strange and random happenstance

The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch
Published by: DAW
Publication Date: January 31st, 2017
Format: Paperback, 304 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Peter owes Lady Ty. When he was trapped under the platform at Oxford Circus she saved his life for a favor. And she has come to cash it in. Her daughter, Olivia McAllister-Thames, was out with her classmates from St. Paul's. The teens had snuck into the posh One Hyde Park where they were partying in a vacant flat when Olivia's classmate, Christina Chorley, overdosed. Christina died on the way to the hospital. Lady Ty wants Olivia kept out of it. She doesn't just want her daughter exonerated, she wants her daughter's name never to be even mentioned in connection to the overdose at One Hyde Park. But that isn't how Peter works, even if he does owe her his life. He was willing to go easy on Olivia, but that became complicated when she admitted to supplying the drugs that killed Christina. And that's when Olivia was arrested and low-lying areas around the Tyburn were in danger of flash flooding. Just because Olivia confessed doesn't mean she actually did it, and Peter is nothing if not thorough, you kind of have to be when you're a magician, so he starts digging. And what he finds is interesting and disturbing. Interesting in that Olivia is obviously covering up for someone, who turns out to be her girlfriend, she just hadn't come out to her mother yet. Disturbing in that Reynard Fossman seems to be involved. Peter and Nightingale have never figured out quite what he is. Is he the spirit of Reynard the Fox? Is he someone who wants people to think that? Or is he just a creepy pedophile who just happens to get in their way? Whatever he is other than a pedophile, because that is confirmed, he seems to have been up to something with Christina Chorley. They were selling stolen magical artifacts. But Reynard didn't realize that his partner had been stupid enough to put them up on eBay. Magical artifacts need to be sold secretly, by word of mouth, because otherwise everything goes tits up. Which is what happens here. The main item of interest is Isaac Newton's Third Principia, rumored to have the secret of eternal life and turning lead into gold. Everyone wants it. The Americans, the Linden-Limmer's, the Folly, and any other practitioner who ever had a classical education. Which means Christina put a big ol' target on her back. Moreso because, if Peter and Nighttingale are correct, the Faceless Man is involved as well. Anyone could have killed her, but one thing is certain, it probably wasn't the pills but magic.

Peter and the crew are back in top form in The Hanging Tree with architectural collateral damage and big developments on the Faceless Man front. Though what I really connected to with this volume was the interwoven narrative of women within the magical community. In the present day we see that the Folly is quite open to female practitioners, with Lesley being taught by Nightingale, before her betrayal, and with plans for Abigail to be taught once she comes of age. But other than the Night Witch, Varvara Sidorovna, most magical women are creatures from the demimonde or Genius Loci. Here we get not just witches, but the history of witches. Lady Helena Linden-Limmer and her daughter Caroline Linden-Limmer might both have had connections to the Faceless Man of their generation. Helena was revolutionary in her medical experimentation and healing, which she only recently started to have qualms about. Whereas her daughter encountered Peter before in his pursuit of the Faceless Man and has one goal in life, to learn how to fly. And she doesn't mean aviation. The two of them come to the Folly for tea and sympathy and in short order they are setting history straight. Because back in the days when Isaac Newton was codifying magic men and women were equals. They were hanging out at disreputable coffee houses and taking on the mysteries of the universe. Together. This Society of the Wise then was able to get a premise on Russell Square and the doors of the Folly were closed to women. Women didn't take this lying down. They continued teaching each other in secret. Magic was passed down through the female line for generations. Magic that men couldn't even contemplate. At one point Peter tries to figure out the forma of a spell Caroline is doing and it's unlike anything he's ever seen. Because women invented, created, worked around all that was standing in their way, and they made their own branch of magic. What I love about this isn't the sad history that is all too common of women being shunned, what I love is that they persisted. They developed their own skillsets because they were pushed aside. I mean, there's a part of me that wants to liken this to "home arts" and wise women and their healing, which I think Aaronovitch is implying, but it's so much more, because domesticity doesn't mean what some people think it means. Just because women have been pigeonholed for so long it doesn't mean they've let these restrictions hold them back. It's like Lesley was always saying to Peter with regard to rebuilding her face, it's not like the Folly knows everything. Just because they are the academic repository of magical knowledge doesn't mean they're the only way. There's more in heaven and earth and all that, especially if you're trying to deny the abilities of half the people on the planet. Let the world of magic expand!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Ben Aaronovitch, Caroline Linden-Limmer, Faceless Man, Lady Helena Linden-Limmer, Lady Ty, London Calling, Magic, Nightingale, Peter Grant, Rivers of London, The Folly, The Hanging Tree, Tyburn, Witches, Women

