Okay; it's the end of the year (technically, the beginning of the next,) so let's round up the last few books of the year.
Kind of following on from last month's read of the novelisation of Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, this year I tackled The True History of the Strange Brigade, a prequel tie-in to the computer game Strange Brigade, taking the form of an anthology of origin stories for the characters in the game (including, I believe, a number of DLC characters.) Given that the game itself is a somewhat whimsical parody of 1930s, colonial-nostalgic adventure serials, the book hits a pretty left-field note from the get-go with a tale of a working class Northern lass who finds that her well-paid seamstressing position involves stitching the flayed skin of the bourgeoisie into people-suits for demons.
The True History of the Strange Brigade is honestly a pretty surprising work/collection of works, and part of that is down to the choice of authors, including women and people of colour, and the decision to jettison the pro-colonial trappings of the source material in favour of infernally-inflamed class conflict, strong women, anti-establishment themes and overt criticism of two-fisted patriotism. Now, this gives the book an immediate leg-up because I didn't expect much of it, and the writing significantly exceeds the null standard I set for it. I think it's actually pretty good - although it can be hard to tell in such circumstances, I'd certainly rate the quality of writing above that of Odyssey - and it certainly isn't the super-questionable mess of outmoded tropes I was fearing.
This one actually wasn't an audiobook; I read it on my Kindle app instead.
While it took me a month to get to it, November is the traditional time for Ben Aaronovich to release a new Rivers of London novel, and as he hasn't yet reached them point where side projects and fandom commitments have started throwing out his schedule, boom! here's Lies Sleeping. In a break from the usual pattern of these novels, in which the case of the year interacts with the ongoing hunt for arc antagonists the Faceless Man and Leslie May, by focusing entirely on the ongoing hunt for arc antagonists the Faceless Man and Leslie May (and, admittedly, on a case of the year in which said arc antagonists try to pull down some heavy-duty magical shenanigans.)
The Met's unified taskforce dedicated to tracking down the Faceless Man is making slow, but steady progress, including but not limited to an in depth bit of forensic accounting, muscling over-privileged wannabe sorcerers, and staring at bells. Notably, the existence of this unified taskforce means that now-Detective Constable Peter Grant is no longer the only sub-Nightingale asset in the Falcon arsenal, although he is the only other working magician, with his cousin Abigail still underage and leaning into the urban-shamanic thing, and now-DS Guleed on her way to becoming a legendary swordswoman. On the other hand, it's Peter who has the relationship or relationships with the Rivers, and thus with London itself, and the personal involvement with Leslie, so this is still his story (at least to hear him tell it.) He is also the one who gets captured.
Lies Sleeping is another strong entry in the series, and - I think - wisely brings what can be considered the first arc to a halt. Will this be the only arc? Probably not. I hope not (and, you know, The October Man: A Rivers of London Novella is already slated for next June, so that's promising,) but I'm looking forward to a change of focus in the next few.
Thanks to Christmas, I followed up Lies Sleeping with Black Mould and Detective Stories, another two of the Rivers of London graphic novels.
Black Mould finds the Folly and its friends tracking infestations of apparently sentient, magic-eating black mould linked to a cut-throat property developer. Sahra Guleed has a sigificant role here, which makes me happy, in part because PoC representation is not merely admirable, but kind of necessary in a realistic depiction of London, but also because Leslie May's heel turn is potentially problematic if she's the only major female character... which she isn't. Yay!
Detective Stories breaks it down even further than usual, with four single-issue stories strung together by the framing narrative of the interview portion of Peter's examination to make the grade of Detective Constable. Aside from anything else, Detective Stories makes explicit the increasing exposure of the Folly, with magical cases included in performance reviews instead of simply being written off as the 'weird bollocks'. As a result, it's an entertaining curiosity, rather than a major entry in the canon, although it does provide an example of Peter and Leslie's pre-magic careers.
