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I finished reading Rivers of London this morning! (Just the five novels, I'm saving the ancillary stories so there's something to look forward to.) My summary was fairly accurate! I'm amused that at the end of Foxglove Summer, even Peter was surprised that it was Bev and not Nightingale come to play Janet of Carterhaugh, although given what they did in the river it makes sense.
(there is so Doctor Who fandom in that river's future.)
I'm mostly surprised that... there wasn't too much that I missed? Okay, I missed most of the main plot in Foxglove Summer, but I think a lot of the fic I was reading pre-dated it, so I was expecting that. It also had probably the strongest plot of the set - the first four really didn't have plot as their strongest point. Which is not, I will note, necessarily a criticism - I like books that don't narrow-focus on plot, as long as the stuff they're doing in the meantime is fun, and it is - I so, so appreciate that Rivers of London has all of the really, really strong sense of place that is completely missing from, say, the Dresden Files. They feel like - like, they've got the voice and trappings of a police procedural, and the setting and characters of an urban fantasy, but the structure and mood of a cozy, and that was apparently what I needed.
And the criticism of police culture that was coming through strongly in the fic is there in canon; not as a central point, but Peter, while being 100% a copper, is never uncritical of what the police are doing. So I could read it without the sour taste in my mouth that pretty much all other police-focused fiction has been giving me lately. (Just Peter Grant and Sam Vimes are exempt, basically.)
(I dare somebody to write Rivers of Ankh-Morpork.)
Unfortunately all the fanfic-y feelings I got involve characters that very clearly have major canon revelations coming up, and I have been reminded by Check Please! how very, very bad I am at being invested that way in characters in an open canon, so probably I will not be writing anything.
(Well, maybe bits of Rivers of Ankh-Morpork.)
...anyway beyond that I've been deep in avoidance mode lately. I am watching the third season of the Great British Bake-Off because sometime you just need Sue Perkins making terrible puns in a tent, and started hopefully a full watch-through of Leverage in order because sometimes you just need to watch asshole billionaires being made to weep bitter tears, and nearly caught up on the Rex Factor podcast because there is nothing like learning about 10th century Scotsmen murdering each other to help one stop catastrophizing about modern politics (#RememberAed). Also found, and watched, "Under the Emerald Sea", a Nature special that aired when I was five that is the first TV show I ever remember bugging my parents to let me stay up late to watch.
So if anyone wants to talk to me about any of those I'm up for it.
Also I went to the beach on what I accurately predicted to be the last day of the year that sea-bathing would be doable, played some Pokemon Go (level 22! Still haven't found any good way to hatch eggs without using a data plan!), and started what is hopefully going to be a full reshelve and clear out of my books, because it was just becoming unsustainable. Step 1: all 1600+ nonfiction books in dewey decimal order. ish.
(there is so Doctor Who fandom in that river's future.)
I'm mostly surprised that... there wasn't too much that I missed? Okay, I missed most of the main plot in Foxglove Summer, but I think a lot of the fic I was reading pre-dated it, so I was expecting that. It also had probably the strongest plot of the set - the first four really didn't have plot as their strongest point. Which is not, I will note, necessarily a criticism - I like books that don't narrow-focus on plot, as long as the stuff they're doing in the meantime is fun, and it is - I so, so appreciate that Rivers of London has all of the really, really strong sense of place that is completely missing from, say, the Dresden Files. They feel like - like, they've got the voice and trappings of a police procedural, and the setting and characters of an urban fantasy, but the structure and mood of a cozy, and that was apparently what I needed.
And the criticism of police culture that was coming through strongly in the fic is there in canon; not as a central point, but Peter, while being 100% a copper, is never uncritical of what the police are doing. So I could read it without the sour taste in my mouth that pretty much all other police-focused fiction has been giving me lately. (Just Peter Grant and Sam Vimes are exempt, basically.)
(I dare somebody to write Rivers of Ankh-Morpork.)
Unfortunately all the fanfic-y feelings I got involve characters that very clearly have major canon revelations coming up, and I have been reminded by Check Please! how very, very bad I am at being invested that way in characters in an open canon, so probably I will not be writing anything.
(Well, maybe bits of Rivers of Ankh-Morpork.)
...anyway beyond that I've been deep in avoidance mode lately. I am watching the third season of the Great British Bake-Off because sometime you just need Sue Perkins making terrible puns in a tent, and started hopefully a full watch-through of Leverage in order because sometimes you just need to watch asshole billionaires being made to weep bitter tears, and nearly caught up on the Rex Factor podcast because there is nothing like learning about 10th century Scotsmen murdering each other to help one stop catastrophizing about modern politics (#RememberAed). Also found, and watched, "Under the Emerald Sea", a Nature special that aired when I was five that is the first TV show I ever remember bugging my parents to let me stay up late to watch.
So if anyone wants to talk to me about any of those I'm up for it.
Also I went to the beach on what I accurately predicted to be the last day of the year that sea-bathing would be doable, played some Pokemon Go (level 22! Still haven't found any good way to hatch eggs without using a data plan!), and started what is hopefully going to be a full reshelve and clear out of my books, because it was just becoming unsustainable. Step 1: all 1600+ nonfiction books in dewey decimal order. ish.
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#1 Body Work - Possessed evil cars. Set between books 4 & 5. Interesting for a flashback to Nightingale's old friends and not much else.
#2 Night Witch - Set after Foxglove Summer. Shows what's up with Varvara now that she's in custody, and gives some hints about what Lesley's up to. Way better than the previous one.
#3 Black Mould - Sahra Guleed and Peter fight... something? This one doesn't come out until November.
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