Review: The October Man

The October Man by Ben Aaronovitch
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

4.5 Stars bumped to 5 Stars "because reasons"

The Rivers of London has become one of my favorite urban fantasy series. With its unique combination of characters, protagonist Peter Grant's casual obsession with the deficiencies of modern architecture, the whole "what if Aurors were real and Harry Potter grew up and became a magical detective inspector" vibe, the series gripped me from the first book. Aaronovitch has taken a sidestep in this novella however, and Peter Grant is a distant character off in London, an apprentice wizard admired by German apprentice wizard Tobias Winter. When Winter and police liaison to the supernatural unit Vanessa Sommer (yes, Sommer and Winter!) start investigating a series of murders in Trier, near the rivers Mosel (Moselles) and Kyll, we learn a number of different things about genus loci from Morgane and Kelly, goddesses of the two rivers. Some of this information is interesting to long time readers of the principal series who have been wondering about Peter Grant and his river goddess girlfriend, Bev. While this novella doesn't give any of their situation away, it does raise some mighty interesting possibilities. And we also find out the interesting tidbit that the goddess of the Kyll once sheltered Thomas Nightingale for three days during wartime. Oh, and it's now official that Nightingale's newest apprentice is "absolutely terrifying."

While I enjoyed Tobias less than Peter (he lacks a lot of Peter's panache, interesting family history, and laser rangefinder), Tobias does hold my interest and I'd like his rosemary lamb recipe. Vanessa is also interesting, though she's not my much-loved Guleed. And I want way, way more of die Hex aus dem Osten, the woman called Witch of the East, and Nightingale's German counterpart.

This novella opens some interesting possibilities as to the direction that the Rivers series is headed as the magical swell in London is also spilling over in Europe. (Brexit be damned!)

I received a Digital Review Copy of this book from Subterranean Press in exchange for an honest review. P

(Please note that the Orion/Gollancz edition of this novella publishes two weeks after the special hardcover edition from Subterranean Press.)

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