London Falling by Paul Cornell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I started reading this book and put it aside after the first 30 pages because I was struggling to work out what was going on, wasn’t sure I liked any of the characters and … I just didn’t feel like it was going to work for me. I’m so glad that I picked it back up again.
Once you get past the first 30-50 pages the plot takes off like the best kind of rocket, there are four main characters who are all excellently written and complement each other to allow full realisation of all of their facets, there is an exposition of what is a brilliant and completely internally consistent supernatural world and despite it being the first in a series it still wraps up the main plot line completely and satisfactorily. It also leaves enough minor threads unraveled that you can see plenty more mileage in the series.
However the best thing, as far as I am concerned, is that it turns London into a character in herself, in a way that is – superficially – similar to Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London series. London shines like a grubby diamond all the way through this book and it is clear that the depths of her have yet to be plumbed.
All in all, I can’t recommend this book enough.
Kizzia Mildmay 