The Furthest Station by Ben Aaronovitch
Published by: Subterranean Press
Publication Date: June 27th, 2017
Format: Hardcover, 144 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

When you limit a talented person to one specific thing they tend to get really good at it. Peter should have known all along that making a deal with his cousin Abigail was dangerous. She's almost as cunning as the Fae of legend with their bargains. Never agree to teach someone magic if you don't want to by adding a condition that they can easily meet, like getting a GCSE A Level in Latin. Because Abigail is way better than Peter at Latin. Which is very worrying. Though her age means that he and Nightingale have some time until they have to ask her parents for permission to teach her magic. Of course that would require a lot more explanations, but Peter did promise. Until that time comes Abigail is like the Folly's intern and has become the defacto ghost expert. Being unable to practice magic she's really good at finding the uncanny, and ghosts are the most easily observed of phenomena. And at this moment that phenomena is causing trouble on the London Underground. The Metropolitan Line has had a rash of reports. The problem is their witnesses aren't very helpful. Most people who encounter a ghost tend to forget the incident within minutes of it happening. It's like waking up from a dream, try as hard as you might the dream slips away. So the police get 999 calls that when followed up lead to very confused witnesses who don't even remember calling them. Therefore they must catch a ghost interacting with a member of the public and interview the witness immediately. Which doesn't go as well as they hoped. Walking the trains at night when they're in storage does lead to an interesting discovery though, the ghosts don't appear normal. Or should that be disappear. The ghost Peter encounters has an important message it needs to deliver and then it shatters like porcelain. The next ghost he encounters gives him some more information before shattering as well. This leads them into the archives of the Folly and the County Practitioner for Buckinghamshire, George Buckland, who died in 1815. He lived in Chesham and made rose jars, which were a unique form of ghost trap. But most importantly, Chesham happens to be the terminus of the Metropolitan Line. They might have just found out where their ghost commuters are coming from. Now to find out why.

What I love about this series is that you never know where it's going to go and that's rare for me to actually embrace and enjoy. I'm the kind of person who likes to try to figure out where things are going in books, shows, really, anything, that's why I'm addicted to whodunits, because I don't just want to know I want to figure it out before the killer is revealed. I want to be smarter than everyone else. Which is probably a trait I shouldn't encourage. I should know by now that a series ready to randomly drop in jazz vampires and talking foxes is unpredictable to say the least, but this story in particular was a wonderful surprise. You think it's going to be a simple ghost hunting on the Underground story with Peter and Sergeant Jaget Kumar of the British Transport Police, in a similar vein to them working together in Whispers Under Ground, but then it turns out that the ghosts aren't the problem, they're the messengers making them all red herrings. The ghosts have been haunting the Underground in an attempt to save a life. And while, read chronologically and not by publication date, that means we've basically had three cases of kidnappings in a row, I'll forgive Ben Aaronovitch because of those three stories two of them were amazing and this one at least didn't involve children. Plus this case is building on the lore of ghosts. The fact that to most people they disappear like dreams is fascinating. Like the brain can't cope with this information so it just deletes it. So what does that mean about those who retain the memory of seeing ghosts? Are they more observant or just wired differently when it comes to the uncanny? Also the knowledge that ghosts can be caught and that catching them changes them in some manner. I would literally love to read just like Abigail writing a dissertation on her thoughts of ghosts. Because I'm sure that she's going to study those rose jars that remained and figure out a way to recreate them. Which leads us to George Buckland. His wife, who was creole and from New Orleans, taught him how to make rose jars. Which means there are obviously different sets of skills and beliefs depending on where you've learned or practiced your magic. And while I adore the history of magic as codified by the Folly, it's only been around since 1775 which means even George Buckland himself lived in a world without the Folly for awhile. Which makes you wonder about the really old history. I would just love to read a history of the magical systems of Ben Aaronovitch's world. It could be a couple thousand pages and I would devour them all. Or just let me into the Folly and set me loose in those libraries, I want to know everything. I just love this world so much!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Abigail Kamara, Ben Aaronovitch, Chesham, Ghosts, Kidnapping, Latin, London Calling, London Underground, Peter Grant, Rivers of London, Sergeant Jaget Kumar, The Folly, The Furthest Station, Whispers Under Ground

