Tag: peter grant

Categories
7 books reading Uncategorised

Seven Books – Day 4

Book: False Value
Page: 68
Which is: Peter confronts Jacob at SCC
Lead/Lag: -120
Time Spent: 4hours 26mins
Pages Remaining: 2016 (11% complete)
Favourite Character: Peter
Cool Moment: Nightingale sitting down at the next table
Quote: “‘Not librarians,’ he said. ‘The Librarians.’“

Jacob/Stephen seems cool, I am intrigued to find out more about him.

Peter refers to almost being killed by a demon trap? Did I miss something? Was that from a previous book? (No. it’s in the next chapter)

The quote for today is because I’m not sure but it seems like “The Librarians” will be significant. With so pitiful a page count I didn’t have much to choose from.

Categories
7 books reading

Seven Books Challenge day 3

Book: False Value
Page: 53
Which is: Peter confronts Jacob at SCC
Lead/Lag: -40
Time Spent: 4hours 7mins
Pages Remaining: 2031 (11% complete)
Favourite Character: Peter
Cool Moment: erm… maybe the scene at the printers, Peter pulling his police expertise out.
Quote: “Burglary is generally a crime of opportunity and stealth, and worse – it’s done by strangers. Most men are murdered by their mates and most women are murdered by their partners. Most burglaries are done by someone who couldn’t pick their victim out of a line-up.”

I don’t have a lot to say. I am enjoying this, I think, but some things feel a bit off, or maybe it’s me. Like there was a character introduced with a male name but described as female but then referred to (after the name was revealed) as male again. There was some evidence that it was deliberate so maybe I was supposed to infer a trans character? I guess if the character features more heavily I’ll find out.

Had trouble choosing a cool moment, probably because I didn’t read enough for something to naturally stand out.

I am enjoying it I think but I need an hour or two solid reading, when not tired to get past a lot of the set up and into the characters and plot.

Meta: today (yesterday when I’m writing this) was a tough day at work. I was tired and so I reverted to watching things rather than a lot of reading, hence the lag. I’m more impressed I did any reading rather than that I didn’t hit my target.

(Meta-meta: I’m typing this on day 4 and I’m even more tired.)

Categories
7 books reading Uncategorised

Seven Books Challenge – day 2

Book: False Value
Page: 16
Which is: Peter starting work at SCC, beginning to investigate.
Lead/Lag: 18
Time Spent: 3hours 25mins
Pages Remaining: 2068 (9% complete)
Favourite Character: Khrisong
Cool Moment: The Doctor de-hypnotising Victoria
Quote: Not for the first time, Victoria’s well-developed lungs came to her rescue.

I choose Khrisong for favourite character to vary it from the Doctor and also because I liked the contrast of him being very stubborn but also brave and helpful once he was convinced.

I definitely enjoyed this book but I don’t have a lot to say about it. It hits a lot of the “typical” Classic Who tropes and I am intrigued to see the animated version when it gets released later this year.

So I’ve started False Value and I’ve even less to say about that yet. A bit intrigued as to whether Peter is genuinely out of the Met Police or just under cover. Also although I get that the names used by SCC are all Hitch-Hikers references, I wonder if there’s anything more to it than that. Like this place is supposed to be a cool tech company like Google and those places would certainly nod their head to geek culture but adopt a single source wholesale?

Categories
book reading reviews

Whispers Under Ground – Ben Aaronovitch

So book 3 in the Rivers of London (or PC Grant, opinions differ) series. It felt like a long wait before I got to read this. It was 3 books and 14 days. But all those books were perfectly fine (all 7s) and two weeks isn’t that long.

So we’re back with Peter Grant, Lesley May and Inspector Nightingale. Lesley is now also training to be a wizard (or a ‘practitioner’). Like the previous two books Whispers Under Ground has its own story – the mysterious death of an American art student at Baker Street tube station. Also like the previous books there’s more of an ongoing element. This time I suppose you could say it stretches back as well as forward.

I did really enjoy this book, but not quite as much as the other two. Whether that has anything to do with the fact that it took me a couple of weeks to read it – which was about being tired a lot not about the writing – I don’t know. It does have the trademark humour but either I’m getting used to it or the one-liners are less zing-y than they were. Also the separation between the story-of-this-book and the unfolding narrative is more clear cut. I guess that in book 1 that’s almost accidental because as events occur and discoveries are made you have no way to know whether it’s connected to the current story because you don’t really know until the end that some of it will carry on to the next book. However I also think the on-going story is given more time here. I think in two or three books time it will be the story of that book.

I think I enjoyed those elements more. Getting drip-fed more details about Nightingale’s past is tantalizing and the ‘Faceless Man’ is an intriguing villain. Also I think that the ‘A plot’ involves a lot of running around tunnels and sewers and under the ground generally and it didn’t grab me as much as the other stuff. I like the ‘nazareth’ though.

So now there is a long wait – June! – for book 4 to be published. And I believe book 5 has at least been commissioned. Lots of stuff on the TBR pile to be catching up with in the meantime.

8/10 – our favourite wizard ‘going underground’.

Speaking of TBR it currently stands at 252 down from 253 which is obviously good. The currently reading list is standing still at 10 but I hope to knock that down soon.