strange and random happenstance

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

Amongst Our Weapons by Ben Aaronovitch
Published by: DAW
Publication Date: April 12th, 2022
Format: Paperback, 304 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

In one of the most secure places in London a man loses his heart by an invisible assailant. The London Silver Vaults rarely has anyone stupid enough to attempt a robbery, and yet that's just what David Moore more tried to do, and failed, when a giant hole appeared where his heart should have been. This case has Falcon written all over it, those "special" cases that the Folly comes in to handle. The victim was looking for a ring that his ex-wife supposedly sold. A ring that he desperately wanted back. A ring that his ex-wife was still in possession of. When Peter Grant and Danni Wickford, who's on the Basic Falcon Management Course, show up at her house to say Althea Moore is channeling Gollum would be an understatement. The ring is unique, it can expand to form an armillary sphere and has writing inside from more languages than they can recognize. Soon though that ring is stolen. When they stumble on another dead body with the same cause of death as David Moore, they start to form a picture of what's going on. Years ago up in Manchester, a man named Preston Carmichael, AKA the second body, ran a prayer group that David Moore was a part of. There were seven members of the group in total, seven rings for the dwarf-lords in their halls of stone. And these rings were magical. They were also misfiled at a local library instead of with the Sons of Weyland, the magical blacksmiths whom Nightingale learned from. Which is how they got into the hands of the public. Obviously something magical happened at one of these meetings and since then the bearers of the rings have become overly attached to them. It is when they are questioning one of the other members of the group that Peter has to fight off what he is quite sure is the Angel of Death. Now is not the time for him to die, Bev is about to give birth to twins any day now and he's not going to leave his daughters fatherless. Plus the Folly hasn't really ever come across "angels." And anyhow what would an angel want with rings? Whatever it is there are obvious religious connotations, it's just figuring them out before another person dies, another person that hopefully isn't Peter, that is going to be tricky.

There are very few authors whose sense of humor is perfectly aligned with mine. Ben Aaronovitch happens to be one such author. I honed my humor at the feet of Monty Python. I watched the entire series and then rewatched it while bootlegging it. I know bits off completely by heart, enough to retroactively know that my friends in eighth grade really biffed up the "Dead Parrot" sketch for our talent show that year. Needless to say I, like many, especially the writers of the film Sliding Doors, have a strong reverence for "The Spanish Inquisition" sketches. So when I saw that the title of the next Rivers of London book was Amongst Our Weapons I instantly hoped beyond hope that it was in reference to said sketch. Needless to say, it was. Aaronovitch hasn't let me down yet. But what's more it's used as a structure for the book as well, creating a flow not seen since Whispers Under Ground. Plus, it's not just a a humorous veneer, though I did snort laugh when DCI Seawoll uttered a certain profanity before declaring he "wasn't expecting them," Aaronovitch has worked the Spanish Inquisition into the plot of the book making the reference so important and tying it into the ever expanding magical world. One of the reasons that "The Spanish Inquisition" sketches resonate with me is because I had eight years of Catholic school. Needless to say eight years made me pretty convinced that there isn't a God and there had to be something else that people got out of going to church. Whether it was a sense of community or safety or patronage, I felt that there was something other than God that had to be why thinking people kept going back. I am not alone in thinking this way, and one person who has spent quite a considerable about of time on it is Professor Harold Postmartin D.Phil, F.R.S. As the Folly's literary liaison he is convinced that mass is actually magic. A form of magic that allows one practitioner, the preacher, to use the gathering of the congregants to work a spell. Thus giving Postmartin some tangible reason as to why the congregants would believe, because they got something out of it despite having no magical ability themselves. And I buy this theory, but the more I learn about this world Aaronovitch has created the more I need to know. The Catholic Church might have their own version of the Folly!?! And there are just so many different magical traditions all over not just Britain, but the world. This series could be hundreds of books and it would never be enough. More!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Amongst Our Weapons, Ben Aaronovitch, Beverly Brook, Catholic, London Calling, Magic, Monty Python, Peter Grant, Professor Postmartin, Religion, Rivers of London, The Spanish Inquisition, Whispers Under Ground