The October Man by Ben Aaronovitch
Published by: Subterranean
Publication Date: May 28th, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 216 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

Tobias Winter works in Meckenheim, Germany, under the Director at the Abteilung KDA, the Department for Complex and Unspecific Matters. In other words, he is Germany's answer to Peter Grant, and Peter Grant has a lot to answer for. Tobias has been called to Trier because the death of an unidentified male ticked the right boxes to alert the KDA that they might have a possible supernatural infraction. Kriminalkommissarin Vanessa Sommer, AKA the local fuzz, is on hand to take him to the crime scene. The body was found in a ditch abutting the vineyard of Frau Stracker. It has since been sent off to the KDA's pathologist of choice, Professor Doktor Carmela Weissbachmann, which means that Tobias is to assess the crime scene for vestigia before meeting up with her. Very faintly there's something like wriggling roots but it's not enough to be sure that this case is his. That is until he sees the body. It's covered in fur. But the "fur" is actually fungus. Fungus that Carmela delightfully informs him is unique to grapes. Noble rot is a fungus used to make a sweet wine. And the Stracker winery used to be renowned for it, so says resident wine expert Vanessa Sommer. That can't be a coincidence. Nor can the fact that Tobias gets that same sense of wriggling roots from the corpse, this time with hints of turned soil and half-discordant musical notes. The only lead that Winter and Sommer have is a recent tattoo the man had gotten, which leads them to All Art is Transitory, a tattoo studio where they learn the identity of their victim, one Jörg Koch, and that he came in with a group of friends to have Dionysus tattooed on his arm because of a dare. These friends could be suspects, witnesses, or even potential victims. Soon another body turns up, this time the victim choked on his own vomit, but that was due to an astronomical blood alcohol content. Which means it's imperative they find Koch's friends. The murderer is changing their modus operandi, or are they? Here's hoping they can stop the killer before they escalate again. Because if there's one thing that Tobias Winter has learned in his short time in Trier it's that the town is about wine and Romans, and those two things are inextricably linked so therefore they have to be at the heart of these crimes.

I don't know what the purpose of this book is because so much of it is wading through shit we've heard a million times before but in a better voice until finally we are able to concentrate on the crime. We have to hear Tobias talk down to us like we've never heard what vestigia is. Peter Grant has a way of imparting knowledge in a way that makes you eager to learn, Tobias is no Peter. Tobias is pedantic and just an asshole. I never want to have to read anything in his voice ever again. What I found mildly interesting is the differences that have arisen in how Germany and England categorize and label their magical systems, but these are too few and far between and again, the way it's imparted to us through Tobias is just annoying. I had some hope for the crime, this bizarrely furry situation, but it fell apart because it ended up repeating so many of the tropes of the main series, from baby river goddesses to sequestration, it's just the same thing told in a slightly different way. And not for the better. Plus it went really dark with attempted rape and stalking and Nazis. Oh and don't get me started on the wine. I'm not a drinker. I never want to go to a vineyard or on a winery tour. I want nothing at all to do with the pretension of being a vintner. So to have that be the core of the crime with all this "previously on" swirling around it, it's like I didn't care to get to the center of the Tootsie Pop. I DO NOT CARE ABOUT WINE. I NEVER WILL! Nothing will make me change my stance. Not even one of my favorite authors. Which brings me back to the why of it all. Why does Tobias Winter exist? The only way I can justify his existence in my mind is that he's going to be the next Big Bad. Now on the surface he looks like a normal police officer. He solves the crimes, he gets things done, but in the process we learn some startling things about Germany. Does Nightingale know that the forbidden knowledge that wasn't meant to be kept was kept anyway? That the Nazis research of the Ahnernerbe and the Black Library which was the reason for Ettersberg where almost all was lost still lives? There's a reason it's kept behind a door in the Folly and yet Winter has access to this knowledge. Maybe that's why I hate Tobias Winter so very very much, because I know Nightingale would and I will always side with Nightingale.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Abteilung KDA, Ben Aaronovitch, Big Bad, Ettersberg, Germany, London Calling, Nazis, Nightingale, Noble Rot, Peter Grant, Rivers of London, The Folly, The October Man, Tobias Winter, Trier, Vanessa Sommer, Wine

