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The newest Rivers of London book came out this week, and as soon as I finished it, I was eager to go online and discuss it with people who love Rivers of London. The discord and dreamwidth communities being fairly quiet, I went on tumblr. And was surprised by what I found.
The strongest and most common reaction so far seems to be distress about Nightingale announcing he's going to retire sometime in the future, leaving Peter in charge of the Folly and policing the magical world, while Nightingale turns to teaching magic and traveling the world. There was talk about Aaronovitch trying to shove Peter down fandom's throats, and how Nightingale was the one fandom loves, and how awful things will be when he's gone.
Peter is the protagonist of the series. Peter has always been the protagonist of the series. If you look at any of the books, Nightingale appears a fraction of the amount Peter does ... and it's not a large fraction, either. Peter is the one doing all of the investigating; sometimes he consults with Nightingale. Sometimes Nightingale shows up to save Peter's bacon. But it's always Peter's actions and reactions driving the main plot and any secondary plots. It is always Peter's emotional life that is explored and drives the emotional heart of the book. When you look at who gets the most page time and who is driving the action and emotional arcs, it is never Nightingale. Not only that, I'm pretty sure that Nightingale isn't even the secondary person driving the action and emotional arcs in any of the books! If you look at who is, after Peter, the person in each book whose choices and emotional life dictate the story the most, it's never Nightingale! It's Lesley up through Broken Homes, and then Beverly from there on out. Nightingale is important, a deus ex machina and mentor, but Rivers of London is not and never has been his story. It's Peter's story, and after Peter it's Lesley and Beverly's story, and only then do you get Nightingale.
Complaining about Nightingale retiring is sort of like watching the Star Wars Original Trilogy, and complaining that Lucas killed Obi-Wan Kenobi off to shove Luke down peoples' throats. Regardless of how much you love Obi-Wan, the OT is not about him. It's about Luke and Leia and Han. The thing about the wise mentor character (which is what Nightingale is!) is that once the main character they're mentoring gets above a certain level of ability, the mentor has to step aside to allow the main character to grow and develop. A lot of the time they do that by killing the mentor character to give angst to the main character. (That's why Obi-Wan died, for example.) But that's not what Aaronovitch is doing; Nightingale is retiring and plans to both travel the world and also spend time teaching. Which means both that a) he's available to have novellas and comic books written about his adventures and b) he's going to probably be available to Peter for consultations and the like, so even after he retires (which will probably be a few books in the future, yet) he's still going to be around. If nothing else, Peter's only been an apprentice for about four years by the time of Amongst Our Weapons, and it takes a decade to train someone up to mastery; Nightingale has to be around enough to teach Peter for at least the next six years, even if he retires from active policing. Also, he probably wouldn't want to leave until Peter is at least an Inspector, just because the Folly sometimes needs that weight of seniority on their cases.
And, you know, I love Nightingale too! Nightingale is a great character. He's powerful, he's got an air of mystery about him, he's charming and posh, he's got a tragic backstory, I love him too. But Peter is great, too. Peter is funny and determined and caring and deeply principled and is aware of the evil and injustice in the world and very realistic about it, but never allows that to drag him down or let the ends justify the means.
The strongest and most common reaction so far seems to be distress about Nightingale announcing he's going to retire sometime in the future, leaving Peter in charge of the Folly and policing the magical world, while Nightingale turns to teaching magic and traveling the world. There was talk about Aaronovitch trying to shove Peter down fandom's throats, and how Nightingale was the one fandom loves, and how awful things will be when he's gone.
Peter is the protagonist of the series. Peter has always been the protagonist of the series. If you look at any of the books, Nightingale appears a fraction of the amount Peter does ... and it's not a large fraction, either. Peter is the one doing all of the investigating; sometimes he consults with Nightingale. Sometimes Nightingale shows up to save Peter's bacon. But it's always Peter's actions and reactions driving the main plot and any secondary plots. It is always Peter's emotional life that is explored and drives the emotional heart of the book. When you look at who gets the most page time and who is driving the action and emotional arcs, it is never Nightingale. Not only that, I'm pretty sure that Nightingale isn't even the secondary person driving the action and emotional arcs in any of the books! If you look at who is, after Peter, the person in each book whose choices and emotional life dictate the story the most, it's never Nightingale! It's Lesley up through Broken Homes, and then Beverly from there on out. Nightingale is important, a deus ex machina and mentor, but Rivers of London is not and never has been his story. It's Peter's story, and after Peter it's Lesley and Beverly's story, and only then do you get Nightingale.
Complaining about Nightingale retiring is sort of like watching the Star Wars Original Trilogy, and complaining that Lucas killed Obi-Wan Kenobi off to shove Luke down peoples' throats. Regardless of how much you love Obi-Wan, the OT is not about him. It's about Luke and Leia and Han. The thing about the wise mentor character (which is what Nightingale is!) is that once the main character they're mentoring gets above a certain level of ability, the mentor has to step aside to allow the main character to grow and develop. A lot of the time they do that by killing the mentor character to give angst to the main character. (That's why Obi-Wan died, for example.) But that's not what Aaronovitch is doing; Nightingale is retiring and plans to both travel the world and also spend time teaching. Which means both that a) he's available to have novellas and comic books written about his adventures and b) he's going to probably be available to Peter for consultations and the like, so even after he retires (which will probably be a few books in the future, yet) he's still going to be around. If nothing else, Peter's only been an apprentice for about four years by the time of Amongst Our Weapons, and it takes a decade to train someone up to mastery; Nightingale has to be around enough to teach Peter for at least the next six years, even if he retires from active policing. Also, he probably wouldn't want to leave until Peter is at least an Inspector, just because the Folly sometimes needs that weight of seniority on their cases.
And, you know, I love Nightingale too! Nightingale is a great character. He's powerful, he's got an air of mystery about him, he's charming and posh, he's got a tragic backstory, I love him too. But Peter is great, too. Peter is funny and determined and caring and deeply principled and is aware of the evil and injustice in the world and very realistic about it, but never allows that to drag him down or let the ends justify the means.
no subject
Date: 2022-04-16 03:06 pm (UTC)From:But I honestly think latent, or not so latent, racism is in there as well. Otherwise, I feel like there would be a lot more fic about Beverly.
no subject
Date: 2022-04-16 05:25 pm (UTC)From: