a vestigia detector always make me laugh.

Anyhow. This case did not turn out to be what I expected. It was so much better and a huge surprise at that. I definitely did not see how a paranormal investigation could lead to missing persons during the read, but it was superbly done. What’s more is we’re introduced to a new kind of magic–trapping ghosts. Those ghost jars are no doubt a major development for the Folly, and,hopefully, they will feature in later books because I can’t see Nightingale not tinkering with them until he figures out a way to recreate the ghost traps and then using them for Falcon cases.

Overall, an excellent installment. I wouldn’t mind if there’s more like it in the works. *wink, wink*

Oh, and those little footnotes at the end for Agent Reynolds? Hilarious and very cute. Please add more. As usual, I had to look up a few things during the read like “mispers,” “pret,” “fried chicken stroke,” “waitrose bag,” “Nando’s,” “POLSA,” to name a few. And “refs” are apparently not short for referees, but refreshments.

The only thing I couldn’t find a definitive answer to was “tuck.” There’s a scene in which Nightingale tells Peter about how he used to snuck out to the woods with other boarding school boys to “swap comics and tucks.” What is a tuck?

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White Hot (Hidden Legacy #2) by Ilona Andrews

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
Date read: July 18 to 21, 2017

So this book.

It’s actually much better than the first one… but I kinda hated the first one, so that’s a very low bar to pass.

Good things first though, before I move onto the unsavory things.

Fast pacing, lots of action, interesting mix of sci-fi and fantasy, that comic-book feel from the first book is still here, and plenty of humor.

Imagine Kate Daniels in an alternate universe, one in which she had a normal, uneventful upbringing and has grown up to be a well-adjusted person who runs a private detective agency with some help from her family. Imagine Kate, but with parents, younger sisters, cousins, and a spunky grandmother who love her. That’s what I think this book is doing–imagining Kate in a world that’s more fun and with a lot less darkness.

Think of it as Kate without her past and burdan, running around Houston, having adventures, and saving people from megalomaniacs intent on destroying the world. Something like this should have appealed to me because I like Kate and I’m all for fun worlds, but somehow the execution doesn’t work here. Although I find this book much better overall than the first one, that’s not really an improvement because there’s this thing. I feel it hanging over every scene between the two leads, and it knocks all the fun right out. Maybe it’s just me though because loads of people seem to enjoy the writing just fine.

Another thing is the main character, Nevada Baylor, comes off as too young, and her gaggle of sisters and cousins are younger still, so you have extended periods in which the writing becomes too YA, filled with talks of high school, infatuation, dating, trends, social media, and the list goes on. This was too much for me, but you know, personal preference, your mileage may vary, and so on and so forth.

If any of that sounds mildly interesting, you might want to give this series a try.

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* * * * spoilers abound * * * *

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Rating: – – – – –
Date read: June 5 to July 15, 2017
Read count: 2

This one gets an honorary 3-star rating because I liked it enough the first time to finish it, but not enough the second time to finish it, not even on audio.

So… is it a DNF if I already read it once but couldn’t make it through a second time?

I still recall a lot from the main story arc, surprisingly. For a book that was just “all right,” it has stayed with me longer than other equally “all right” books. Maybe because the settings and roads traveled were familiar. Maybe it’s the way Neil Gaiman writes scenes, with lots of focus on visuals. It’s been years and I still recall with lots of clarity Shadow’s trip through Spring and that scene on the frozen lake.

But despite all of that, I couldn’t get through the reread. Well, not exactly “couldn’t.” More like wouldn’t, like “ain’t nobody got time for this” kind of thing.

I mean, I tried and there was effort, but there was a lot going on at the time–still going on–and I could have tried harder, sure. But. Lack of time. Summer. Dogs. Broiling heat. Deadlines. New projects. The destruction of the planet. Treason. Institutions dismantling right before our eyes. These things tend to get in the way, you know.

I did, however, finish the TV series which was pretty good–for summer entertainment, with some caveats–so there’s that at least. Just to sum it up, because this was the thing that surprised me the most, I liked Shadow and how he was portrayed. There’s a raw, simmering, subtly volatile quality to the character on screen that really drew me in, and I did not get a sense of that at all in the book. So good on the show for adding interesting dimensions to him.

