Stone and Sky by Ben Aaronovitch

Stone and Sky is Ben Aaronovitch’s tenth Rivers of London novel, and that is on top of a graphic novel series and a bunch of novellas all in the same universe. So there are a lot of side characters, plenty of backstory for them and their world and heaps of lore. And yet, despite all of this, in Stone and Sky, Aaronovitch still manages, almost, to tell a contained story with some real emotional stakes that once again broadens his universe.

Stone and Sky moves the action from England to Scotland, with the team called in to investigate sightings of a black panther near Aberdeen. But once Peter and his boss Nightingale are going on what looks like a bit of a jaunt, everyone else travels with them: Peter’s niece Abigail, who is now also an apprentice wizard, and her talking fox companion Indigo, Peter’s wife Beverley (one of London’s river goddesses) and their two year old twins, Peter’s parents (to look after the twins) and Peter’s father’s jazz band (because he might as well do some gigs while they are in Scotland). And soon there is more to investigate than just strange creatures, including the death of a man who may well actually be a selkie (mythical creatures that live in the ocean) and the disappearance of a researcher working for a company that runs oil platforms off the coast.

So there is plenty going on. Aaronovitch handles the need to be in multiple places at once by splitting the narrative between the series’ traditional narrator, Peter, and his niece Abigail. By book 10 in a series, readers are not necessarily coming back for a page turning crime drama, although Aaronovitch does deliver an interesting mystery in Stone and Sky. Rather they are looking to catch up with favourite characters and to learn more about the detailed world that Aaronovitch continues to build out. In this case adding selkies and mermaids, as well as introducing some new river gods and bringing back some dangerous mythical creatures. In this volume, readers also get a teen holiday romance for Abigail.

As this series grows, Aaronovitch is increasingly having to walk a fine line between providing historical detail, callbacks to previous adventures and keeping the books accessible to new readers. He manages to do this in Stone and Sky partly through Peter having to bring his Scottish police partner up to speed. But the sheer number of characters and concepts still may make this a little bewildering for those just coming into the series. Aaronovitch also seems to be setting up a new “big bad”, dropping hints about potential confrontations to come.

By taking the action out of the UK, Aaronovitch broadens his world by drawing on some other mythologies. And under it all, this is also a book that grapples with a number of larger themes around Scottish independence and North Sea oil exploration. Overall, Stone and Sky is not the best of the Rivers of London series but is still a solid entry – an enjoyable fantasy mystery, centred on a group of well developed (and well loved) characters and full of Aaronovitch’s usual pop culture references and sly observations.

Stone and Sky by Ben Aaronovitch

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8.0/10