Rate this book

Whispers Underground (2000)

by Ben Aaronovitch(Favorite Author)

4.13 of 5 Votes: 5

languge

English

genre

Paranormal Fantasy

publisher

Gollancz

series

Peter Grant

review 1: I had hoped to come across such a book as this since reading the Harry Potter books, I will try not to give too much away. An apprentice wizard with the police force and his adventures. Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings are linked within the adventure, I think I would have given one more star for Peter Grant (apprentice) to say during the tale that this or that in the Harry Potter/Lord of the Rings stories were true or not true, instead they are just referred to.But on the whole an excellent tale of adventure to loose yourself.
review 2: "A mix of Harry Potter and CSI" was written on the cover as one of the press comments. I just had to take it… And it turns out - it is exactely that: crime and magic, modern and old, Harry Potter and CSI."Whispers under ... moreGround", like the other books in the series, is set in modern day London - but there is also magic. Only few practice it and the novel follows a young man who works for the police and has both technology and magic at hands to solve crimes. This is a nice and fresh angel to both the fantasy and the crime novel.There is some british humor, an interesting cast of characters, a thrilling plot and nice hints to previous and future novels. Because the book is set in todays world, there are references to Harry Potter, LotR, Terry Pratchett, Doctor Who and Avatar (the anime), which is really nice to discover.The biggest plus this novel gets, however, is for a believable and not in-your-face diversity. The protagonist is black, his boss is a woman and Greek, another woman wears a hijab, and witnesses are asked if they are gay for their roommate. But the thing is: all this is portrayed as totally normal, without judgement or comments. There is no “she is the only [insert minority] in [e.g. the police force]” and no “she was …, …, …, … - and [minority]”. It is also never the first thing we learn about the character, but mentioned later on, casually, in a half-sentence (the hijab, for example, makes an appearance only when the character puts on a hat. The diversity is not the main thing to always be mentioned, it is just another feature of the character. And that is how you should do diversity. less

Download links for: Whispers Underground

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