I’ve been seeing people compare the book and the show a lot over the past few weeks, which they ought to, I suppose. But to me, doing the book-vs-show side-by-side is like comparing apples to those yellow spiky fruit things* at the farmers market. They’re both fruit, but distinctly different flavors and texture. I can’t really say whether people who like/dislike the book would like/dislike the show. Just something you gotta try.

The book is the apple and the show is the spiky fruit in this analogy. Both are fine it in their own ways. I, however, much prefer the weird fruit thing because it’s more interesting overall and not something you see every day unless you frequent the farmers market. The farmers market here is the combination of Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and all those other streaming providers. They’re producing great work and I wish I had more time to enjoy them. If only there’s much less treason so we could all stream a whole series in peace… This month’s been a long year.

 

*called horned melons or desert pears, depending on the region your local supplier is from

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Witches of Lychford (Lychford, #1) by Paul Cornell

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ½ ☆
Date read: May 29 to June 7, 2017

Quaint and very pleasant with a touch of autumn chill, like a brisk stroll through the cemetery at sunset when it’s just starting to drizzle. Not exactly what I expected from books with the urban fantasy label, but this was a nice surprise.

If you like charming small-town stories with a cast of oddball, neighborly characters and more magic than magical realism, give this a try.

But by “neighborly,” I don’t mean friendly, although I’m aware that’s how most people will interpret it. What I mean is they’re more like my neighbors and others I grew up with–somewhat hostile and suspicious of people they don’t know, very straightforward, aren’t really aware of personal boundaries or overstepping them, but caring and hilarious once you get to know ’em.

The writing is contemporary fiction loaded with trivial everyday life things–gossip, relationships, falling outs, homecomings, etc etc–but along the side, there’s a heavy dose of magic and other-worldliness for those who could see it and command it.

The town itself is near the border that separates our world from the underworld, so the people here are used to strange things happening without much explanation. That’s just part of the life, along with the gossips and falling outs.

Of course the big bad that threatens most small towns is a corporate entity. Here, it’s a superstore that wants to build a franchise right on the border, which would destroy it and let all the evil into our world. So the good townsfolk must fend off this superstore to save their town. And a lot funny moments ensue.

The humor is what you’d expect to see from British authors–dry, deadpan, and pointed. Reminds me of The Gates by John Connolly, but with adult characters and adult problems. For those unfamiliar with John Connolly, imagine Terry Pratchett’s humor, but less manic and more evenly paced and with fewer details crammed in.

Out this way there was the lonely last pub, the Castle, which now had an angry chalkboard sign up that said “drinkers welcome” to indicate its dissatisfaction with other establishments’ fads like pub quizzes, bands, food, and, presumably, conversation.

[…]

To human beings it won’t look or feel like a war, it’ll be more like… one of those modernist paintings you lot do, if it melted. Inside all your brains. Forever.

[…]

Judith hated nostalgia. It was just the waiting room for death.

[…]

Judith realised, with horror, that they were heading over to talk to her, and couldn’t find, at a quick glance, anyone else she knew well enough to get into a conversation with. There were, just occasionally, drawbacks to being a nasty old bitch.

Judith is the embodiment of gtfo-my-lawn, and she is very free with her feelings. When I grow up, I hope to be that free.

A couple of years ago, I tried London Falling by Paul Cornell, but couldn’t get into it. It was more like the traditional procedural urban fantasy that I was used to, but I just could not get into the writing. It was too… cold and staccato, too much like a police procedural, and there was nothing about it that pulled me in, not even London itself. So I gave up and didn’t look back. I almost gave up on Paul Cornell altogether, but I’m really glad I didn’t. This book is a gem. So different from that other one in almost every way. Worlds apart even. I’m not sure I believe it’s from the same author…

The Dispatcher by John Scalzi

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ½ ☆
Date read: May 15 to 20, 2017

This is an interesting police procedural with an interesting hook that you don’t find out until somewhat later in the story. Or at least I didn’t find out until it happened. That caught me of guard and, at the same time, pulled me further into the plot. Best way to get into this story, or any short form fiction, is to not know anything about it.

Since it’s so short there’s not much to say without giving the hook away, but I’ll try anyway.

Set in present time Chicago and it actually feels like Chicago and not, say, New York or some other generic urban sprawl. The writing is short, to the point, and what we come to expect from John Scalzi. He doesn’t mince words or beat a morally gray topic to death. He has a minimalist style that I like.

