Amongst Our Weapons (Rivers of London 9)

[sholio]

You know, I was thinking back to a decade or so ago, when this series was being touted as the Unproblematic Alternative to Dresden Files. Due to the central police aspect to these books, I'm just gonna say that hasn't aged well. (It doesn't bother me all that much, but I do find myself noticing all the times that Peter casually jokes about using his law enforcement position to, for example, hassle people who cut him off in traffic.)

Anyway, that aside, I really liked this one! (Aside from the usual negativity about Peter/Bev, which still applies.) But plotwise I think this, along with Lies Sleeping, are my favorites of the series beyond the first couple that originally hooked me.


In particular, I loved the casefic plot, which is unusual for me with these books. The last few, I've mainly been reading for the character interactions, and the casefic plots have dragged. But in this one, I was really caught up in it! The mystery was suitably mysterious with a lot of fun Cool Bits - the magic rings, the appearing-disappearing angel with the flaming spear, and so on.

And the various sets - the underground Silver Vault, the abandoned mill, the ultramodern building in the middle of nowhere - were all really cool and interesting on their own. Basically, I felt like this book was extremely strong on suspense and ambiance, which often are not this series' strong points, and I liked that a lot.

I have never had much of a thought on Seawoll one way or another, but I loved him in this book, and the foxes were absolutely delightful little scene-stealers; I've never gotten around to reading the Abigail side novella, but now I'm thinking I need to. We also got a couple of low-key but nice Peter-Nightingale scenes, which I continue to live for, and I enjoyed Lesley as a semi-friendly antagonist who occasionally shows up with her own agenda but helps them when it really matters.


So mostly I really liked it. There are just a couple bits of nonsquee, below for easy skipping.

There was a noticeable lack of resolution on the rings, why Lesley was collecting them, what they do, and the American ringbearer who remains at large, which I guess is all setup for future books. It did make the ending feel underdeveloped, though, especially since we also didn't really see what happened with Francisca afterwards, and Lesley's gone again, so it all just felt kind of unresolved at the end. I liked the rest of it enough not to mind, though.

Peter/Bev ... look, I'm just never going to like them as a pairing. I've gone into my problems with them in previous instances of this tag, and I think it mostly comes down to a) Bev makes all the decisions for both of them without consulting Peter or even telling him, and b) Peter rarely thinks about her when he's not with her, which is noticeable because we get a constant running commentary of everything else he's thinking about, and it's very rarely Bev; he thinks about architecture and coffee way more than he thinks about her. And all of this was very much on display in the first half of the book especially. I know the subplot with the pool was meant to read as a cute running couple joke, but for me it just underscored that she didn't bother talking to him about renting heavy equipment to completely remodel the backyard, and he wasn't curious enough about it to even ask for most of the book, or concerned that the magic lady with the almost unstoppable weapon might be a threat to his nine-months-pregnant life partner. (I mean, we later learn that the rings are necessary for her to show up, but a) they don't know that for most of the book, and b) it's still only conjecture for them even at that point.)

AHEM.


But honestly, all that aside and purely as a reading experience, I enjoyed the book thoroughly and was deeply drawn into the mystery. It looks like we've opened up a new running plot with the rings, and I'm looking forward to more!

Comments

[resonant]

When Peter and Bev were first getting together, I remember liking his confidence - it was a nice change from the standard male novel heroes who tend on the whole to be sad sacks. But it feels like the relationship isn't very interesting to the author, so it isn't very interesting to me.

Also I want her to be more dangerous and alien.

[cathexys]

Yeah to all of that re Bev.

I do like her and I kinda like them together, but I agree that she isn't at the front of his mind. Otoh, I'd really dislike this turning into the grand domestic so...I'm kinda glad it isn't?

But omg yes on setting and plot. My diss advisor wrote a randomly weird essay on Freud, rats, rationality and conversos/marrenos, and then I went to visit Southern Spain couple of years ago and did some history research, so I was totally into that part! And the silver vaults. And Sewell when he's at home. Just a lot of lovely parts!

(Also, the canon certainly doesn't contradict Thomas/David!!! On my last reread earlier this year, I really started to fall in love with them and read every fanfic on AO3 about them...a lot of it quite great!)

[anna_wing]

I tend to think of it as a Goddess/High Priest thing, albeit one modified by their relatively relaxed personalities and real fondness for each other, rather than anything like a relationship of equals.

[philomytha]

Yeah, I noticed how nice the ambience was in this one. The whole sequence with the ghost plane and ghost pilots was so gorgeous - it reminded me of the ending of The Hallowed Hunt with all the unquiet ghosts ritually sent to wherever ghosts go, plus of course I am into war pilots atm ;-). And Seawoll was great, I like his style.

The angel with the flaming sword was nicely done as a serious magical threat, I liked how it was established that not even Nightingale at his full power could take her down. And I loved the bit where they're analysing what era of angel she comes from, that was the kind of RoL geekery I adore.