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Rivers of London
- Rivers of London, Book 1
- Narrated by: Kobna Holdbrook-Smith
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
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Editor reviews
An enthralling and at times hilarious crime thriller audiobook, book 1 of the unabridged Rivers of London: PC Peter Grant written by Ben Aaronovitch is brilliantly narrated by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith. Listeners are taken into the depths of London’s hidden world of vampires, spirits, gods and goddesses of the mighty Thames. Join the impossibly funny PC Peter Grant as he leaves his policing life behind to become an apprentice to the last wizard of England, and listen intently as they embark on a battle against London’s sinister vampire underworld. Available from Audible now.
Summary
My name is Peter Grant, and until January, I was just probationary constable in that mighty army for justice known to all right-thinking people as the Metropolitan Police Service (and as the Filth to everybody else). My only concerns in life were how to avoid a transfer to the Case Progression Unit - we do paperwork so real coppers don't have to - and finding a way to climb into the panties of the outrageously perky WPC Leslie May. Then one night, in pursuance of a murder inquiry, I tried to take a witness statement from someone who was dead but disturbingly voluble, and that brought me to the attention of Inspector Nightingale, the last wizard in England.
Now I'm a Detective Constable and a trainee wizard, the first apprentice in 50 years, and my world has become somewhat more complicated: nests of vampires in Purley, negotiating a truce between the warring god and goddess of the Thames, and digging up graves in Covent Garden...and there's something festering at the heart of the city I love, a malicious, vengeful spirit that takes ordinary Londoners and twists them into grotesque mannequins to act out its drama of violence and despair.
The spirit of riot and rebellion has awakened in the city, and it's falling to me to bring order out of chaos - or die trying.
Read by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith.
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What listeners say about Rivers of London
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Juls Sims
- 18-01-19
Quirky and fun
i like the main characters, the storyline is unique very steampunk. Will be reading the next in the series see if it holds up.
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- mr
- 28-03-19
love these books
I have listened to them all and to this and moon over Soho several times and I never get bored
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- TJJG
- 22-01-19
good fun
Nicely performed audiobook. quite an easy listen when a bit distracted and yet interesting - and fun - enough to hold attention. Interesting genre cross-over - quite otiginal!
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- chimneyman
- 25-05-18
A merry mix of mirth and magic
This audiobook includes jokes, philosophical and historical trivia, metropolitan street (and river) life, sex, violence, vaginal vampirism and all sorts of other things including a narrator who is obviously thoroughly enjoying himself.
The story itself is not particularly important, but it definitely works some kind of magic...
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- 436k
- 01-09-19
Not terrible
Four main problems for me with this book:
1 All a bit silly, really. The main character seems to accept all manner of strange occurrences with an incredible lack of amazement or even much curiosity.
2 Very much a mediocre reading rather than a performance.
3 For me, the whole point about a good book is that you get totally lost in the story. Nothing jars me out of that like music in between the chapters - so annoying!! I glady skipped forward and missed some of the text just avoid the dreadful jazz interludes.
4 The only reason I finished this book at all, was because I had started it and wanted to see how it ended. Instead, like so many audiobooks, it just petered out, presumably ready for a sequel.
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- Mr
- 01-10-19
Urban fantasy novel for historians!
I loved the first half of the book. The attention to detail is great and I love the nods to historical sights and london architecture. The start of the book is slow paced but his beautiful formed sentences kept it interesting. Later however, fast pace scene continue to have long drones of historic detail and by the end I struggled to finish it. Half way threw pivical moments he starts talking about something completely random, the history of a type of marble or why the building next to him was built 200 years ago. It became needlessly distracting to hear these things during a fight or a chase. Also I don't understand male fantasy writers need to have naked women in every book they write.
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- Judy Lovelock
- 06-10-19
Boring
Sorry can't listen to anymore, lost interest and lost the plot can't see 👀 where it's going👎
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- Anonymous User
- 08-03-20
Great.
Narrator is great, clear, easy to follow. Story line of these books also good.
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- Caroline Jones
- 21-01-20
Excellent narration and an interesting world
The narration on this book is brilliant. The story itself is also good and well researched, with plenty of interesting facts about the history and geography of London skillfully woven in.
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- Andrew Murdy
- 03-11-21
Bloody brilliant
Great narration, great music, even better as an audiobook than when I read it! Loved it
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