Review: Rivers of London: Detective Stories

Rivers of London, Volume 4: Detective Stories by Ben Aaronovitch

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Rivers of London: Detective Stories is the fourth collected volume of the Rivers of London comic book. This volume collects four issues unlike the previous three that were five issues each.

The framing device for this volume is PC Peter Grant's detective exam with each comic book detailing a different story... so a volume of one shots if you will.

Do these stories add to the Rivers of London mythos / lore? Well... yeah they do.

Are they any good? they're ok... and that's the rub. They're only ok, not great, not bad, just ok. Still we can't expect earthshattering genius in every story right? Right?

The art work remains of the highest quality and as I've skimmed through the other volumes where the quality doesn't change I don't think I'll mention it again... unless there's a dip...

Knowing there's a small dip in story quality would I recommend this volume to a friend? All in all I think I would, if only for completionist reasons. Is it essential reading? No, but none of these graphic novel / comic book adventures are.

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Review: Rivers of London: Black Mould

Rivers of London: Black Mould by Ben Aaronovitch

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rivers of London Black Mould is the third volume of the collected Rivers of London comic book. This volume consists of five collected issues of the comic book.

Set between Foxglove Summer and The Hanging Tree Black Mould tells the tale of Peter's colleague, Muslim ninja and possible trusty sidekick, Sahra Guleed, discovering a mould problem in the house of a friend. But what at first seems just a virulent fungus takes a far darker turn when the mould attacks Guleed, piquing Peter's interest and suggesting something far more dangerous...

Now this is more like it! Black Mould is probably the first of these graphic novels to really capture the feel of the main novels. Aaronovitch and Cartmel seem to have hit their stride here and I for one could not be happier. With echoes of Marvel's Venom this is the best of the graphic novels so far.. miss this one at your peril.

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Review: Rivers of London: Night Witch

Rivers of London: Night Witch by Ben Aaronovitch

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rivers of London: Night Witch is the second of seven (at time of writing) collected volumes of the Rivers of London comic book. This time we're treated to some fleshing out of one of the more interesting side-characters, Varvara Sidorovna Tamonina, the Russian magic user first seen in Whispers Under Ground.

The plot of the volume covers the daughter of Russian tycoon Nestor Yakunin being kidnapped, apparently by a Leshy, a creature from the forests of his homeland - a long way from Kent where the kidnapping occurred.

Aaronovitch and Cartmel have succeeded in their endeavour to flesh out the world of PC Peter Grant with an engaging tale enhanced by the art work from Lee Sullivan.

As before it's not necessary to read this volume but it will make your experience of the River of London somewhat deeper.

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