#rivers of london series

[jellymish-reblogblog]

Sometimes I go about my day and I am suddenly struck with how much I love every single character in Rivers of London.

Could use all kinds of descriptors, but the summary is: they're all just so wonderfully human. With all the complexity that comes with it. I love them so much.

[book-quotes-and-moodboards]

...quite a high percentage of the public have all the survival instincts of a moth in a candle factory. They run the wrong way, they refuse to move, some will run towards the danger, and others will instantly whip out their phones and take footage.

False Value (by Ben Aaronovitch)

[onaa-ohokthen]

It's always amusing reading Rivers of London series reviews by Americans where they complain that Kim isn't "realistic". Yeah no shit, but she's EXACTLY what Americans look like to non-americans. Weird jesus bitches who are too fond of guns and authority.

[philcoulsonismyhero]

There's a lot of lines in Amongst Our Weapons that make me want to wave my arms around and yell incoherently about Peter and Nightingale and how far they've come and how much they mean to each other, but right now the one I want to yell about the most is this one from right at the end:

Image text: 'The wider the base, the greater the stability of the building,' said Nightingale. 'You taught me that.'

Because, like. Peter wanted to be an architect. The thing he always wanted to do was to build things. And look what he's built! He hasn't just rebuilt the Folly as it was, he's built something modern and completely new out of its constituent parts and he's done it by caring about people and being interested in how things work and by what Beverly jokingly calls 'compulsive networking'.

And everything he's done for the Folly, he's done for Nightingale on a personal level too.

Nightingale was So isolated when Peter first met him. His police colleagues didn't want much to do with him, his social circle seemed to consist of Molly and Dr Walid and not much more, he was completely out of touch with the modern world. And to his credit, he was the one who decided to take on an apprentice, but that was pretty much all he was planning to do. Train up a replacement for himself in case he got killed, pass on the Forms and Wisdoms properly, keep the status quo going.

But he chose Peter, and suddenly he's got an apprentice who wants to study the science behind magic and modernise the Folly's record keeping and work out better ways to liaise with other police and fundamentally Make Changes. Nightingale ends up with all these connections through Peter, to Beverley and the other Thames girls, to Lesley, to Abigail, eventually to the rest of Peter's family, to other police like Guleed and Stephanopoulos and unfortunately for him Seawoll... He has people he can rely on, and who choose to rely on him, and not just for magic -I especially love how Peter's mum eventually starts using him to babysit Peter's dad, and the fact that he helps Abigail's family with her brother. He's not alone anymore, and he goes from just living to genuinely thriving.

And it's all down to Peter, and what the two of them have built together. In fact, they've built something so significant that in a few years Nightingale isn't going to be necessary anymore. He's been Britain's Last Official Wizard for seventy years, all the weight of that tradition resting on his shoulders alone, and in a handful of years Peter has helped him to build something that'll be able to take the weight instead if he wants it to. There are people who can help do everything he's been doing alone and more, so finally he can think about what he actually wants for himself. (And don't even get me started on his arc re: teaching and discovering that it's what he wants to do for the rest of his life, I Will start yelling even more.)

And it's Peter who's taught him to let other people take the weight. That you can build something stable and lasting if you're willing to share the load. The wider the base, the greater the stability of the building.

Not bad for a wannabe architect who can't draw, huh?

[tatzelwyrm]

Be Thomas Nightingale:

Show up to the climax of the book in a killer dress. Blow up a car. Explain nothing.

[lovetgr76]

[datsderbunnyblog]

I'm dying, I can't even

[jellymish-art]

DCI Thomas Nightingale and PC Peter Grant, from the Peter Grant series. Been re-listening the audiobooks so I remember what happens before I get to the newest novels. Last time I drew those two was 2018!!