We’re introduced to Tony Valdez just as he’s about to enter the OR, not as a patient or doctor, but a dispatcher. He’s there as insurance, so to speak, to make sure everything goes “smoothly.” What he is and what his job entails is the hook.

Shortly after the operation, Tony finds out that a friend and colleague has gone missing, and he’s pressured by a detective to help her solve the case. She thinks the job has something to do with the his disappearance. The investigation reveals all the gray areas of what dispatchers do off the books and all the ways in which life and death could be just a game.

And I admit I’m hooked. I hope this is just the beginning and that Scalzi has long term plans because there’s still so much left to explore. Crime statistics, law enforcement, religion, politics, the tenuous definition of homicide in this new age of mortality–an endless trove of gray topics to take on. 

I’m not a fan of short form fiction, so this novella feels somewhat incomplete even though loose ends are tied up and most questions are answered. But if this becomes a procedural series and each book an episode, I could totally get behind that.

A Rare Book of Cunning Device (Peter Grant, #5.6) by Ben Aaronovitch

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ½ ☆
Date read: April 28 to May 6, 2017

Funny, too short, and available only on audio, for now anyway, and it’s still going for free at Audible.

Nightingale is out of town again, and Peter gets called to the British Library about what appears at first to be a poltergeist problem. But after some investigating, it turns out to be a book running amok after dark and keeping the librarians up at night.

The book isn’t actually a book, but an ancient device of magical origins. It has moving parts and seems somewhat sentient, or at least aware of its surrounding. I’d love to learn more about it and see it featured in later books.

Peter brings Toby and Postmartin along to the library and learns from the librarians that the good professor has a reputation for stealing rare tomes. This comes as no surprise to me because I’ve always suspected that about him. Gatekeepers like the people of the Folly have always seemed like the kind to “confiscate” rare books and other objects of magical origins for safe keeping.

This short story reads like another sequence from the cutting room floor, not unlike The Home Crowd Advantage. I get the feeling these two should have been part of the main novels, but for whatever reason, they had to be cut during the editing process. But they were too good to delete permanently, so we get these little snippets to entertain us while we wait for #7.

The Hanging Tree (Peter Grant, #6) by Ben Aaronovitch

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Date Read: November 14 to December 19, 2016
Recommended by:
Recommended to:

The tag line on the cover says: Back in London, back in trouble which pretty much sums up this book. We’re back in London, and Peter Grant and friends are back in trouble. And it’s the same kind of trouble that’s been plaguing them since Moon Over Soho.

But finally, we stop chasing after ghosts and faceless mysteries and come face to face with the man behind the mask. And there really is a face behind that mask. This reveal was indeed a surprise, but whether or not it does anything for the series’ continuous arc will depend on how it plays out in later books.

This book picks up a month or two following the events in Foxglove Summer, and the trouble all started when one of the Thames sisters called in a favor from Peter. What started out as a simple, straightforward investigation into whether a teenage girl’s drug overdose was accidental or deliberate turned into a huge Falcon case, uncharacteristically complete with a huge revelation at the end. Not as big, imo, as the ending of Broken Homes, but it’s relatively seismic as far as revelations go in this series.

With that said, I must admit I’m mostly lukewarm toward this book in particular, and I’ve been mulling over it for a few months now, trying to figure out why that is. The writing isn’t that different from previous books.

“So when a bunch of fucking kids waltz into the building, the DPG wants to know how. And I get woken up in the middle of the fucking night,” said Seawoll. “And told to find out on pain of getting a bollocking. Me?” he said in outrage. “Getting a bollocking? And just when I thought things couldn’t descend further into the brown stuff–here you are.”

As a matter of fact, it’s very much in line with previous books in terms of quality, plotting, pacing, humor, adventures and misadventures. Peter and the rest of the gang are developing and progressing at their usual pace–I very much enjoyed every scene with Seawoll and Stephanopoulos.

“So he’s a French fairy tale,” said Seawoll and turned to look, thank god, at Nightingale instead of me. “Is he?”
“That’s a difficult question, Alexander,” said Nightingale.
“I know it’s a difficult question, Thomas,” said Seawoll slowly. “That’s why I’m fucking asking it.”
“Yes, but do you want to know the actual answer?” said Nightingale. “You’ve always proved reluctant in the past. Am I to understand that you’ve changed your attitude?”
“You can fucking understand what you bloody like,” said Seawoll. “But in this case I do bloody want to know because I don’t want to lose any more officers to things I don’t fucking understand.” He glanced at me and frowned. “Two is too many.”

