Foxglove Summer
(Peter Grant #5)
by Ben Aaronovitch
fantasy
copyright 2014
read in April 2016
rated 9/10: really, really good
So far I have read four of the five Peter Grant books. I have enjoyed them all :-)
Foxglove Summer seems -- to me -- to be particularly good.
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22mar23: Goodness! it's seven years since I first read this book. No wonder I could not remember what happened.
I read a subsequent book in the series. There's a character called "Foxglove". Was she introduced in this book? I wonder. Apparently not...
This time, I would have rated the book as seven or eight. That's just a gut feel. Perhaps I'm in a different mood now.
This time though, I do feel that the book is a bit... well, I have to say it... a bit airy-fairy. Well plotted but... the key magical characters are somewhat ommmm. By which I mean, they have magic powers, all very mystic, but no explanation. Other than... these people exist, isn't that marvellous... ommmm.
And this time I do miss the last and next in the series. I do wonder, What is Lesley doing and what will she do next?
I do enjoy the book enough to think, I may look for more in the series. To repeat and complete my knowledge of the on-going soap opera. And having now read my original review: I may re-read some of the Harry Dresden series :-)
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The hero, for a change, leaves London. He's out in the unfamiliar countryside, amongst farmers and commuters and a different police force and -- of course -- mixing it up with countryside magic. There is also a lot of posh, countryside cooking... Fortunately, the city-bred hero is able to find a few greasy-spoon diners.
The book is dedicated to Terry Pratchett. Very nice. There is also -- deliberately? -- a touch of the gentler form of Pratchett social satire. Plus action, humour, and a desperate search for lost children. Fear and drama but, ultimately, no children are harmed in the making of this book. Well, not destroyed, anyway...
There is a thread of plot continuing from earlier books. This could be confusing for readers who have not read earlier books. Just skim over those bits and enjoy the police procedural approach to fighting magic. Peter Grant is a policeman; he follows police procedures. That doesn't stop him from seeing the silly side of some of what he does!
In its "magic in the everyday world" approach, this series could be compared to the Harry Dresden series. Both are a lot of fun, very enjoyable... but Peter Grant almost avoids one of the problems of a series:
In each Dresden book, Harry fights a new type of baddie. And he gains new skills. Harry is continually getting more... and more... and more powerful. He would be master of the universe by now -- if he had not been killed, a few books back.
So far, Grant has avoided that growth trap. Sure, he is learning. And he is meeting new types of magic users in each book. Yet it is a slow -- a realistic -- growth in his abilities. He is still defeating evil with skilful use of what he knows -- rather than by the use of ever increasing levels of magic power. Peter Grant is a policeman whose beat happens to cover magic realms. And I like that.
This book's visit to the countryside allows Grant to widen his police duties. And allows the author to poke gentle fun at countryside people.
And yet...
Much is made of the all-white heredity of the inhabitants. Grant -- whose mother is from Sierra Leone -- occasionally rolls his eyes at the politically correct -- or incorrect -- reactions of the white skinned locals, to his own, darker skin. And then he meets a local who is (I paraphrase) "slim for a mother of four." Shouldn't someone be rolling their eyes at that blatant stereotyping?!
Don't we all have to be so very, very careful... :-)
But that's a trivial point to make. Fun is poked at prejudice, a preconception is overlooked. Forget it.
I read this book -- and enjoyed it. Immensely!
I've enjoyed the atmosphere of London in the earlier books in the series. And I think that I have enjoyed the atmosphere of the English countryside even more.
Funny, really. I enjoy the atmosphere of a much earlier London, in Sherlock Holmes. And in the last Sherlock Holmes book that I read, Holmes went out into the English countryside. And I enjoyed that, too.
Sherlock Holmes and Peter Grant, solving crimes in London. I enjoy both versions of the evocation of the great city. And, equally, I enjoy -- as much or possibly more -- the evocation of the countryside, by both of those crime fighters.
Of course what I am enjoying is the idealised city and countryside... I don't live there, though I have visited. In my imagination, however, I enjoy them both. And both Aaronovitch and Conan Doyle evoke exactly what it is that I like about the areas...
Not surprising, really. My idealised views of London and of the English countryside have been formed by reading. These books simply reinforce my idealised impressions, formed by earlier reading of these and other books.
Oh, and of course I have grown up with familiarity with the names of many parts of London... From playing on the English board for the game of Monopoly.
I suppose that I should also mention, that some parts of this book seemed to jump a bit. Not so much continuity errors. More as though the author missed an important plot point and needed to jump back to put it in. As though some chapters were written in somewhat of a hurry.
Perhaps that is simply the intended style of writing...?!
No worries.
A very enjoyable book.
Possibly the best Peter Grant book so far.
I hope that there are more on the way.
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