[owlbear33]

Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovich is an amazing book, and I've just finished it (for the nth time)

it has a good plot, introduces some great characters, builds on others, and that ending, that ending is amazing

the first half is kinda quiet, slow, meandering, one little seemingly (at least initially to Peter) case after another (other than like the first encounter with Varvara - that's not quite or slow), and then you get to sky-garden and all that happens there

next, I'm on to Foxglove Summer, a fun one, a bit of a break from the main plot, set in a very similar area to where I live (I'm on the other side of the Welsh border)

[jaybeefoxy]

Two new Chapters are up. Chapter 15 of Tis Folly To Be Wise (my Rivers of London Sherlock cross-over AU), and Chapter 8 of Private Patient (my Dalgliesh AU) are up on AO3. This photo can do double duty seeing as how Bertie Carvel is now irreversibly cast in my head as Thomas Nightingale anyway. I hope you enjoy. 

Read Tis Folly to be Wise - The Morning After here

Read The Private Patient - The Final Problem here

tagging @bluebox-girl and @punnyadt-goreny

[crasybirdlady]

I wonder who cursed Nightingale with the saying: may you have children just like yourself. His mother or his teacher?

He probably thought he was home free. No wife no kids. Then wam Peter and Abigail comes along.

And actually it’s worse then children just like you because they have the Curiosity and need to experiment of David Mellenby combined with the self sacrifice tendencies of Thomas Nightingale. 

[placeofwonder]

having a list of books I think I'd enjoy reading this year pinned on my blog VS the urge to re-read familiar books for comfort

[multitudeofmuses]

RIVERS OF LONDON SERIES by Ben Aaronovitch

~~ FANCAST ~~

Mama Thames | Genius Loci / Goddess of The River Thames

"

Mama Thames aka Mother Thames is the Goddess of the River Thames. Unlike Father Thames, her power comes from the seas and ports. She holds court East of the Tower of London in a converted warehouse, just short of the Shadwell Basin, in the Wapping area of London.

"

Her appearance is that of a middle-aged, Nigerian woman, impeccably dressed in Austrian lace. She is described as having a generous figure, perfect skin, full, dark lips and cat-shaped eyes. Her hair is braided and she was wearing a head-dress of Portugese beads when Peter Grant first meets her. During the Spring Court she had her hair woven into an elaborate gold birdcage. She has an almost irresistible, arousing supernatural glamour. To Peter Grant it evoked the smell of salt water and coffee, diesel and bananas, chocolate and fish guts. She was originally a Nigerian woman who immigrated to the United Kingdom in 1957 to study nursing. Some time between 1957 and 1966, after being dumped by her fiancé and failing her nursing exams, she decided to commit suicide by jumping into the Thames. While contemplating her suicide on London Bridge the River Thames called to her to exchange her life to become a genius loci. Mama Thames claims to have forgotten her original human name.

SUGGESTED CASTING:

NIKKI AMUKA-BIRD ( 47 years old ) SOPHIE OKONEDO ( 54 years old ) RAKIE AYOLA ( 55 years old ) RITA DOMINIC ( 48 years old ) WUNMI MOSAKU ( 37 years old ) NSE IKPE-ETIM ( 48 years old )

**All actresses cast are nigerian, or of british-nigerian descent.

[rogue-rook]

I can tell the rivers of london writer does a ton, just a ton, of research about mythology and folklore and history and absolutely none on like "does this region have a different word or phrase for this specific thing than me" because the recent novella set in wisconsin featuring an american side character from the main novels used the word "kerb" in the first person narration when any genuine american would consider that word "curb"

[stlgeekgirl]

A Riot in Camden

All the rivers in London #Book #Book review #riversoflondon

My relationship with urban fantasy is tenuous at best.  It usually depends on the book or the author. So when I was suggested the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovich, I was hesitant.  I only know Aaronovich from his works on Doctor Who books and the Blake’s 7 Big Finish audio drama series, of which I am a huge fan.    But even then, I might have put it on the list and left it there for an…

[longboxcomics]

Rivers of London: Deadly Ever After #4 "Chapter 4: All Stories Must Come to an End"

By Celeste Bronfman, Andrew Cartmel, José María Beroy, David Cabeza, Jordi Escuin Llorach, and Jim Campbell

I started the series back when I was working at a comic shop and it looked interesting. I definitely want to look into Rivers of London as a series. I think this little story will make more sense at that point. It's not bad on it's own. Just a little short.