#false value

[ilikepears85]

I hope Dr Walid doesn’t know that Nightingale plans on leaving his brain to science because he’ll be so pissed off if he dies before the ageless wizard.

Not that he wants his friend to die but Nightingales brain is the holy grail of weird brains.

[catalists]

“What have we got to lose?” I said. Nightingale looked up and gave me a strange, sad smile. “Oh, everything, Peter,” he said. “But then, such is life.”

False Value by Ben Aaronovitch

[gollancz]

someone!! Ages ago!! Asked me about the glow in the dark Ben Aaronovitch cover and I didn't have a copy but!!

I found one!!

I'm trying to get a photo but all the lights in this building are motion activated so every time I think I've found a dark room the lights turn on!

[kamreadsandrecs]

“It’s a context problem,” … “People have much narrower knowledge bases than they think they do.” What they mostly know about police and intelligence work they get from the media. This is why it’s easier to infiltrate political groups than criminal ones. However revolutionary they think they are, they see police officers as slightly thick bovver boys in big boots. When a personable middle-class guy turns up in a khaki jacket, a CND badge and smelling of patchouli, they’re practically invisible. Criminals, on the other hand, deal with the police all the time and know what they smell like. All of this, Silver reckoned, went double for Americans, who intellectually knew the rest of the world existed but didn’t really believe it. “Not deep down where it counts,” …

-- from False Value (Rivers of London/Peter Grant #8), by Ben Aaronovitch

[tennisdadsaficionado]

so i finally got around to reading False Value (aka “Peter Grant goes undercover in a tech start-up and everything is somehow still about magic”) and… 3.5 stars feels about right.

✨ the good stuff:

peter’s voice is still sharp, funny, and delightfully nerdy

i enjoyed the corporate satire — billionaires, tech bros, and magical weirdness mesh surprisingly well

london setting >>> always a win

🤔 the not-so-good:

pacing was weird. like, it either dragged with info-dumps or suddenly exploded into action

i lost track of half the side characters. who were these people? did i miss a flowchart??

felt like more groundwork for future books than a fully satisfying story on its own

overall: not a bad time, just not the strongest rivers of london entry. transitional book energy. still love peter though.

[desidesidesi]

Yep. From Greenland to Panama, you'll find this one voice that encapsulates all of North America 🤣

[margysmusings]

Americans, who intellectually knew the rest of the world existed but didn’t really believe it.

Ben Aaronovitch, False Value

[book-quotes-and-moodboards]

...quite a high percentage of the public have all the survival instincts of a moth in a candle factory. They run the wrong way, they refuse to move, some will run towards the danger, and others will instantly whip out their phones and take footage.

False Value (by Ben Aaronovitch)