Midnight Riot By Ben Aaronovitch

Audiobook version, narrated by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith

Finished on 12/27/2016

4.65 English Wizards and .35 Creepy Asian Ghost Girls out of 5

Spoiler-tastic Review

A no nonsense good time. I loved the characters, the vibrancy of London and the bad guy(s). Peter Grant was a great Character. I deliberately us a capital C in character because he *isn’t* a bland character. You get to know the world from his point of view, his intellectual wants and cheesy hornball needs. All too many protagonists are boring in this regard, people who are only interesting because the story follows them.

A sensitive person will find certain race-based aspects of this book objectionable. The author portrays the Nigerian Gods of the River Thames in a stereotyped (and a little funny) manner. If you don’t want to expose yourself to that sort of thing, then you’ve been warned.

One of my big bugbears with modern day Urban Fantasy is that too many Authors don’t use real life sources as inspiration for their work. This book doesn’t have that fault. Midnight Riot references ancient mythology, such as with it’s discussion of ancient Londinum; British folklore with the use of Mr. Punch and Judy; and London history with the discussion of the Big Stink and the like.

This is the first book in a series, and I will read the future books in this series.