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Friday 7 June 2013

Review: MOON OVER SOHO

Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch
Read by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith
Book 2 of Peter Grant or Rivers of London series
Genre: urban fantasy, police investigation
Format: audiobook

About Moon Over Soho:
My name is Peter Grant, and I’m a Detective Constable in that mighty army for justice known as the Metropolitan Police (a.k.a. The Filth). I’m also a trainee wizard, the first such apprentice in fifty years.

Something violently supernatural had happened, something strong enough to leave an imprint on the corpse of part-time jazz saxophonist Cyrus Wilkinson as if he were a wax cylinder recording. He's not the first musician to drop dead of a heart attack right after a gig, but no one was going to let me start examining corpses to check for supernatural similarities. Instead, it was back to old-fashioned police legwork. It didn't take me long to realise there were monsters stalking Soho, creatures feeding off the gift that separates great musicians from those who can raise a decent tune. What they take is beauty. What they left behind is broken lives.

And as I hunted them, my investigation got tangled up in another story: a brilliant trumpet player, Richard 'Lord' Grant – my father – who managed to destroy his own career. Twice.

Policing: most of the time you're doing it to maintain public order. Occasionally you're doing it for justice. And, maybe once in a career, you're doing it for revenge.
Source: Info in the About Moon Over Soho was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10381200-moon-over-soho on 28/12/2012.

Final Verdict:
Dying to read another Dresden Files or another Grimm episode but have to wait??...

Fans of the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher and the Grimm TV series will like this series. It's like a Brit version of both.

Review:
Maybe I've gotten used to the world of Peter Grant that I have developed a higher tolerance or maybe the world building had simply improved. Or it could be that the author addressed the little holes in the world building making the holes even tinier such that they are now not only quiet acceptable but easy to ignore. Which made the world of Peter Grant even more beautiful than it ever did in Book 1. Another thing I like about this book is that there are no too stupid to live (TSTL) characters! For that alone, the rating of this book goes up. Now, I can only listen as fast as Kobna Holdbrook-Smith reads, but if I was reading this book as a paperback, I would say that this book would be a quick read.

I am an old urban fantasy fan... and I really like the premise of this book. A police Harry Dresden is pretty irristible to me! That premise alone would be a mighty strong pull for me to this series. However for some strange reason I am not quite into this book as I am into the Dresden Files series and the only reason I could think of is that the story telling quality is not quite as compelling as Jim Butcher's. It is very good though, don't get me wrong. And, I really like Ben Aaronovitch's snarky remarks and wry humour! Any book which could make me laugh or smile would always get loads of kudos!! At the end of it, I enjoyed this book and would continue following this series.
Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4
Character development = 4.5
Story itself = 4
Ending = 4.5
World building = 4
Cover art = 2
Pace = (10 hrs and 1 min listening time)
Plot = 4
Narrator = 4.5

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 cherries


Books In Rivers Of London Series:

2 comments:

Tales of Whimsy said...

Yay for smarter characters :)

Blodeuedd said...

If it gets better...maybe it would get better for me too? Hm

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