A slightly strange selection this. I'm not really a big fan of fantasy, science fiction or magic and wizards. I do like police procedurals with a twist though and this was both in the bargain bin and looked a decent size for a novel. No doorstop this.
Overall, my main problem was that it could have been several excellent books. The basic nuts and bolts detective story was absolutely fine. The characters and location worked well and the story zipped along nicely. For me though, the fantastical elements didn't sit so well. Our hero seems to take to magic and involve himself in the whole world rather quickly and easily. The youth of today are supposed to be extremely cynical, yet our man just goes along with it all.
I liked the characters of Mother and Father Thames and their relations based on the lost rivers. I quite liked the Covent Garden locations too, good descriptions of the area rather than a lazy generic London setting. The pace was pretty dizzying, with something happening on every page. Aaronovitch knows a thing or too about plotting and some of the pretty grim things happen to people are excitedly described.
After I finished reading, I did a little research and discovered that I have the US mass-market edition aimed fairly and squarely at the fantasy and sci-fi crowd. The cover also sparked controversy apparently, mainly due to the hue of the figure pictured. UK readers got a completely different title - Rivers of London - and a cover more firmly aimed at the Booker/Orange prize crowd. The UK version would sit well alongside something like 'Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell', whereas the edition I have would be better up against 'Zombie Slashers From Hell'.
Did I judge the book by its cover? Yes. Was that fair? No. I think if I had picked up the British edition, I might have taken it a bit more seriously as a piece of work. I plan to pick up the second in the series soon and will approach it with that in mind.
My overall view was that there was too much in there. Trying to do a classic police caper mixed with history, magic, social comment and humour in a couple of hundred pages is a tough call. In an ideal world I would love to see a writer as talented as Aaronovitch create two separate strands, one in the 'real' world and the other in the 'magical' alternative reality. They would appeal to both the two competing markets and to those that can devour both.
I don't think this first book quite worked, but I will be persevering to see how the characters develop and where the stories go.
Just finished writing this and I came across this article; http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/19/crime-fiction-clash-of-genres . Interesting stuff.
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