Review: Rivers of London: Water Weed

Rivers of London Volume 6: Water Weed by Ben Aaronovitch

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Rivers of London: Water Weed is the sixth collected volume of the Rivers of London comic book taking place between The Hanging Tree and Lies Sleeping. This volume comprises of four issues of the comic book.

After two of the less well-behaved River goddesses, Chelsea and Olympia, decide to "tax" a drugs mule using the Thames as a highway, Peter Grant and Beverley Brook find themselves drawn into a cannabis smuggling operation with weird magical connotations.

While I liked the story I found the sexualisation of the younger goddesses a bit off putting and the sex scene was just unnecessary. That being said the "police procedural" aspects of the story were as good as any you'll see on TV with and interesting and unexpected antagonist.

If you can look past the parts mentioned this is a good story but I'm afraid they're there and pretty in your face.

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Review: Rivers of London: Cry Fox

Rivers of London: Cry Fox: Volume 5 by Ben Aaronovitch

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rivers of London: Cry Fox is the fifth collected volume of the Rivers of London comic book. This volume carries on the trend of consisting of four collected issues of the comic book.

Following on from the story in Night Witch vengeful Russian mobsters are looking to hire members of London's demi-monde (the umofficial society consisting of minor magic users and supernatural creatures) to bring bloody retribution down on the witch Varvara Sidorovna Tamonina. However, the ex-Soviet sorcerer is under the protective wing of London's own wizarding cop, DC Peter Grant, and to get the attention of Grant and his colleagues, the the daughter of a prominent Russian oligarch is kidnapped by parties unknown but possibly fox-like. What makes it worse is that Peter is going to have to leave his beloved London and go out into the countryside.

Cry Fox features one of slimiest gits to ever grace the page, Reynard Fossman, as the main antagonist. What with his sociopathic tendencies and serious paedo vibes I just can't abide this character... but then again I'm not supposed to. I was expecting Abigail to be a little more present in the story, possibly even the protagonist, after all the hints in the main novel series but alas she was somewhat relegated to a secondary character. I did like the not very well hidden twist but it was so obviously flagged as to be none existent as a twist.

Again with these graphic novels it adds to the mythos without being essential reading. Do you need to read it? No, as I've said it's not essential. Should you read it if you like RoL? Bloody right you should.

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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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