You’d be amazed how often the police never get to the bottom of a case. You can investigate a crime, identify a suspect, and put together enough evidence to send them up the steps to await Her Majesty’s pleasure and still never know all the whys and wherefores.
It’s been a minute since I last read Rivers of London, but… we’re back!
This time around, we’re dealing with the fallout of Lies Sleeping, most especially a certain death. Or–perhaps just using that as an excuse for Peter to go under cover, deep into the tech bro scene of London?
It’s interesting to see how the stories are (slowly) changing as we go. Peter feels older and more serious. That’s not quite to say that he’s going not still cracking jokes and making random scifi/fantasy references (so many Hitchhiker’s Guide references12345), but he’s also now dealing with the responsibilities of a growing Folly–and of course the responsibilities of Bev’s growing Bulge (she’s pregnant :p)
Magic is almost impossible to do when you’re pissed, although you can bet many have tried. So drinking with a rival practitioner can be considered, if not a peace offering, then at least a sign that you’re not planning to fight them straight away.
Plus, the ‘undercover’ bits are a different sort of policing than we’ve gotten thus far. It’s one of teh most compelling parts of this series, so I’m glad to see it!
It’s one of those weird truths you learn early on as police that quite a high percentage of the public have all the survival instincts of a moth in a candle factory.
Structurewise, we spend the first chapter of the story wandering what exactly we missed–made even worse with a several month gap–and it only gets worse when we start bouncing back and forth between two storylines a couple of months apart. Honestly, I see what Aaronovitch was going there, but I’m not sure if it actually helped the story that much.
Worldbuildingwise, it’s a neat bit of tech/magic mashup. Minor spoilers (in my opinion):
’What do you think?’ asked Skinner.
‘That thing just passed the fucking Turing Test,’ I said.
‘Multiple times,’ he said. ‘Under properly controlled conditions.’
‘Fuck me,’ I said. ‘You’ve got a working AI.’
Amusing that, given all the recent advances specifically with LLMs .
And of course, all the thoughts on the ’techbro’ industry and all the problems that come with that.
These techbros have tunnel vision,’ said Stephen. ‘They’re so fucking busy with their dreams of the future they don’t stop to think about where they are or what the fuck they’re doing.’
I’ve spent the last decade in this world. He’s … not wrong a lot of the time.
Also, tech people naming things.
Magratheean Ape-Descended Life Form Utilisation Service… MADLFUS.
Overall, I enjoyed it! And we’re almost up to the present date! I’m curious to see what’s next.
Random thought:
Because, in America, small towns run their own police departments pretty much unsupervised and a few had hit upon the idea of charging wannabe cops a fee to become peace officers.
‘You’re having me on,’ I said.
‘Nope,’ said Reynolds. ‘Meet Lake Arthur, population 430. Current police force a hundred plus – most of whom aren’t residents.’
For 400 dollars you could get a badge and the right to carry a concealed firearm. Rumour had it Elon Musk had bought one for himself.
Is … that really a thing? Also… the Musk bit certainly aged.
Also also:
‘Somebody else came during the night and magicked them,’ I said. ‘Is that a real term – “magicked?”’ asked Guleed. ‘And it’s spelt with a “k”, too,’ I said. ‘But the technical term is actually “enchanted”. Only the trouble with that word is that everyone starts thinking glass slippers and spinning wheels.’
Also Vogon Enforcement Arm. Is funny because that’s an alien race from Hitcherhiker’s Guide famous for poetry and also blowing up the Earth. ↩︎
First day towel. So even more heavy on the Hitchhiker’s Guide references I see. Don’t Panic! ↩︎
↩︎It was a good thing I had a towel wrapped around my head or I would have really stood out.
There are more… ↩︎
So many more. ↩︎