Rivers of London

I spent the majority of yesterday finishing off a book I've been reading recently, Rivers of London, and since it's been nearly two months since I reviewed a novel, I decided to do a blog post about it.

Rivers of London is a textbook example of an urban fantasy novel; the story follows Peter Grant, a probationary constable working with the Metropolitan Police Service, who starts the story (much to his own surprise) by taking a witness statement from a ghost. Soon he is drawn into a wizarding apprenticeship, studying under Chief Inspector Nightingale, and finds himself working in a small, secretive branch of the MPS that deals with the supernatural. Over the course of the novel, he becomes involved in an investigation into a series of brutal, magic-related murders.

The most appealing thing about the novel is it's sheer readability. It's the kind of book that you sit down to read for five minutes and end up reading for three hours. The most obvious reason behind this is the excellent narration - the story is told from a first-person perspective, as we see everything that occurs in the novel through the eyes of our protagonist Peter. Author Ben Aaronovitch has done a brilliant job of making Peter a likable character; he balances the relatable everyman with whom the audience can sympathise, with the witty, intelligent central character the audience can root for. Peter's wry observations and exasperated sense of humour lend the novel a lighter tone, and provide plenty of laughs over the duration of the book. His perspective is unique, original and entertaining, and this makes it easy to devour the book in huge chunks, because even when the story falters a little, the way Aaronovitch tells the story through Peter never fails to keep the reader hooked.

I mentioned just now that the story stumbles at times, and while this is true, it's only a very small issue. Mostly the story flows smoothly and naturally, with the murder investigation progressing in such a way that new information is constantly unveiled, yet the reader remains intrigued throughout. For every plot thread that is wrapped up, a new one is unraveled, and this contributes to the readability I mentioned above; there is always something the reader is left waiting to find out, always something new to be discovered if you carry on reading for just a few more pages. But unfortunately there is one point, early on in the story, which I feel the author mishandled; the moment when Peter is properly introduced to magic. This is the stumbling block of the story. At the beginning of the novel, Peter has no knowledge of magic or the supernatural whatsoever. His only exposure to anything out of the ordinary is his talk with the ghost, right at the book's beginning. He spends the next few days pondering the experience, wondering whether or not the ghost was real. Then, in a scene that lasts roughly two pages, he is introduced to his mentor Nightingale and given a criminally short version of the 'magic is real' speech that is such a common thread in fantasy stories. It isn't so much the brevity of the scene that bothers me, it's more Peter's reaction - or rather, lack of reaction. Peter takes the news that vampires, ghosts and wizards are all real completely in his stride, to the point where he seems almost ridiculously detached from the whole thing. He goes from an ordinary copper to telekinesis, and at no point does he sit down and think 'Wow, I'm a sorcerer now.' It makes him seem emotionless, and that doesn't gel with how he comes across in the rest of the novel.

I've banged on quite a bit about that one scene, so I'll reiterate that it's only a small issue. Once Peter is inducted into his wizard's apprenticeship under Nightingale, the novel adopts a near-flawless flow of tension, mystery and humour, the story slowly and subtly building up to a fantastic climax (coupled with a betrayal from one character I won't spoil), and overall I thought the plot was wonderful. It wraps itself up quite nicely, though several loose strands are left hanging for the sequel, Moon Over Soho (which I have yet to read). It's a great example of a book that stands on it's own but also works as the push-off point for a series. So don't be put off when I say that this one, small part of the book's story was flawed, because ultimately it's quite a superb piece of plotting.

And of course, I couldn't possibly review Rivers of London without talking about the eponymous city itself. It's clear that Aaronovitch is extremely fond of London, and it's also clear that he's hugely knowledgeable about it. Trivia and tidbits of London history seep through the pages of this novel, particularly in relation to Thames river and the various other rivers that flow through, past, or near London - hence the novel's title. In the hands of a less talented writer this could become tedious very quickly, but fortunately in this case all of the slivers of knowledge are delivered through Peter, a Londoner himself. The information is seamlessly slipped into Peter's narrative of the story in a way that feels unforced and in character, so Aaronovitch can show his love for the city all he likes without boring the reader. On the contrary, this added level of detail makes the realistic depiction of the London police service stand out, which in turn emphasises how uncannily odd the various supernatural events are. So by adding in tiny snippets of London trivia, the book manages to do what every urban fantasy novel aspires to do, and stands the juxtaposition of normal and unnatural front and center, obvious and unmissable, in the eyes of the reader.

Bits and Bobs

• Much to my surprise, it turns out Ben Aaronovitch has also written for Doctor Who! After I was finished reading I read the 'about the author' paragraph and apparently he wrote the McCoy story Remembrance of the Daleks, and the later McCoy story Battlefield. As I'm sure you all know, being involved in Doctor Who in any capacity is worth ten billion Alex points, so well done to him.

