Rivers of London (book series) (original) (raw)

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Series of urban fantasy novels by Ben Aaronovitch

Rivers of London

Rivers of London (2011) Moon Over Soho (2011) Whispers Under Ground (2012) Broken Homes (2013) Foxglove Summer (2014) The Hanging Tree (2016) The Furthest Station (2017) Lies Sleeping (2018) The October Man (2019) False Value (2020) What Abigail Did That Summer (2021) Amongst Our Weapons (2022) Winter's Gifts (2023) The Masquerades of Spring (2024) Stone and Sky (2025)
Author	Ben Aaronovitch
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre	Urban Fantasy
Publisher	Gollancz
Published	2011–present
Media type	Print

The Rivers of London series (alternatively, the Peter Grant or the PC Grant series[1]) is a series of urban fantasy novels by English author Ben Aaronovitch, and comics/graphic novels by Aaronovitch and Andrew Cartmel, illustrated by Lee Sullivan.

Novels and novellas

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Tales from the Folly

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Tales from the Folly, a short story collection, was published in November 2020.[17][18]

It contains the following stories:

PART ONE: THE PETER GRANT STORIES

• The Home Crowd Advantage
• The Domestic
• The Cockpit
• The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Granny
• King of the Rats
• A Rare Book of Cunning Device

PART TWO: THE OTHERS' STORIES

• A Dedicated Follower of Fashion
• Favourite Uncle
• Vanessa Sommer's Other Christmas List
• Three Rivers, Two Husbands and a Baby
• Moment One: Nightingale - London September 1966
• Moment Two: Reynolds - Florence, Az. 2015
• Moment Three: Tobias Winter - Meckenheim 2012

The graphic novel series is cowritten by Andrew Cartmel. Initially published serially, the individual story arcs later appeared as graphic novels. All the graphic novels are published by Titan Comics.

Future installments

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Aaronovitch has announced some forthcoming titles on his personal blog.

Aaronovitch has announced several works within the same fictional universe, but set outside the chronology of the main series. These works include a short story entitled 'Cock of The Wall' focusing on Petrus Aelius Bekemetus,[24] who Aaronovitch describes as a "temple official/Londinium wideboy" – i.e. set in Roman London which Peter Grant briefly visited in the third book of the series.[25]

• Police Constable, later Detective Sergeant; Peter Grant; an officer in the Metropolitan Police and the first official apprentice wizard in sixty years.
• Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale; head of the Folly and the last officially sanctioned English Wizard.
• Lesley May; Police Constable colleague of Peter's in the Metropolitan Police.
• Detective Chief Inspector Alexander Seawoll; Senior Investigation Officer at the Westminster Murder Investigation Team.
• Detective Sergeant Miriam Stephanopoulos; case officer of the Belgravia Murder Investigation Team and 'right-hand man' to DCI Seawoll.
• Detective Constable, later Detective Sergeant Sahra Guleed; attached to Belgravia Murder Investigation Team, often works with Peter when his cases are in London.
• Dr Abdul Haqq Walid; world-renowned gastroenterologist and cryptopathologist.
• Frank Caffrey; LFB (London Fire Brigade) Fire Investigator, ex-para and a key "associate" of the Folly.
• Professor Harold Postmartin D.Phil. FRS BMon, "Postmartin the Pirate", Archivist and expert for the Folly.
• Molly; The Folly's domestic helper, whose species is not entirely clarified, but she has been referred to as fae-like in the novel Foxglove Summer.
• Abigail Kamara; Peter's annoyingly persistent teen-aged cousin, the de facto founding member of the Folly's Youth Wing. Lives at the same estate as Peter's parents.
• Beverley Brook; "daughter" of Mama Thames and goddess of Beverley Brook, a small river in South London; in later books, Peter Grant's girlfriend.
• Cecilia Tyburn Thames; aka Lady Ty, "daughter" of Mama Thames and goddess of the River Tyburn.
• Oxley; god of the River Oxley, one of the "sons" of Father Thames and his chief negotiator.
• Toby; Peter's dog, who can detect magic, indicated by yapping.
• Varvara Sidorovna Tamonina (aka. Varenka Dobroslova); Russian/Soviet witch (Night Witch), magical WWII veteran (365th Special Regiment of the Red Army), later living on her own in Britain with a magically extended lifetime.

Stories listed by internal chronology

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In a blog entry,[26] the author has provided a list of the stories, by internal chronology.

On the page where the official order is given, the author writes: "One caveat – the short story The Home Crowd Advantage is obviously set in 2012 during the London Olympics, but because it was written before the chronology of the series had firmed up it contains a number of anachronisms. I've learnt to be philosophical about this sort of thing." Many of the stories give vague dates, and some of those dates conflict with the official series order (compare Foxglove Summer and The Furthest Station). The short story collection Tales from the Folly includes a note above each story indicating which of the novels it is set between.

Sarah Shaffi wrote for The Guardian:

The books have consistently featured on bestseller lists, with the most recent two novels – 2022's Amongst Our Weapons and 2020's False Value – going straight to No 1 on the Sunday Times bestseller list...Aaronovitch’s work has been translated into 14 languages and sold in excess of five million copies worldwide, and has its own wiki, Follypedia.[35]

Reviewing the ninth book in the series, Amongst Our Weapons, in The Guardian, Lisa Tuttle wrote:

Aaronovitch has no peers when it comes to successfully combining the appeal of a down-to-earth police procedural with all-out fantasy: here are real places, real history and real problems complicated by the existence of magic, ancient spirits, fairies, ghosts and talking foxes, all dwelling alongside ordinary, clueless humans. His plotting is still satisfyingly inventive and the continuing characters maintain their charm in the ninth novel of a series that began in 2011.[36]

On 1 May 2019 it was announced that a television adaptation of Rivers of London would be produced by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost's production company, Stolen Picture.[37] However, according to Aaronovitch, the series is "still in the same state of permanent pre-pre-production".[38]On 7 July 2022, a new TV adaptation of the book series was announced, to be produced by Pure Fiction Television, See-Saw Films, and Unnecessary Logo—Aaronovitch's production company.[39] On 2 November 2023, it was announced that John Jackson would be lead writer on the television adaptation.[40]

At Dragonmeet convention in London, on 30 November 2019, it was announced that a role-playing game based on the book series would be published by Chaosium.[41] The game was released in PDF first on 30 November 2022, with the print version released 17 April 2023[42]

• GURPS Infinite Worlds#Azoth-7, also based on the premise of Isaac Newton as a major wizard.

