Probationary Constable Peter Grant wants to become a murder cop but seems far more likely to become a paper pusher. That all changes after he speaks to a ghostly witness at a crime scene and his abilities and willingness to keep an open mind bring him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, the only member of the London Metropolitan Police who is also a magician. Peter becomes Nightingale's apprentice and tries to get a handle on magic and its rules, even as he investigates brutal murders and attempts to keep the peace between feuding river gods.

I bought this during an Audible sale because I enjoyed the book when I first read it several years ago and because I mostly liked the narrator's voice. The narrator, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, was wonderful as both Peter and Nightingale, but he had an unfortunate tendency to sound out to breath. It wasn't so bad as to affect my enjoyment of the book, but it was noticeable. It was worst at the beginning but thankfully got better later on, only cropping up again during the action scenes. I was left wondering if maybe he had been a little sick when he first started recording.

At any rate, the things I enjoyed about his narration outweighed the things I didn't. Most of his character voices were decent. The only one I came close to disliking was his voice for Lesley. He was great as Peter, but it was his voice for Nightingale that truly won me over. It felt like he was imitating an actor I'd seen/heard before, but I couldn't place who it was.

As far as the story went, it was about as good as I remembered, although a bit gorier than I recalled. Faces falling off and all that. Also, as a warning for those who need it, there was one instance of an infant being killed – unlike some of the book's other deaths, that one wasn't particularly detailed, but it was on-page.

Peter irked me a bit more this time around. I don't know if it was just me or the audio format making it more obvious or what, but it seemed like sex was always on his mind. He didn't act as though anyone owed it to him, and Aaronovitch didn't use it as an excuse for Lesley and Beverley to act catty with each other, but it was still a bit tiresome.

Although I own a paper copy of Whispers Under Ground (the next book in the series that I haven't yet read), I'm leaning towards getting it in audio form and listening to it instead. The narration really grew on me. Plus, I have an Audible credit that needs to be used soon.

 

(Original review, with read-alikes and watch-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

A challenging but enjoyable book set in India 2047 where the main soap opera features a.i. cast members.

Each chapter is dedicated to one of the ten main characters in the book, from gangsters to government advisors to"Krisna Cops" hunting rouge a.i's, with the multiple plot lines interwoven between them all, this is the only reason it's a four and not five star review, i feel too many different characters makes it a bit confusing as to each identity, there is also characters called "nutes" (gender neutral people created through painstaking microsurgery)referred in the 3rd person as yt instead of it and can make passages maddeningly incomprehensible at times.

But it is a great book, the plot is complex enough, with a wonderful balance between daily routines to forces fighting weather wars, company power battles, etc.

The central issues and dilemmas the characters face are real although not the easiest book i've read, the characters, setting and ideas presented make this an impressive read.

I really liked the idea of this book. The author creates short vignettes written from a huge variety of perspectives, crossing time, gender and class. I love that the historical pieces are more or less taken directly from historical documents. In the author's own words: "I have often used (and burnished) other people's words - sometimes the words of historical figures, sometimes someone else's completely unrelated words when they fit the moment I was pondering." But in the end, it just didn't work for me. The vignettes were far too similar in their writing, which did not make me believe I was reading the thoughts of different human beings, as well as reflections of the historical time being written about. The tone and rhythm of every vignette was so obviously similar, I could not fall into the illusion. The author also goes into so much detail about Northampton, which can be really enthralling, if done well, but the author chooses to focus on street names and bridges, instead of the actual landscape, so for someone who has never been there, it was not very interesting. I was extremely hopeful about this book, but in the end I was disappointed.

For the River Is Wide and the Gods Are H... For the River is Wide and the Gods are Hungry is a very short story (just 16 pages), but it works very well. It has that campfire ghost-story feel to it, and reminds me in some ways of an old Richard Matheson short. It's creepy, suggestive, and frightening in its efficiency of words, but never tips its hand by actually showing you the monster. Skeptics are free to walk away and scoff at coincidence, claiming the power of suggestion, but horror aficionados know damn well to stay the hell out of the water.

Originally reviewed at Beauty in Ruins

Okay, this is what fiction should be like.What a wonderfully inventive book.This is a story of India at 100 years old. It is a story of a billion and half people and at least a billion gods. It is not an easy read, but it is worth every second of it.Imagine if when humanity creates artificial intelligence that the AIs take on the characteristics and avatars of gods. Sounds intriguing? Well this is the book for you. There are at least 8 distinct points of view the story is told from and each one of them may seem out of place or disjointed to the story, but well you know they will all meet each other and make sense, and it really does. Lets just say it has an ending that I will read again and again to remind myself on how it should be done.If the world does not end in 2012, it may just end in 2047.This is the best kind of speculative fiction out there and can say for sure i will be checking out more of Mr McDonald's work in the future. I would say more, but I feel I would be giving away too much of the story, and this is one that needs to be experienced.Highly Recommended.