And finally, you may recall that the first book book - by which I mean audiobook, rather than comic - that I reviewed this year was Stephen Fry's Mythos, a retelling of the Greek Theogony. Perhaps it is apt then that I finish 2018 with Heroes, in which my fellow Queens' alumnus moves on to the heroic age and the culture heroes of ancient Greece - Perseus and Heracles, Jason and Atalanta, Theseus and Bellerophon - who forged the great states of antiquity and paved the way between the age of gods and the abject clusterfuck of the Trojan War (to be the subject of a third and final book, presumably aiming for next Christmas.)
Once again, Fry mixes heroic narrative with modern vernacular, the thematic resonances of the sitcom and the teen drama, and in audio format with his own cosily reassuring delivery. The result of this strange alchemy is another accessible set of tales which almost seem to invite discussion with the author/storyteller and make me yearn for the time when technology allows each listener to have their own virtual Fry to talk to.
The True History of the Strange Brigade is honestly a pretty surprising work/collection of works, and part of that is down to the choice of authors, including women and people of colour, and the decision to jettison the pro-colonial trappings of the source material in favour of infernally-inflamed class conflict, strong women, anti-establishment themes and overt criticism of two-fisted patriotism. Now, this gives the book an immediate leg-up because I didn't expect much of it, and the writing significantly exceeds the null standard I set for it. I think it's actually pretty good - although it can be hard to tell in such circumstances, I'd certainly rate the quality of writing above that of Odyssey - and it certainly isn't the super-questionable mess of outmoded tropes I was fearing.
This one actually wasn't an audiobook; I read it on my Kindle app instead.
The Met's unified taskforce dedicated to tracking down the Faceless Man is making slow, but steady progress, including but not limited to an in depth bit of forensic accounting, muscling over-privileged wannabe sorcerers, and staring at bells. Notably, the existence of this unified taskforce means that now-Detective Constable Peter Grant is no longer the only sub-Nightingale asset in the Falcon arsenal, although he is the only other working magician, with his cousin Abigail still underage and leaning into the urban-shamanic thing, and now-DS Guleed on her way to becoming a legendary swordswoman. On the other hand, it's Peter who has the relationship or relationships with the Rivers, and thus with London itself, and the personal involvement with Leslie, so this is still his story (at least to hear him tell it.) He is also the one who gets captured.
Lies Sleeping is another strong entry in the series, and - I think - wisely brings what can be considered the first arc to a halt. Will this be the only arc? Probably not. I hope not (and, you know, The October Man: A Rivers of London Novella is already slated for next June, so that's promising,) but I'm looking forward to a change of focus in the next few.
Thanks to Christmas, I followed up Lies Sleeping with Black Mould and Detective Stories, another two of the Rivers of London graphic novels.Black Mould finds the Folly and its friends tracking infestations of apparently sentient, magic-eating black mould linked to a cut-throat property developer. Sahra Guleed has a sigificant role here, which makes me happy, in part because PoC representation is not merely admirable, but kind of necessary in a realistic depiction of London, but also because Leslie May's heel turn is potentially problematic if she's the only major female character... which she isn't. Yay!
Detective Stories breaks it down even further than usual, with four single-issue stories strung together by the framing narrative of the interview portion of Peter's examination to make the grade of Detective Constable. Aside from anything else, Detective Stories makes explicit the increasing exposure of the Folly, with magical cases included in performance reviews instead of simply being written off as the 'weird bollocks'. As a result, it's an entertaining curiosity, rather than a major entry in the canon, although it does provide an example of Peter and Leslie's pre-magic careers.
Once again, Fry mixes heroic narrative with modern vernacular, the thematic resonances of the sitcom and the teen drama, and in audio format with his own cosily reassuring delivery. The result of this strange alchemy is another accessible set of tales which almost seem to invite discussion with the author/storyteller and make me yearn for the time when technology allows each listener to have their own virtual Fry to talk to.