[…]

Generally when you’re interviewing somebody and they seem remarkably calm about one crime, it’s because they’re relieved you haven’t found out about something else.

Plus, there are plenty of humorous moments scattered throughout the book, and Peter is still his usual funny, likable self. So it’s just like previous books.

Bollocks, I thought, or testiculi or possibly testiculos if we were using the accusative.

[…]

“What I’m saying here,” Seawoll had said, “is try to limit the amount of damage you do to none fucking whatsoever.”
I don’t know where I got this reputation for property damage, I really don’t–it’s totally unfair.

[…]

“I’m planning to blow up some phones for science.”

And yet…

Something’s missing. Something’s not quite there anymore. And I don’t know why.

Maybe the timing wasn’t quite right when I read it. Or maybe I’m just tired of chasing after faceless nemeses–both of ’em.

I’m all for more Peter and more (mis)adventures in London. But more faceless mysteries and/or conspiracies? Nah, that’s okay.

I could read back to back stories of Peter running around London solving all sorts of mysterious happenings, and they may even be unrelated to each other and the series’ arc, and that would be fine. Actually, I would love that. But more mysterious faceless happenings? Thanks, but no thanks.

However, I am looking forward to the next installment and being back in London and back in trouble because, honestly despite the gripe, this series is still one of best urban fantasies out there, and every single book is a blast.

Review: One Fell Sweep (Innkeeper Chronicles, #3) by Ilona Andrews

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Date Read: December 20 to 23, 2016
Recommended by:
Recommended to:

Still a lot of fun, and I’m pretty sure I’ll say that about the rest of the books in this series.

There’s something nice and comforting about the ease of the writing that makes it fun to read. I’ve never found myself bored while in the middle of these books, and if the writing maintains its pace, I’ll never get tired of following along with these characters on their journeys across the universe. The writing, now that I think about it, mimics the atmosphere of an inn out in the country, but only on the surface. Behind closed doors? It’s all intergalactic chaos, all the time.

Now that much of the setting and world building is out of the way, the focus of this book is on family, relationships and their multi-layered dynamics. Never thought I’d ever say this, but the relationships–old, new, developing alike–and their dynamics were what I liked best about this book. We get to see Dena reuniting with her sister Maud and niece Helen, and Sean and Dena is officially happening, and to my surprise, Maud and Arland getting acquainted is hilarious. I could definitely see a spin-off happening for these two.

And I cannot wait to see what’s gonna happen in the next installment. I know it’s currently being written chapter by chapter on the Ilona Andrews’ site, but I’d rather wait and inhale the whole thing in one sitting.

“Are you going to war, Lord Marshal?” Please don’t be going to war.
“No, I was attending a formal dinner.” He grimaced. “They make us wear armor to these things so we don’t stab ourselves out of sheer boredom.”

[…]

“You know what else chicks dig?”
“Subatomic vaporizers?”
“And werewolves. Chicks really dig werewolves.”
“Poor you, having to smack all of those chicks off with a flyswatter just to walk down the street.”

[…]

“He said to tell me that taking this holiday would make him happy. I don’t want him to be happy.” Lord Soren pounded his gauntleted fist into his other fist. “I want him to be an adult!”

[…]

Caldenia closed her wooden box and patted Arland’s leg. “Do get better. You’re much more entertaining when you roar.”

[…]

“Did you know Draziri taste like chicken?” I asked.
Sean glanced at me, as if not sure if I was okay. “I had no idea.”
“Orro told me,” I told him. “We’re besieged by murderous poultry.”

[…]

Even Caldenia stayed away, which was for the best, because I didn’t want to explain Her Grace and her comments about the deliciousness of werewolves to Sean’s parents.

[…]

People do horrible things in the name of keeping things just the way they are.

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* * * some spoilers * * *

Review: Bloodring (Rogue Mage Series #1) by Faith Hunter

Same book, different covers. I usually prefer one over the other, but here, I kind of like them both. Maybe if someone had combined them, the design would reflect the content of the book more.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ½ ☆
Date Read: February 03 to November 04, 2016
Recommended by:
Recommended to:

Not quite 4 stars but close because of the apocalyptic ice age setting… which sounds pretty nice right about now, what with the last election we’re ever gonna have coming up and the world ending shortly thereafter. Just kidding?