• My favourite line by far in the novel is located in an early discussion between Peter and Nightingale.
  
  'So magic is real,' I said. 'Which makes you a... what?'
  'A wizard.'
  'Like Harry Potter?'
  Nightingale sighed. 'No,' he said. 'Not like Harry Potter.'
  'In what way?'
  'I'm not a fictional character,' said Nightingale.
  
  I'll never be quite sure why fictional characters saying 'I'm not a fictional character' amuses me so much, but it does. It really, really does.

I'll round off the review by saying that I will definitely by going out and looking for Moon Over Soho, and if a book is good enough to make me want to buy the sequel, then I think it's safe to say it has succeeded as a novel. If you're a fan of urban fantasy, or London, or just fun books, then I'd definitely recommend picking up Rivers of London.

In far less interesting me-related news, I broke up for the Christmas holidays on Friday, so I'm free until 2012! This means I have two weeks to engage in all of my favourite hobbies, like sleeping, eating pringles, and staring vacantly into space wondering absently if I should try and get something productive done. Ah, good times. But anyway, I hope you enjoyed this review, and until next time, thanks for reading.

Tumblin' in the Wind

Over the past two weeks or so I've been using Tumblr a lot. I'm sure I don't need to explain what Tumblr is to you, but for any readers who have been living under particularly large boulders, it's basically a blogging site, a rival to Blogspot I suppose (shhh, don't tell them I've defected). There are a lot of differences between the two sites, and rather than pick one over the other I've ended up using them both for different things.

Blogspot is a much more professional service. The layouts it offers you for your blog are arranged in a much neater, easier-on-the-eye fashion. It's a similar story for extra pages; the 'Doctor Who: Re-Incarnated' and 'Friday Night Who UK' tabs at the top of this blog are a lot easier to find than the cramped list of links on Tumblr. The archiving system on Blogspot stands out most emphatically as the better one; Tumblr's archive is a slapdash, chaotic mess of posts set out roughly in rows, whereas Blogspot's dropdown list is really easy to navigate through. Blogspot lets you create a 'proper' blog, so you can write reviews, essays, or just ramble on about the comparative benefits of Tumblr for half an hour. *Cough*

But just because Tumblr is a bit more of a makeshift system, doesn't mean it isn't useful. Whereas Blogspot is all about quality, Tumblr gives you quantity. So far in the six months I've been using this blog, I've made around 35-40 posts. My total number of posts for Tumblr at this very moment, however, is 154. Tumblr is all about quick, easy blogging; just as Twitter is a faster, more compacted social network than Facebook, so Tumblr is a faster, more compacted blogging platform than Blogspot. I think this is mostly down to Tumblr's 'reblog' feature - again, you almost definitely already know what this is, but for clarity it's a feature that allows you to repost somebody else's blog post on your own blog. So, for example, if somebody posts a funny picture, you can reblog that picture and it appears on your Tumblr page, for all of your followers to see, under the caption of '(Your name) reblogged this from (Person who made the funny picture)'.

Tumblr is more suited in general, I think, to shorter posts. The majority of the posts on Tumblr are images or GIF files, and most of the text posts are only a couple of sentences. It's almost like a halfway mark between Twitter and Blogspot, because you can note down a couple of thoughts that would be impossible to encapsulate in 140 characters, but not enough to fill a proper blog post.

Because the two different sites fit different niches, I'm going to keep using both of them for different things. This blog will continue unabated as normal; if for whatever reason you can't stand Tumblr, don't worry, I'm not going to start moving my content over to there instead. But I am going to be using Tumblr if I ever have an idea or an observation to make, and I want to share it but it's just a couple of lines long, so it would be worthwhile checking my page out. Oh, and I'll also be reblogging lots and lots of Misfits GIFs, because there is no good reason not to.

The point I'm trying to get to, which is basically what this whole post has been leading up to, is 'hey, I have Tumblr, go follow me on Tumblr.' And, without further ado, here I am on Tumblr. I will try and find a space to put a permanent link to it somewhere on the sidebar of this blog, so newcomers will always be able to find me on Tumblr, but for now, you'll have to just cope with this.

Thank you very much for putting up with yet another floaty, dreary blog post that doesn't really contribute anything to anyone. I promise, honestly, the next post will be something constructive like a book review or something, and won't have the word 'Tumblr' in it at all. For today, however, this is all I've got. Thanks for reading.

PS: I believe I may have broken the first rule here (the first rule of Tumblr is don't talk about Tumblr), but I won't tell if you won't.