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

Whispers Under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch
Published by: Gollancz
Publication Date: June 21st, 2012
Format: Paperback, 375 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

It's the week before Christmas and PC Peter Grant is working with the big boys, he's been assigned to the murder squad. It's almost a thrill to be working with other coppers again. Being assigned to the Folly means his coworkers are his boss and hopefully soon his old partner Lesley. But not today, today Christmas has come early. He was called in to the Baker Street Underground station to see if he could pick up anything uncanny about their newest corpse. The corpse though was surprisingly clean. No magic. The broken piece of pottery shard that ended the life of James Gallagher is anything but. And now Peter's looking into the murder of an American art student who just happens to be the son of a U.S. Senator. The victim, James Gallagher, was not untalented, he had an eye for street scenes and capturing life. It was almost old fashioned in it's precision. But his art had started to change of late, becoming darker. One of his teachers worried that he might be suicidal. Peter assures him that James Gallagher's death was indeed murder. At his studio Peter learns that his victim was interested in Ryan Carroll, an artist who road the Celtic Tiger all the way to the Tate Modern. Ryan Carroll's artwork, an assemblage of mannequins and found pieces, exude magic. Much like the murder weapon. And much like a bowl found at James Gallagher's apartment. Because magic is the reason that Peter was allowed on the murder squad it's his job to look into the pottery. For that he'll need the help of James Gallagher's roommate, Zach. Zach had obviously been living rough prior to moving in to "help" James discover the real London. Zach though is only passingly familiar with telling the truth. He is definitely more than he looks and when he discovers that Peter is in league with the Nightingale, he's almost more obstreperous. Which Peter doesn't have time for. He has an FBI agent breathing down his neck, an unexpected snowstorm, a trek through the sewers, and who knows what other hell before Christmas comes and all the while there's the looming threat of their "Little Crocodiles," black magicians illegally trained at Oxford that are trying to make his and Nightingale's life a living hell. Couldn't Zach give him the smallest of breaks? And not another broken bowl thank you very much.

What's interesting about the Rivers of London series is that Ben Aaronovitch has created a series with a strong connection to the arts. The first installment was about the world of the threatre, the second installment was about the world of music, in particular jazz, and this third installment brings us to the art world. Oh my, it's like this series was made with me and the various stages of my life in mind, from the piano lessons I started in first grade to the Bachelor's degrees I got in art and theatre as an undergraduate. But when you think about it while the arts are viewed as something rarefied, especially to those with pretensions who I was occasionally taught by, we all have a connection to them, be it a school play we were in, a song we've loved, or something we've drawn. Through our development from child to adult even if it's only tangentially, we've experienced the arts. So while some might think these themes lofty, I think of them as the basic human condition, these are what separate us from the animals, the ability to create and enjoy wonder. But going back to my time as an undergraduate, the student studios that Peter tours are priceless. I mean, it was so spot on I could barely contain my glee. The pretentious concept pieces to James's very traditional art, I've seen it all and Ben Aaronovitch brought it all back to me. Oh and I can't leave out Ryan Carroll, a man in it for the money, who views that his art should speak for itself. Do not get me started on people who think art should speak for itself. Nothing is beyond verbalization. Your "act of creation" or whatever you want your process to be about in the forming of clay or what have you should be able to speak for itself BUT you should be able to talk about the what and the whys of it. An artist who can not explain their art isn't a true artist, they are a poseur. Which is very interesting as to how the pottery angle works in. I don't know if other people experienced the mystique of pottery as I did. Two hippies ran my pottery classes and it was a weird clique. They "knew things others did not." Therefore to have this mystery of the pottery just made me nod my head sagely and go, "yes, pottery is the greatest mystery." And it's a mystery that Peter is able to solve to the delight of artists and urban explorers everywhere.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Art, Baker Street, Ben Aaronovitch, Christmas, Little Crocodiles, London Calling, London Underground, Murder Squad, Music, Nightingale, Peter Grant, Pottery, Theatre, Urban Explorers, Whispers Under Ground