(I wrote bits and pieces of this review days before the election, and now I’m looking back and, yeah, an ice age sounds nice right about now. Or any apocalypse. Just bring it. I’m not picky.)

Anyhow.

This book is an unusual blend of almost everything I like to see in urban fantasy with the exception of angels and biblical tie-ins. Am not a fan of angels and even less a fan of angels + biblical things. Though, here, they work for the most part. However, there were times I found it to be too religious–not preachy, just too much… religion–but the religion (Roman Catholicism) is woven into the magic and mythology. Sounds complicated and convoluted, and in some ways it is, but it also works… somehow.

The story starts out with Thorn St. Croix, a neomage living among humans. It’s against the law to have a neomage outside of controlled facilities called Enclaves, so Thorn is also in hiding, in plain sight. She lives a rather quiet life in Mineral City, North Carolina and runs an artsy jewelry shop with a couple of friends who don’t know who she is. But her quiet life is disrupted when her ex-husband Lucas is kidnapped by a mysterious cult raising up to challenge the heavenly host. This brings the angels down to earth, and where they go, the apocalypse follows. Thorn and her friends are caught in the middle. To save their town, their little piece of world that’s relatively peaceful and quiet, they must go against the literal forces of darkness.

That’s the basic plot. What I left out is a ton of world building. So let’s go back further.

Nearly a century before Thorn came into existence, there was an apocalypse (to end all almost-apocalypses) when the biblical angels of heaven descended to punish humanity for its wicked ways. This brought nearly complete destruction of the planet, biblical style, and nearly all of the human population on earth perished. The few communities that survived had to rebuild and conform to the new world order under the angels. The ice age is a byproduct of the planet getting nearly destroyed.

The new world order is what you’d expect from any orthodox governing body: no violence, no vices, absolutely no “sinning” of any kind. No fun, but people live in relative “peace” in the sense that they live and go about their lives with the fear of angelic wrath hanging over their heads. They’re also expected to attend religious gatherings every day. You can’t just observe, you must actively participate. Religion is not a choice but a way of life, and religious elders and leaders are cantankerous asses. I guess some things just never change.

What I found most interesting about this set-up is the inclusion of a gay couple in the main cast of characters. Given what we know of orthodox religions, you’d expect LGBT people to be shunned and/or executed, but that’s not the path this story took. For now, I’m glad for these two characters and liked that they lived to see the end of this book. It looks like they’re a big part of the next book too–I’m currently in the middle of book 2.

Oh, and there’s a budding romance and a few love interests, but they doesn’t take up the whole book. One of the guys is a cop who’s investigating the ex-husband’s disappearance and he’s a descendant of angels. Sadly no wings though. The other guy is also some kind of angelic hybrid–also no wings. I kinda wanted wings, to be honest.

The writing is decent, albeit slow in the beginning, but you get used to it as you read on, and it does gradually pick up speed. The characters are okay, as are the plot and mythology. I like the mixing of orthodoxy and magic. It’s a strange but interesting combo, although I’d prefer more magic, world building, ice storms, and much less religion.

This book may look like it’s all urban fantasy on the surface, but it’s something else underneath. I’m not sure how to categorize because, along with all the religious and new-age magical stuff, there’s also a government conspiracy to give the story a futuristic, sci-fi feel. Everything else, from the world to the angels to the way people live in this post-apocalyptic time, is interesting enough that I’ll most likely finish the trilogy. It’ll take some time getting there, but as I’ve learned, this book and most likely this whole trilogy is meant to be taken slowly, with frequent breaks in between.

The one thing that made this book stand out among the hundreds (or hundreds of thousands?) of urban fantasies of its kind–many of which I passed on simply because they looked too much like something I’d seen or read before–is the setting. It’s an endless, bitterly cold winter–and of course angels–but it’s an endless winter. The whole world is buried under a ton of snow and there hasn’t been any seasonal changes since the apocalyptic ice age hit. No one alive remembers the seasons changing. They speak of warm weather as though it’s a myth because all they know is winter, whereas the way things are going now in our world, we might one day speak of cold weather the way these people speak of the myth that was summer.

Overall, this was a good story with a slow burn, though not one I’d recommend unless you’re looking for something fairly different (but still somewhat the same) on the urban fantasy shelf. For me, though, it was a refreshing break from the usual dark and dank magical urban settings.