Music Videos

One thing I always found really confusing when I was younger was the concept of music videos. I've always loved music, but the idea of a short video to accompany a song seemed off somehow. Music is an aural medium, meant to be listened to, so it often feels silly to be watching a 'music video' - it's a blend of two different forms and when I was younger I didn't think that it could work. Since then I've become a lot more accepting of music videos; obviously they serve a purpose, allowing the music to appear on TV channels and YouTube. These are both visual displays and music videos allow artists to get their songs on those displays; and having your song played on TV or on a video-sharing site will increase public awareness of the song, and of course that in turn will lead to higher sales. So I do see why music videos have to exist. However, I've never really embraced them. I've always preferred just listening to a song over watching the video, even until very recently.

In the last month, though, I've had my opinion of music videos mixed up yet again. I watched two music videos that made me feel that they were not only necessary - they improved on the original song.



The first one was this video for the song Shake Up Christmas by Train. I was cycling through some of Train's tracks on YouTube after a friend (with excellent taste in music) told me to listen to their song Drops of Jupiter. Anyway, while I was looking through their song list, I found a Christmas track from last year, and thought to myself 'Well, it is the Christmas season after all,' and gave it a look. Now, I really like this song on it's own - it's cheery and merry and the singer has a cool voice. But it's the video that really made the experience for me, and that's never happened before. I think the reason this video appealed to me where others have failed is because it tells such a simple, heartwarming story, and it tells it so well. The interlinked lives of the five or six major characters in the story, and the 'Christmas magic' that brings it together - and of course, because it's a music video, the story is told entirely through direction. A huge majority of the music videos I've seen make no attempt to tell a proper, fleshed out story, and those that do often rely on the song's lyrics to provide cohesion. In Shake Up Christmas, on the other hand, the video works as a standalone piece in its own right. You could mute the sound and it would still make complete sense (though that would be a bit counter-intuitive, wouldn't it?). I think that's another major factor in me liking it - it works as a standalone piece of art.



The other music video I saw was Alex Day's new song Forever Yours. Alex Day is a YouTube musician, so the vast majority of his work is displayed primarily through the Internet. The logic behind me liking this video is a bit harder to pin down, because the story isn't as clear as in Shake Up Christmas' video; it took me a few watches to properly understand what was happening in this one, so clearly the story wasn't the primary appeal. I think this time round it has a lot more to do with how 'clever' the video is. The direction flips between two different styles; an amateur, homemade production, and a more high-budget, professional video. Not only does it make the video more interesting to view, it sharply shows the contrast between different levels of filmmakers, from kids with video cameras making films in their gardens, to a proper film crew with a director and editing team. I think this makes it a lot easier to appreciate the effort put into making the video, on both sides of the coin. On the amateur side, it shows how hard they have worked to create something realistic-ish with no fancy equipment or software, and how they have had to use smart filming techniques to bypass scenes that would otherwise be expensive to film. On the professional side of the coin, it shows how much hard work and time goes into making something so high-end, something in a different league from most small-time video makers. This makes watching the video a more satisfying experience.

Ultimately, I'm not 100% sure why both of these videos suddenly jumped out at me and made me appreciate music videos more as an art form. Perhaps it has something to do with the reasons above, or perhaps there's something else that I've missed. Regardless, I'm now a lot more agreeable with the idea of music videos being just as important as songs (but not more important - the song is always the primary piece of media). That's all from me this time - I know, it wasn't really a very substantial post, but hey, I needed to write something, and this topic burst forth from my head. I think - fingers crossed - the next post might be a book review, if I can keep on schedule. For now, though, goodbye, and thanks for reading.

Five Things I Learned From NaNoWriMo

There were only three blog posts last month; one was a blog post explaining how busy I was going to be in November, one was an Internet meme about books, and one was a slapdash podcast me and Mark threw together on a whim. None of them were really content-heavy - I didn't do any reviews or rambles or anything like that. As I explained in 'A Month of Writing', I've basically been really busy writing other things over the course of November, and I haven't had much chance to focus on writing blog posts. There was a short story I started that didn't really work out, and an article on video games that is going pretty well. The main reason I was so busy in November, however, was NaNoWriMo.

NaNoWriMo is a worldwide event in which people attempt to write a 50 000 word novel over the 30 days of November. I explained it in more detail in 'A Month of Writing', or you can just go to their website and read about it for yourself there. Basically, I attempted to participate over the course of last month and, all things considered, I failed miserably. I ended up with a wordcount total of just over 16 000 words; 34 000 off of my target for the end of the month. I think it's worth saying that I wrote all of those in the first 13 days of the month - I gave up after that, due to exhaustion and the fact that I was already behind. However; in the course of participating, I learned a couple of things about writing. Some of them were completely new to me, others I had always sort of known about, but taking part in NaNoWriMo made them more tangible. So here's five things that I learned from NaNoWriMo.


