spinebenderreviews's reviews
697 reviews

CWs:

mass shootings, gun violence

False Value is the eighth book in Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series. This book sees Peter taking a job at a tech company to try to solve a mystery with links to Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace.

I found this a frustrating read. To begin with, there is so much nonsensical jargon related to the tech company that I felt disorientated. Now this is likely on purpose, to highlight the ridiculousness of most tech companies, but it felt overdone. The book also starts out being written in time shifts, which took some getting used to, and then the shifts are abandoned partway through. And while I can understand why Aaronovitch chose to do this to conceal certain facts to begin with, I don't think that it fully worked.

The central mystery of the novel was wholly unsatisfying. I never fully understood what was going on, and

the bait and switch with who the real villain was came seemingly out of nowhere in a way that felt befuddling rather than shocking.

I found Peter and Beverley's relationship frustrating as well, for numerous reasons. I enjoy them as a couple but we're all the way in book eight and it's only now that Peter's starting to think about the ethical quandaries of Beverley's powers? And Beverley's interest in Stacy Carter and her family felt somewhat out of character for Beverley, who has never expressed concerns about the way Peter's job impacts families' livelihoods before.

All in all, this book was a disappointing addition to the series.

For my short review of the Rivers of London graphic novels I've read in 2024, see my review of Volume 12: Stray Cat Blues. 

The October Man is another novella in the Rivers of London series. In this story set in Germany, Ben Aaronovitch introduces readers to Tobias Winter, a member of the German magic police force. I enjoyed this look at another country's equivalent to the Folly. The tone is fairly similar to that of the main books in the series in a way that will either be enjoyable or frustrating for readers. Some readers might prefer that the narrator had more to differentiate him from Peter's narration. However I enjoy Tobias as a character and feel that him being of a similar age and gender to Peter explains that similarity somewhat. He appears to idolise Peter in certain respects, which may also be in play. Vanessa Sommer is another great addition to the world of ROL and I hope we see more of this team.

The mystery that this novella focuses around is satisfyingly complicated for its length and is resolved at a good pace. I enjoyed meeting

the German Rivers and would be delighted to revisit them again in future. It was interesting to get a look at the different history they have with the Abteilung KDA than that of their London counterparts and the Folly.

Something that can bug me about urban fantasy set in our world is when the worldbuilding fails to suggest a vaster magical world outside of the city or country that a book is set in. It can feel very limited, without any hints that the magic element expands beyond the setting of the story. So I enjoy Aaronovitch taking the opportunity in short stories and novellas to expand on the mentions of non-British magic in his main novels. It gives the worldbuilding a more complete feeling.

I enjoyed this book of short stories and ephemera related to the Queen's Thief universe. While none of them were standouts particularly, I liked the expansion on the characters and the looks we got at their lives both before and after the series. The final story in the book has enough intrigue that it could be a place to fills in some gaps should Whalen Turner decide to return to the series in future. And

I love Kamet and Costis' polyamorous farming set up. Good for them!

This was my first read of this book and I think it's a fantastic ending to the series. In this book we are introduced to Pheris, the grandson of Baron Erondites - a seditious baron of Attolia - who has newly been named his heir and sent to court to serve as an attendant to the king, Eugenides. I really enjoy that Whalen Turner continues to write disabled characters with sensitivity and gives them full personhood in her stories. I also appreciated that

while we know that there are visual indicators of Pheris' disabilities, she doesn't actually describe the way he looks, only how his disabilities affect him. It feels very different from the way in which some writers describe disability in an extreme detail, which can come across as similar to the way disabled people have historically been made a spectacle in sideshow attractions.

Pheris is an interesting POV to read and his perspective on events shows us yet another way that Whalen Turner is a master at the craft of misdirection and foreshadowing. The way his neurodivergence is portrayed made me feel very seen. The ableism experienced by disabled characters in her books continues to be realistic, but written in a way that invites the reader to examine how they might have internalised this kind of thinking in themselves.

Pheris and Eugenides' relationship is an important relationship in this book. They each understand what it means to be dismissed and underestimated and mirror each other in so many ways. It is Eugenides who first understands who Pheris truly is and Pheris recognises himself in Eugenides in turn. It is this commonality that leads Eugenides to place such trust in Pheris at crucial moments in the story. These moments are small but the course taken in later events hinge on these moments.

It is Pheris who, when Eugenides is at risk of giving himself over to the Thief, pulls him back.

Which brings me to a part of the story that I loved and that the title itself is a spoiler for: the return of the Thief. For the past 3 books, people far and wide have been so unhappy with the idea of Gen being king that they forgot to fear who he is when that is taken away. All the books leading up to this have been laying down a mythology of the Thief, telling us the ways in which we should fear and be awed by him, and this book brings those threads together to show us how a myth is made legend.

I will say that ultimately I found the war with the Medes to be not as large in scale as I had been expecting and so somewhat disappointing. We don't see much of the large battles, they are fairly glossed over. But then I suppose it makes sense for a book series about a thief that the parts we do see are smaller incursions and guerrilla tactics rather than an all-out fighting. But there were parts of it that were fantastic to finally see come to pass, such as the death of Nahuseresh, and I found it very satisfying that the queens  - who have the most experience with directing their respective militaries - were the ones directing the armies of the Lesser Peninsula.

All in all, a satisfying ending to a phenomenal series.

On the whole, this book was probably the most fun I've had reading in a while. It is very funny without detracting from the dramatic or emotional scenes. I found the characters engaging and the court politics interesting without being too convoluted to follow. It's a great example of its genre that I'd definitely recommend if you like isekai media - but with a major caveat. The disability representation in this book is...not good.

One of the main characters has been unable to speak from birth. The first thing I noticed in how the book handles this is that his main form of communication is his manservant, Wang Xi, interpreting for him based off his body language and expression. This seems extremely unrealistic. Even if you've been with someone for most of their life, there is still bound to be miscommunication, but Wang Xi's interpretation is both never wrong and more elaborate than body language can really communicate.

The book sometimes refers to Tianchi making "gestures", but it is unclear whether this is signing or just hand movements. Chinese sign language has been around since the Tang dynasty, so I know the setting is not the reason why it does not explicitly feature. It may well be that Tianchi simply does not know anyone who signs and so was never able to learn. Given the ableism of the court, this is certainly likely. But even then I would expect some kind of personal shorthand sign to have developed between Tianchi and Wang Xi at the very least, even if no one around him cared enough to learn it.

Given the whole process that went into writing in this setting, I can understand why written communication is not the primary mode of communication, though it is still used.

Even if you can wave all that aside as "it's fantasy, it doesn't have to be realistic", I have a huge problem with the fact that Tianchi's disability is "cured" by the end of the book. It sends a message that a disabled character cannot have a happy ending that includes them remaining disabled. I think that's a terrible message to give both disabled and non-disabled readers.

So while I did really enjoy the rest of the book and found it incredibly entertaining and easy to read, I cannot in good conscience recommend it without laying out this huge shortcoming. This would have been a 5 star book for me without those aspects.