The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch
Published by: DAW
Publication Date: January 31st, 2017
Format: Paperback, 304 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Peter owes Lady Ty. When he was trapped under the platform at Oxford Circus she saved his life for a favor. And she has come to cash it in. Her daughter, Olivia McAllister-Thames, was out with her classmates from St. Paul's. The teens had snuck into the posh One Hyde Park where they were partying in a vacant flat when Olivia's classmate, Christina Chorley, overdosed. Christina died on the way to the hospital. Lady Ty wants Olivia kept out of it. She doesn't just want her daughter exonerated, she wants her daughter's name never to be even mentioned in connection to the overdose at One Hyde Park. But that isn't how Peter works, even if he does owe her his life. He was willing to go easy on Olivia, but that became complicated when she admitted to supplying the drugs that killed Christina. And that's when Olivia was arrested and low-lying areas around the Tyburn were in danger of flash flooding. Just because Olivia confessed doesn't mean she actually did it, and Peter is nothing if not thorough, you kind of have to be when you're a magician, so he starts digging. And what he finds is interesting and disturbing. Interesting in that Olivia is obviously covering up for someone, who turns out to be her girlfriend, she just hadn't come out to her mother yet. Disturbing in that Reynard Fossman seems to be involved. Peter and Nightingale have never figured out quite what he is. Is he the spirit of Reynard the Fox? Is he someone who wants people to think that? Or is he just a creepy pedophile who just happens to get in their way? Whatever he is other than a pedophile, because that is confirmed, he seems to have been up to something with Christina Chorley. They were selling stolen magical artifacts. But Reynard didn't realize that his partner had been stupid enough to put them up on eBay. Magical artifacts need to be sold secretly, by word of mouth, because otherwise everything goes tits up. Which is what happens here. The main item of interest is Isaac Newton's Third Principia, rumored to have the secret of eternal life and turning lead into gold. Everyone wants it. The Americans, the Linden-Limmer's, the Folly, and any other practitioner who ever had a classical education. Which means Christina put a big ol' target on her back. Moreso because, if Peter and Nighttingale are correct, the Faceless Man is involved as well. Anyone could have killed her, but one thing is certain, it probably wasn't the pills but magic.

Peter and the crew are back in top form in The Hanging Tree with architectural collateral damage and big developments on the Faceless Man front. Though what I really connected to with this volume was the interwoven narrative of women within the magical community. In the present day we see that the Folly is quite open to female practitioners, with Lesley being taught by Nightingale, before her betrayal, and with plans for Abigail to be taught once she comes of age. But other than the Night Witch, Varvara Sidorovna, most magical women are creatures from the demimonde or Genius Loci. Here we get not just witches, but the history of witches. Lady Helena Linden-Limmer and her daughter Caroline Linden-Limmer might both have had connections to the Faceless Man of their generation. Helena was revolutionary in her medical experimentation and healing, which she only recently started to have qualms about. Whereas her daughter encountered Peter before in his pursuit of the Faceless Man and has one goal in life, to learn how to fly. And she doesn't mean aviation. The two of them come to the Folly for tea and sympathy and in short order they are setting history straight. Because back in the days when Isaac Newton was codifying magic men and women were equals. They were hanging out at disreputable coffee houses and taking on the mysteries of the universe. Together. This Society of the Wise then was able to get a premise on Russell Square and the doors of the Folly were closed to women. Women didn't take this lying down. They continued teaching each other in secret. Magic was passed down through the female line for generations. Magic that men couldn't even contemplate. At one point Peter tries to figure out the forma of a spell Caroline is doing and it's unlike anything he's ever seen. Because women invented, created, worked around all that was standing in their way, and they made their own branch of magic. What I love about this isn't the sad history that is all too common of women being shunned, what I love is that they persisted. They developed their own skillsets because they were pushed aside. I mean, there's a part of me that wants to liken this to "home arts" and wise women and their healing, which I think Aaronovitch is implying, but it's so much more, because domesticity doesn't mean what some people think it means. Just because women have been pigeonholed for so long it doesn't mean they've let these restrictions hold them back. It's like Lesley was always saying to Peter with regard to rebuilding her face, it's not like the Folly knows everything. Just because they are the academic repository of magical knowledge doesn't mean they're the only way. There's more in heaven and earth and all that, especially if you're trying to deny the abilities of half the people on the planet. Let the world of magic expand!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Ben Aaronovitch, Caroline Linden-Limmer, Faceless Man, Lady Helena Linden-Limmer, Lady Ty, London Calling, Magic, Nightingale, Peter Grant, Rivers of London, The Folly, The Hanging Tree, Tyburn, Witches, Women