1. Deadlines Mean Productivity

I'm starting with the obvious one, but in every situation, working to a deadline will mean an increase in output. This isn't just true in writing, it's true in every facet of life; if you have a deadline, it helps you defeat the procrastination demon of 'why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?' With NaNoWriMo, the 30 day limit for writing is about as harsh as it gets, so it's impossible to put off the work until tomorrow if you want to stay in the game. As the final hour draws closer, you will begin to write more and more frantically, and you will begin to push out pages and pages where otherwise you would be struggling to write a sentence. The approaching finish line will keep writing front and center in your mind as it looms ominously. Deadlines also provides motivation, and motivation is vital in writing. In fact...


2. Keep Motivated

This is one of the most important lessons, and I think I failed NaNoWriMo this year because I didn't adhere to this point. Basically, it is vital that when you are writing something, be it a short story or a full-length novel, you keep yourself interested and enthusiastic about the piece. Motivation comes in a million different shapes and sizes, so do whatever you believe will motivate you. Tell everyone you know you're going to write a novel, so they can give you pep talks or pressure you to write. Maybe block yourself from the Internet if it's distracting you, or even just hang big posters around your house that say 'WRITE A NOVEL!' in big red letters. Whatever you do, staying motivated is the key to success. I lost interest in my novel around the month's midway point, for a number of reasons, and once you lose interest you are fighting a lost battle.


3. Plan Ahead

This point is entirely subjective and varies from author to author. Some writers like to meticulously think through each of their scenes, whereas some writers just go with the flow. So consider this point more of a suggestion than the others. Planning ahead will save you a great deal of headaches when you are in the thick of writing your novel, churning out words at a rapid pace. You don't want to lose any of the momentum you've (hopefully) built up by stumbling on a plot hole, or realising that you just don't like that scene you've just written. This happened to me around chapter 4 of my novel, and it seriously impacted on my word count. I could have remedied that problem with planning; if you work out a rough draft of how your story will go, it makes the actual writing process much easier.

4. Don't be Afraid of First Drafts

Editing a story you have written is not usually a fun process. Going through, line by line, cutting out parts that don't work and replacing them with new things that do, can be a tedious process if you've just finished writing, because the story is still fresh in your mind and it may be difficult to get an objective view of the piece. As a result, you might be inclined to avoid first drafts, as they require a lot of editing by definition to turn into full, finished stories. I certainly felt that way before NaNoWriMo, and would often spend a lot of time getting one scene just right before moving onto the next. But this is a mistake; first drafts, I've learned, are actually an infinitely valuable way of getting your novel onto its feet. Because you know you're going to be coming back and rewriting everything later, it's okay to experiment or change your mind about things. For example, I decided during chapter 5 that I was going to relocate my story to an entirely different location. Because I was going to go back and edit the older chapters later, I was free from going back and editing them right there and then. That meant I could just carry on with chapter 5 uninhibited, so no time was wasted and I was able to implement the change easily. Another great thing about first drafts is that you can leave parts of the story 'under construction'; when I was having a hard time with a scene, I just wrote a quick note to myself explaining how the scene should end, then carried onto the next scene. I got to move past my writer's block, and I was safe in the knowledge that the scene would be finished later in editing.


5. Spread Out the Exposition

While the other points have all been quite vague and general, this one is more focused because it's a problem that I struggle a lot with when I'm writing. Exposition is basically the act of giving the reader information - this could be background trivia, or important story details that advance the plot. A big problem with exposition is that, generally, it isn't much fun to read or write when done in large doses. When an author provides too much exposition in a scene, it is referred to as a 'plot dump', and this is often a problem because the writing may feel forced; for example, if two characters are providing excessive exposition through their dialogue, the dialogue would feel unnatural and stilted. Another problem is that exposition given in the form of description, or as an opening narrative, can be very tedious for a reader. The solution to these problems is to spread your exposition out; the reader doesn't need to know everything at once. If you are setting your story in a fantasy world, do not fully introduce the world immediately. Instead, describe it only when necessary and bring the reader into it slowly. If, as another example, you are trying to unveil the killer in a murder mystery, do not fall into the trap of having the murderer break down at the end and explain the whole plot, in detail, through excessive monologue; instead, reveal the inner workings of the murder over several scenes, so that the climactic final reveal feels more natural.

So those are five writing points that I learned from my failed participation in NaNoWriMo. I hope that at least one person reading is a struggling writer who maybe took something away from one of those points. I will, if all goes to plan, be following these points when I re-attempt NaNoWriMo next year.

Since this is my first post of the new month, I'm pretty much obliged to link you to the Doctor Who: Re-Incarnated website so you can check out our latest story. It was written by Mark and features Jack the Ripper! Exciting, right?

Apologies for any typos, grammatical errors, sentences that don't make sense, or general stupidity; I wrote this at 2am in the morning. I'll come back tomorrow and re-edit it, looking for any problems I've missed in my current sleepy state. Thanks for reading.