The RIB: Tales from the Folly by Ben Aaronovitch
I enjoy the Rivers of London series. I’m not a hardcore fan; instead, I meander through them like a slowly winding stream, often encountering them at the library. This means I read them out of order, with lots of odd discoveries.
And so I encountered Tales from the Folly at Parramatta Library (or 'Phive' as the trendy people call the council building). Some of the stories here were written to go in the backs of the standard books (driven by Waterstones). Some of them are from the point of view of supporting characters. A few of them were even turned into scenarios for the Rivers of London roleplaying game - I recognised them first from running the adventure at my local tabletop roleplaying club!
Aaronovitch has a nice, warm style that comes across here. And indeed, I would have liked some of the stories to be longer; some of them felt they needed an extra scene. But overall, it’s a high-quality collection. Probably the ones I enjoyed were Peter Grant (the main narrator of the series) staring in the opener The Home Crowd Advantage, where he deals with a criminal who’s desperately after a magical duel with Nightingale.
Other standouts were Favourite Uncle (where Abigail, the teenage wizard, conducts her own occult investigation), and the charming Three Rivers, Two Husbands and a Baby, which shows Peter, Nightingale, river gods and human friends attending a wedding. (With a cameo by the delightful talking foxes!)
There are also three pieces that Aaronovitch calls ‘moments’, which are character vignettes rather than stories. More of an item of interest than top billing.
Anyway, if you enjoy Rivers of London, you’ll like this. I wouldn’t say it works if you don’t know anything about the world, but who knows? There’s enough implied backstory, delight and skilful writing to make this an enjoyable quick read.