1. ^ The PC Grant Novels. Orion Publishing Group. 13 July 2018. ISBN 9781473214385. Retrieved 4 March 2023.
2. ^ Bullock, Saxon (14 January 2011). "Rivers Of London by Ben Aaronovitch – book review". SFX. Retrieved 25 November 2011.
3. ^ Ingham, Peter (24 June 2011). "Book Review". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 28 November 2011.
4. ^ Walter, Damien (21 November 2012). "London: fantasy's capital city". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
5. ^ Aaronovitch, Ben (12 July 2018). Broken Homes. Orion Publishing Group, Limited. ISBN 978-0-575-13248-1.
6. ^ "Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch book review - Fantasy Book Review". www.fantasybookreview.co.uk. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
7. ^ Aaronovitch, Ben (12 July 2018). The Hanging Tree. Orion. ISBN 978-0-575-13258-0.
8. ^ Aaronovitch, Ben (13 July 2018). The Furthest Station. Gollancz. ISBN 978-1-4732-2243-4.
9. ^ Aaronovitch, Ben (13 July 2018). Lies Sleeping. Orion. ISBN 978-1-4732-0784-4.
10. ^ Aaronovitch, Ben (5 November 2019). The October Man. Orion Publishing Group, Limited. ISBN 978-1-4732-2432-2.
11. ^ "False Value By Ben Aaronovitch". penguinrandomhouse.com. Penguin Random House. Retrieved 6 July 2019.
12. ^ False Value By Ben Aaronovitch. Gollancz. 21 May 2019. ISBN 9781473207882. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
13. ^ "False Value By Ben Aaronovitch". penguinrandomhouse.com. Penguin Random House. Retrieved 6 July 2019.
14. ^ False Value By Ben Aaronovitch. Gollancz. 21 May 2019. ISBN 9781473207882. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
15. ^ "Amongst our weapons". Goldsboro Books. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
16. ^ "Ben Aaronovitch". Retrieved 21 November 2024.
17. ^ "Tales from the Folly Review".
18. ^ "Tales from the Folly - Subterranean Press".
19. ^ Ben Aaronovitch; Andrew Cartmel (2017). Black Mould. Titan Comics. ISBN 9781785863851. - Rivers of London Reader's Guide
20. ^ Ben Aaronovitch; Andrew Cartmel (2016). Night Witch. Titan Comics. ISBN 9781785852930.
21. ^ Ben Aaronovitch; Andrew Cartmel (2017). Black Mould. Titan Comics. ISBN 9781785863851.
22. ^ Ben Aaronovitch; Andrew Cartmel (2021). Monday, Monday. Titan Comics. ISBN 9781787736269.
23. ^ Ben Aaronovitch; Andrew Cartmel (2024). Here Be Dragons. Titan Comics. ISBN 9781787740921.
24. ^ "Temporarily Significant – Book and Comic Chronology". Retrieved 1 October 2017.
25. ^ "Ben Aaronovitch on Twitter". Retrieved 7 October 2017.
26. ^ "Temporarily Significant: Book and Comic Chronology".
27. ^ Aaronovitch, Ben. Takes from the Folly states that this story occurs between Foxglove Summer and The Hanging Tree.
28. ^ "The Hanging Tree Announcement - Gollancz". Archived from the original on 5 July 2018. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
29. ^ "The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch: 9780756409678 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books". PenguinRandomhouse.com.
30. ^ Aaronovitch, Ben. Takes from the Folly states that this story occurs between The Hanging Tree and Lies Sleeping.
31. ^ Aaronovitch, Ben. Lies Sleeping. p. 2.
32. ^ Aaronovich, Ben (2018). Lies Sleeping. Gollancz. pp. 90–91. ISBN 9781473207837.
33. ^ Khaleeli, Homa and Weale, Sally (16 June 2015). "Michelle Obama tells London schoolgirls 'the world needs you'". The Guardian.
34. ^ This can be dated by a reference in the opening chapter of the novel, where Peter starts a new job on same day that David Bowie died, i.e., 10 January 2016
35. ^ "Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London novels are set for TV adaptation". TheGuardian.com. 7 July 2022.
36. ^ "The best recent science fiction and fantasy – reviews roundup". TheGuardian.com. 8 April 2022.
37. ^ "Simon Pegg and Nick Frost to turn fantasy novel series Rivers of London into a TV series". Retrieved 10 May 2019.
38. ^ Tabler, Elizabeth (29 April 2022). "An Interview With Ben Aaronovitch". Grimdark Magazine. Retrieved 13 July 2022.
39. ^ Shaffi, Sarah (7 July 2022). "Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London novels are set for TV adaptation". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 July 2022.
40. ^ "Rivers of London set writing team led by the Gentlemen scribe".
41. ^ "Chaosium Announces Rivers of London Roleplaying Game". Retrieved 2 January 2020.
42. ^ "Rivers of London the RPG out in hardcover April 17th".