The Furthest Station by Ben Aaronovitch
Published by: Subterranean Press
Publication Date: June 27th, 2017
Format: Hardcover, 144 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

When you limit a talented person to one specific thing they tend to get really good at it. Peter should have known all along that making a deal with his cousin Abigail was dangerous. She's almost as cunning as the Fae of legend with their bargains. Never agree to teach someone magic if you don't want to by adding a condition that they can easily meet, like getting a GCSE A Level in Latin. Because Abigail is way better than Peter at Latin. Which is very worrying. Though her age means that he and Nightingale have some time until they have to ask her parents for permission to teach her magic. Of course that would require a lot more explanations, but Peter did promise. Until that time comes Abigail is like the Folly's intern and has become the defacto ghost expert. Being unable to practice magic she's really good at finding the uncanny, and ghosts are the most easily observed of phenomena. And at this moment that phenomena is causing trouble on the London Underground. The Metropolitan Line has had a rash of reports. The problem is their witnesses aren't very helpful. Most people who encounter a ghost tend to forget the incident within minutes of it happening. It's like waking up from a dream, try as hard as you might the dream slips away. So the police get 999 calls that when followed up lead to very confused witnesses who don't even remember calling them. Therefore they must catch a ghost interacting with a member of the public and interview the witness immediately. Which doesn't go as well as they hoped. Walking the trains at night when they're in storage does lead to an interesting discovery though, the ghosts don't appear normal. Or should that be disappear. The ghost Peter encounters has an important message it needs to deliver and then it shatters like porcelain. The next ghost he encounters gives him some more information before shattering as well. This leads them into the archives of the Folly and the County Practitioner for Buckinghamshire, George Buckland, who died in 1815. He lived in Chesham and made rose jars, which were a unique form of ghost trap. But most importantly, Chesham happens to be the terminus of the Metropolitan Line. They might have just found out where their ghost commuters are coming from. Now to find out why.

What I love about this series is that you never know where it's going to go and that's rare for me to actually embrace and enjoy. I'm the kind of person who likes to try to figure out where things are going in books, shows, really, anything, that's why I'm addicted to whodunits, because I don't just want to know I want to figure it out before the killer is revealed. I want to be smarter than everyone else. Which is probably a trait I shouldn't encourage. I should know by now that a series ready to randomly drop in jazz vampires and talking foxes is unpredictable to say the least, but this story in particular was a wonderful surprise. You think it's going to be a simple ghost hunting on the Underground story with Peter and Sergeant Jaget Kumar of the British Transport Police, in a similar vein to them working together in Whispers Under Ground, but then it turns out that the ghosts aren't the problem, they're the messengers making them all red herrings. The ghosts have been haunting the Underground in an attempt to save a life. And while, read chronologically and not by publication date, that means we've basically had three cases of kidnappings in a row, I'll forgive Ben Aaronovitch because of those three stories two of them were amazing and this one at least didn't involve children. Plus this case is building on the lore of ghosts. The fact that to most people they disappear like dreams is fascinating. Like the brain can't cope with this information so it just deletes it. So what does that mean about those who retain the memory of seeing ghosts? Are they more observant or just wired differently when it comes to the uncanny? Also the knowledge that ghosts can be caught and that catching them changes them in some manner. I would literally love to read just like Abigail writing a dissertation on her thoughts of ghosts. Because I'm sure that she's going to study those rose jars that remained and figure out a way to recreate them. Which leads us to George Buckland. His wife, who was creole and from New Orleans, taught him how to make rose jars. Which means there are obviously different sets of skills and beliefs depending on where you've learned or practiced your magic. And while I adore the history of magic as codified by the Folly, it's only been around since 1775 which means even George Buckland himself lived in a world without the Folly for awhile. Which makes you wonder about the really old history. I would just love to read a history of the magical systems of Ben Aaronovitch's world. It could be a couple thousand pages and I would devour them all. Or just let me into the Folly and set me loose in those libraries, I want to know everything. I just love this world so much!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Abigail Kamara, Ben Aaronovitch, Chesham, Ghosts, Kidnapping, Latin, London Calling, London Underground, Peter Grant, Rivers of London, Sergeant Jaget Kumar, The Folly, The Furthest Station, Whispers Under Ground

Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch
Published by: DAW
Publication Date: January 6th, 2015
Format: Paperback, 336 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

The disappearance of children has traditionally fallen to the Folly for two reasons, the Fae and dark magic. The Fae and changelings are actually real, and well, dark magic, it's dark for a reason. Which is why Peter is off to Herefordshire. Two eleven-year-old girls, Nicole Lacey and Hannah Marstowe, just walked out of there respective homes one night and didn't return. Nightingale would like Peter to check in on an old colleague in that area, Hugh Oswald, to make sure Hugh can be ruled out as a suspect. The idea that the sleepy old wizard could have kidnapped two rambunctious preteens is laughable to Peter, so one possible theory eliminated, Peter makes himself known to the local investigation team and offers up his help to see if this case might be designated "falcon." With the rise of magic and the police's desire to never use that word supernatural cases are now earmarked as "falcon" to help everyone's delicate sensibilities and to stop the public at large knowing about magic. The country is gripped by the case and the press frenzy is fierce which means that Peter has to step carefully. And for awhile it looks like he will be nothing more than another body on the ground, aiding the police with their inquiries until the girls' cellphones are found. The batteries have been fried. But fried in a very specific way that Peter recognizes as he's lost so many phones in the same manner. Magic fried the phones. But they weren't fried where they were found. So that means there might be a crime scene with vestigia, an imprint of the magic used, and this is the first concrete lead the police have had. Peter is hesitant to declare the case as falcon, he thinks it might be more falcon adjacent, until more and more evidence piles up proving that he is indeed the one man for the job. It would be helpful if Nightingale could come and lend a hand but with Lesley's betrayal the Folly cannot be left unattended, due to that mysterious door in the basement that Peter still hasn't uncovered the secret to. But cavalry arrives in the from of Beverley Brook, a genius loci, who might have ulterior motives for helping, and they involve Peter and getting him to admit there's something between the two of them. Finding the missing girls might be easier than finding out what being Beverley's boyfriend would be like.

Foxglove Summer is a hot mess, with neither word bearing more weight than the other. First, would it kill England to have air conditioners? I mean, how do they survive? Do any cars have cooling features? Because seriously, I thought the majority of the characters might just drop dead due to heat exhaustion. And reading this on a suspiciously hot week did add some verisimilitude, which I could have done with a little less of if I'm honest. Yet one can't really complain about a book that successfully drags you into it to such an extent that you're complaining about fictional weather, so therefore the mess becomes the important part. I just don't know what was going on here. You expect some sort of Broadchurchian mess with the disappearance of children with all the town being suspects and Peter arriving late and playing catch-up, but this was a hot mess, and I'm no longer talking about the weather. Instead of the plot shoring up as the investigation progressed it got more convoluted. That's not how it's supposed to go! I even had a hard time distinguishing between the Lacey and Marstowe families, not surprising giving some of the later obvious reveals, but I should have at least been able to keep the two girls straight and who had the magical unicorn friend and who didn't. But it all merged together in a giant ball of confusion. And here's the thing, Ben Aaronovitch could have saved it in the end and he obviously chose not to. I'm now going to spoil some things, so if you have delicate sensibilities, much like those who don't like to speak the word magic, look away now. So at the end it's revealed that it is the Fae, that there is a changeling involved, and Peter does a hostage swap using himself as collateral assuming that Nightingale will rescue him. Firstly, Peter's naivete that the Fae live on another plain of existence is sheer stupidity for someone so smart, but I will forgive him, he's been through a lot. But after Peter is rescued, the book just ends. Which leaves SO MANY questions unanswered. Why did the Fae take the children in the first place? I mean, yes, it could have been the whole changeling angle, but then why didn't they keep Hannah? What are they going to do with the original Nicole? How did the original Nicole get magical powers? Why did the "gates" to fairy cause the ground to be acidic and grow foxglove? Was the Fae's kidnappings related to the felling of the trees? If not, how can they make sure this doesn't happen again? And would it have killed them to have included a map? I mean, I think the only question I felt was answered at the end of this book was why it was dedicated to Terry Pratchett. Which means The Hanging Tree better start out with some answers.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Ben Aaronovitch, Beverly Brook, Broadchurch, Changling, Fae, Falcon, Foxglove Summer, Heat, Herefordshire, Kidnapping, Lesley May, London Calling, Magic, Nightingale, Peter Grant, Spoilers, The Folly, The Hanging Tree

Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch
Published by: DAW
Publication Date: February 4th, 2013
Format: Paperback, 325 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy 

Sometimes police work isn't flashy it's just putting your nose to the grindstone or your feet to the pavement. Which is how the Folly has compiled and is slowly eliminating members of the Little Crocodiles, that infamous Oxford dining club founded by Geoffrey Wheatcroft, in an attempt to put a name to the Faceless Man. Because they obviously can't put a face to this dangerous rogue magician given his apt moniker. Which is how the Folly gets drawn into a car crash, a dead woman with her face blown off by a shotgun, a one-under suicide, a man burnt from the inside out, and the legacy of a famous Brutalist architect. All these cases seem to have no connecting thread other than they could tentatively link back to the Faceless Man. They hope. But there does seem to be a link from a large percentage of the cases to the German architect Erik Stromberg and his famous Skygarden Estate near Elephant and Castle. He was one of those architects who believed that the environment in which a person lived could make them better. He was an idealist whose work in actuality could never live up to his vision; utopia through Brutalism was never going to work when confronted with the workaday world. Because the Folly has less oversight than other police departments, despite their tendency to destroy everything from ambulances to underground stations, it is decided that going undercover at Skygarden Estate might be the fastest way to get answers. They can infiltrate meetings of tenants, see inside apartments after being invited over for tea, be on the ground when whatever is about to happen happens, or, if they're really lucky, their presence will deter the Faceless Man. Peter and Lesley set up base on a floor that is mostly abandoned apartments. In fact much of the building is sealed off by Country Gard, most likely in hopes the that the building gets delisted and they can demolish it. But behind those seals new work is being done. There's new concrete poured over channels in the ground. Something is going on and their arrival isn't slowing down whatever the Faceless Man has in motion. If anything it's speeding it up. Yet, what's the worst that could happen? It's not like they'll destroy the Estate and face the ultimate betrayal is it?

The problem with Broken Homes is that even though the surprise ending is spectacular it can't save it from the fact that the first half of the book is exposition. In the previous three volumes we're immediately in the weeds of the case, here it's information slowly trickling in from different sources until they finally develop a plan beyond wait and see. And wait and see isn't an exciting plan to read about let me tell you. And yes I know it's probably more realistic, but this series is about magicians, so realism went out out the window a long time ago. The star of this volume is the Skygarden Estate, not at all connected to the real Sky Garden in London which looks like some sort of weird speaker and not a Brutalist architect's ideal of future living. There's a wonderful High-Rise vibe to it, but actually better than High-Rise because I legit don't like that book. Though, much like Peter who dreamed of being an architect until his drafting skills didn't come up to snuff, it's just the whole aesthetic and quirkiness of Brutalism that gives this book life. Because if there's one subset of architecture that is legitimately insane it's Brutalism. You think mid-century modernists are weird with their kitsch, or devotees of Frank Lloyd Wright are odd with their love of his uncomfortable homes and furniture, it's nothing compared to Brutalists! NOTHING! Because what Aaronovitch gets is that Brutalism has attracted all this weird mythology and baggage to it. Not only did I take a class entitled "German Architecture: The Modern Movements" but my University has one of the most notorious Brutalist buildings that just happens to house the art department; The Humanities building by a Harry Weese. Since the late sixties rumors have spread; it was a maze, it was designed to be riot proof, it was built upside down, that the architect killed himself, none are true, except that the sixth floor men's bathroom has no doors because it was a hookup spot, that's true, but all the rest sounds like they could be applied to Skygarden too, maybe even the bathroom bit. The art department is only on the sixth and seventh floor, only accessible by certain, not all, staircases, with minimal light. On the sixth floor there's only a window at floor level under a concrete bench or at the ceiling, which you can only look out of by climbing onto the concrete bench. The seventh floor has dim skylights. So while yes, this book was flawed, I still strongly connected to it, the Brutalism that is in this book is also in my bones.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Architecture, Ben Aaronovitch, Broken Homes, Brutalism, Elephant and Castle, Erik Stromberg, Faceless Man, High-Rise, Humanities, Little Crocodiles, London Calling, Myths, Peter Grant, Skygarden Estate, The Folly