False Value: Book 8 in the #1 bestselling Rivers of London series (A Rivers of London novel)

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My favorite part of this one, though, was a little more development of Foxglove and a lot more of Beverley. I would recommend False Value to anyone who enjoyed the earlier books in the series, but would suggest that fans of urban fantasy who have yet to try Rivers of London go back to the beginning, as it is not really a standalone tale. Now that he and Beverly are a permanent couple, it’s inevitable that they make friends with other couples. We are treated to more information about the Practitioners of the USA and how the various states regulate the use of magic, and the ways this differs from their European counterparts. Born and raised in London, Ben Aaronovitch had the sort of unrelentingly uninteresting childhood that drives a person to drink or science fiction.

A big thank you to the author/ publisher for making this available on the day of the hardback release as well. The reveal of Peter’s undercover role was actually quite obvious and did not warrant a jagged confusing setup. The action is packed (I stayed up until 6am reading this because I couldn’t put it down) and Aaronovitch’s characters are as clever and interesting as always. And a good thing too, because his job is to infiltrate the personnel and root out the identity of the employee trying to gain forbidden entry into the company’s most classified project.Peter spends much of this investigation by himself, working through all its snotty tangles using his own skills and experience, and I gotta say, the guy is a natural-born problem-solver, which I have not always appreciated, too busy griping about his magical education and policing tactics. It is accepted by you that Daunt Books has no control over additional charges in relation to customs clearance.

But I found more and more that I enjoyed the execution of it over the story itself: the writing, the banter, the one-liners and repartees, the action and the police procedural bits. His inner monolgue still meanders into the obscure from time to time, but I find that I don’t mind it much when these obscure trivia end up helping him solve the case. He will always be the voice I hear in my head when I think about Peter Grant, and I'm so glad that he enjoys working on the series and is committed to continuing as its narrator as I'd be gutted if they ever had to replace him. If he chooses to keep going in the same direction as False Value, I’m sure he’ll have lots of readers who’ll follow him, but I’m afraid I won’t be one of them.Janine: I’m pretty sure Maksim is mentioned in at least one of the other novels as being Bev’s acolyte because I recognized him.

This audiobook contains all the signature humour and every-man bluntness we have come to love from Peter Grant, and much more information about the international magical community. If you’re a fan of Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams – don’t panic – you will love Ben Aaronovitch’s imaginative, irreverent and all-round irresistible novels. Its owner, an Australian tech billionaire, appears to be involved in a secret project that has some link to the theft of a historical, possibly magical, artefact. I think her name is mentioned once or twice but she isn’t part of this story and for that I’m grateful. It makes since; Aaronovitch tends to be light on descriptives, so a good actor can bring the character to life.Have enjoyed the series up until now and loved the strange and sometimes wonderful charaters, but oh dear! My mistake was reading it too quickly the first time, so I had to read it again slower the second time and was able to savor all the finer points that made this book such a great addition to the series as a whole. There were three or four lines that really stood out; otherwise I’d say it felt rather humorless, and much more like The October Man, with Tobias of the German police. Praise for the Rivers of London novels:’Ben Aaronovitch has created a wonderful world full of mystery, magic and fantastic characters.

I went back to read some of the earlier books in the series and was struck by how much I enjoyed them. The first seven books had a long narrative arc involving the Faceless Man, which was mostly resolved in Book Seven, although Lesley remained at large. With his girlfriend Beverley’s pregnancy and the death of Martin Chorley, once known as the Faceless Man, Peter is entering a new chapter of life.It’s a transitional tale where almost everyone who has ever appeared seemed to pop up or be referenced, in addition to a vast number of new people, new organisations and new places. Although I love the series there are starting to be too many loose ends, what’s happened to all the magic from the sky gardens, the faceless man although dead just dropped, Lesley not mentioned. Again like you, I got all the references but they were not required and I felt extremely sorry for non English readers because it would be very hard to struggle through.