Review: The Midnight Mayor (Matthew Swift, #2) by Kate Griffin

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Date Read: July 31 to September 21, 2016
Recommended by:
Recommended to:

Amazing. What a ride. Had to read it twice and will most likely reread it for a long time to come, just for the prose.

We’re back in London and some time has passed, but it’s good to be back underground wading through the muck with Matthew Swift leading the way. And it’s so good to feel the city being alive and pulsing beneath my feet and to breathe in all those delicious exhaust fumes… and to splash across murky-looking puddles… and to crawl for miles through the sewers… dig through mountains of landfills…

I may wax poetics about nature and the wilderness a lot, but I’m a city dweller through and through, and these books speak to me because… well, they just do. And they embrace the beauty and soul of a city and turn it into magic and wonder. These books make London come alive in ways even nonfiction or documentaries of London could not because the writing is just that good. I’ve never been to London, but it feels like I have.

Kate Griffin has created the perfect urban fantasy series, in my humble opinion, because it’s got everything I ever asked for in UF. If only she had written more and continued the series beyond the 4 Matthew Swift and the 2 Magicals Anonymous books. She writes about the illusions of a city being alive like no one I know, and she suffuses it with so much life. Everything I loved about the previous book, A Madness of Angels, is once again present in this book, but amplified to a pulsating level that you can almost feel through the pages. And did I mention I just love the writing?

Once again, we find Matthew Swift waking up injured and disoriented and finds himself being chased by another vile city incarnation that’s set out to kill him. The rest of the story is a whirlwind ride through almost every nook and cranny and crevice in London to find out who’s after him and why. Turns out, many people/creatures are, and they all have their reasons. Unraveling–pun intended–this little problem leads Swift and the blue electric angels to the mysterious Midnight Mayor and his aldermen, and saving the city while they’re at it is just another day at the office*.

They never lose sight or their sense of humor though. Here’s Swift and the angels being quippy and pragmatic, all the while the city is on the verge of yet another upheaval.

Coincidence is usually mentioned only when something good happens. Whenever it’s something bad, it’s easier to blame someone, something. We don’t like coincidence, though we were newer to this world than I. Inhabiting my flesh, being me as I was now us, we had quickly come to understand why so many sorcerers had died from lack of cynicism. I had been a naive sorcerer, and so I had died. We, who had been reborn in my flesh, were not about to make the same error.

[…]

It is our final opinion that the fusion of the sorcerer Swift and the entities commonly known as the blue electric angels during their shared time in the telephone wires, has resulted in the creation of a highly unstable entity in the waking world. The Swift-angel creature, while appearing almost entirely human, is at its core a combination of a traumatised dead sorcerer and infantile living fire, neither of which is fully equipped to handle living as two separate entities, let alone one fused mind.

[…]

“Let’s establish this right now. I am we and we are me. We are the same thought and the same life and the same flesh, and frankly I would have thought that you, of all entities to wander out of the back reaches of mythical implausibility, would respect this.”
“But it’s not healthy!” replied the Hag. “A mortal and a god sharing the same flesh?”
“You know, this isn’t why we’re here. I can get abuse pretty much wherever.”
“Yeah,” sighed the Maid, “but I bet a tenner I can make you cry in half a minute.”

[…]

I looked at Judith. “This sounds strange, but I don’t suppose you saw three mad women with a cauldron of boiling tea pass by this way?”
“No,” she replied. The polite voice of reasonable people scared of exciting the madman.
“Flash of light? Puff of smoke? Erm . . .” I tried to find a polite way of describing the symptoms of spontaneous teleportation without using the dreaded “teleportation” word. I failed. I slumped back into the sand. What kind of mystic kept a spatial vortex at the bottom of their cauldrons of tea anyway?

[…]

I got dressed. You can’t be Midnight Mayor in your underpants.

[…]

Never argue with the surreal; there’s no winning against irrationality.

Swift may joke a lot about irrationality and morality, but he (and the angels too) always does the right thing when confronted with a difficult problem, like whether or not to let someone die because he or she might become an uncontrollable magical risk to the city of London. I like that he’s mostly gray, except when it comes to matters of life and death.

*we may very well find Swift sitting in an office in the next book seeing as how he got promoted and all at the end of this one.