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Thursday 29 August 2013

Review: WHISPERS UNDERGROUND

Whispers Underground by Ben Aaronovitch
Read by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith
Book 3 of the Peter Grant series or otherwise known as the Rivers Of London series
Genre: urban fantasy, police investigation
Format: hardback & audiobookSamsung Galaxy Note audiobook

About Whispers Underground:
A WHOLE NEW REASON TO MIND THE GAP

It begins with a dead body at the far end of Baker Street tube station, all that remains of American exchange student James Gallagher—and the victim’s wealthy, politically powerful family is understandably eager to get to the bottom of the gruesome murder. The trouble is, the bottom—if it exists at all—is deeper and more unnatural than anyone suspects . . . except, that is, for London constable and sorcerer’s apprentice Peter Grant. With Inspector Nightingale, the last registered wizard in England, tied up in the hunt for the rogue magician known as “the Faceless Man,” it’s up to Peter to plumb the haunted depths of the oldest, largest, and—as of now—deadliest subway system in the world.

At least he won’t be alone. No, the FBI has sent over a crack agent to help. She’s young, ambitious, beautiful . . . and a born-again Christian apt to view any magic as the work of the devil. Oh yeah—that’s going to go well.
Source: Info in the About Whispers Underground was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9970042-whispers-underground on 29/12/2012.

Review:
I think this series is growing on me. The more books I read on this series, the more interesting it becomes. I think I'm on my way to becoming a die-hard fan! The story telling quality is becoming funnier and more compelling to me too.... Does this book has some sort of spell or something?!

I wasn't quite sure if Ben Aaronovitch named the organization that DCI Thomas Nightingale and PC Peter Grant is a member of other than that it is called the ECD 9 of the Met Police. Anyhow, an explanation of it's symbols and meanings would be good to know. Just like the way Ben Aaronovitch slowly explained away the little holes in the world building. Hopefully he would do the same and explain ECD 9's insignia.

With Book 1 I complained that the narrator's voice has an "-ish" quality to it which took a lot of getting used to. By this book, I couldn't hear it anymore. Either I got used to it or he took more breaks thus the "-ish" in his voice has disappeared and his reading quality has improved because I now really like the narration. I also really like the way Kobna Holdbrook-Smith made the characters come alive with different accents and his particular brand of pizzazz! Man! He is good!!

At the end of it I enjoyed this book a lot and couldn't wait to read Broken Homes!

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 5
Story itself = 5
Ending = 4.5
World building = 5
Cover art = 3
Pace = (10 hrs and 17 mins listening time)
Plot = 4
Narrator = 5

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 cherries


Books In The Rivers Of London Series:

2 comments:

Blodeuedd said...

Maybe it would grow on me then too

Cherry said...

Blodeuedd - If and when you pick up the series, I hope you'll enjoy it too like I did :)

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