White Queen Syndrome
Apr. 15th, 2013 11:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mtvesselAug 2012
Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch - Gollancz, 2011 (Kindle edition)
* * *
I bought this book because the first page made me laugh. The dry, world-weary tone of a metropolitan police officer as he interviews a ghost who was a witness to a murder was perfectly done. Sadly the rest of the book doesn't quite live up to its promising opening.
The PC concerned, Peter Grant, comes to the attention of the eccentric Detective Thomas Nightingale, who turns out to be the Met's last remaining wizard. Nightingale introduces Peter to a Gaimanesque secret London with ghosts, suburban vampires and a whole collection of river gods and goddesses whose rivalries require careful diplomatic negotiation. Meanwhile, Grant's colleague and not-yet-girlfriend Lesley is still investigating the original murder, which turns out to have magical connections of its own.
The characters and the writing are generally fine. The multicultural nature of London is well represented (Peter himself is mixed race) and Lesley and the river goddesses are strong female characters, though I was less impressed by the saucy nymphs. The minor characters that embody the inevitable political rivalries within the Met itself are unoriginal but do their job. I generally liked the light and humorous tone, though it sits increasingly oddly with the darker waters into which the novel later steers.
However, there are couple of major problems. Firstly, there is the character of Peter himself. He has a scientific outlook on life (and three science A-levels - albeit not good ones), so his general lack of surprise or concern when faced with events that are clearly impossible felt very wrong. He just shrugs and goes along with it, like Ed Rico in The Recollection. This common fault of SF and fantasy works that have a modern-day protagonist, which I shall henceforth christen "White Queen Syndrome" after that character's famous quote, may be authorially convenient if you want to get on with the plot, but psychologically it is utterly unrealistic. Obviously, Thomas Covenant levels of unbelief would be going too far, but some indication of the mental distress caused by discovering that your entire worldview is utterly wrong would be welcome. A more sceptical approach could also have enlivened the otherwise terribly old Harry Potter-meets-Strange and Norrell relationship between Peter and Nightingale. To his credit, Aaronavitch keeps this brief and pacey, but nonetheless it has been done so many times before.
However, the biggest problem for me was the lack of connection between the two main plots. They do of course come together, but the way in which this is done is disappointing. For the most part it felt like two novellas joined back to back, which might have been a better way of telling the story. It would certainly have avoided some of the jarring shifts of tone later on.
Still, with the realistic Met background and the lovingly detailed attention to the history, folklore and geography of London, this is a series that has potential. If Aaronovitch can curb the White Queen tendencies of his characters and anchor his supernatural intrusions better in the here and now, there could be something good further down the line.
Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch - Gollancz, 2011 (Kindle edition)
* * *
I bought this book because the first page made me laugh. The dry, world-weary tone of a metropolitan police officer as he interviews a ghost who was a witness to a murder was perfectly done. Sadly the rest of the book doesn't quite live up to its promising opening.
The PC concerned, Peter Grant, comes to the attention of the eccentric Detective Thomas Nightingale, who turns out to be the Met's last remaining wizard. Nightingale introduces Peter to a Gaimanesque secret London with ghosts, suburban vampires and a whole collection of river gods and goddesses whose rivalries require careful diplomatic negotiation. Meanwhile, Grant's colleague and not-yet-girlfriend Lesley is still investigating the original murder, which turns out to have magical connections of its own.
The characters and the writing are generally fine. The multicultural nature of London is well represented (Peter himself is mixed race) and Lesley and the river goddesses are strong female characters, though I was less impressed by the saucy nymphs. The minor characters that embody the inevitable political rivalries within the Met itself are unoriginal but do their job. I generally liked the light and humorous tone, though it sits increasingly oddly with the darker waters into which the novel later steers.
However, there are couple of major problems. Firstly, there is the character of Peter himself. He has a scientific outlook on life (and three science A-levels - albeit not good ones), so his general lack of surprise or concern when faced with events that are clearly impossible felt very wrong. He just shrugs and goes along with it, like Ed Rico in The Recollection. This common fault of SF and fantasy works that have a modern-day protagonist, which I shall henceforth christen "White Queen Syndrome" after that character's famous quote, may be authorially convenient if you want to get on with the plot, but psychologically it is utterly unrealistic. Obviously, Thomas Covenant levels of unbelief would be going too far, but some indication of the mental distress caused by discovering that your entire worldview is utterly wrong would be welcome. A more sceptical approach could also have enlivened the otherwise terribly old Harry Potter-meets-Strange and Norrell relationship between Peter and Nightingale. To his credit, Aaronavitch keeps this brief and pacey, but nonetheless it has been done so many times before.
However, the biggest problem for me was the lack of connection between the two main plots. They do of course come together, but the way in which this is done is disappointing. For the most part it felt like two novellas joined back to back, which might have been a better way of telling the story. It would certainly have avoided some of the jarring shifts of tone later on.
Still, with the realistic Met background and the lovingly detailed attention to the history, folklore and geography of London, this is a series that has potential. If Aaronovitch can curb the White Queen tendencies of his characters and anchor his supernatural intrusions better in the here and now, there could be something good further down the line.