London Falling by Paul CornellMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
I'm not sure if it's my recent mood or the books that I've been reading that have led me to begin several recent reviews with, this book was not as good as I had hoped it would be. A book about a London police squad that suddenly becomes able to see the things that go bump in the dark and have to use that sudden ability to hunt down a supernatural enemy? Right up my alley. But the overarching story of this book left me disappointed. I kept reading, thinking that the focus on football was weirdly specific, but I hoped that some background information would give it a deeper meaning.
Unfortunately, the background info provided for the villain didn't really help. In fact, the thought that came to mind when I read it was how when a person learns about "past lives", they find that they were always Cleopatra or Napoleon or at least closely associated with a famous person or royalty of some variety. The author tried to establish a back story that in some way explained the heinous acts in the present, but the punch I think he was trying to throw just didn't land.
I also came across quite a few lines that I had to read several times, some of which still didn't make any sense. I read a good bit of British literature, so I don't think it's about a difference in language. In fact, it was so bad that I had to underline a couple of lines to come back to later. For instance, in describing the search for some missing children, there's this line: "They had so many alerts for missing children in place it wasn't true..." Now, you might think the previous line must include something that provides context: "Quill had been in conference with Lofthouse a great deal, trying to find some resource or clue in the evidence coming out of any of the searched houses, Tochack's included, but so far there had been nothing." If that sentence helps explain the following one, please leave me a comment and explain it to me, because I just don't get it. There were several moments like that through the book.
Another thing that bothered me was the graphic violence at the end. Which, for a book that includes depictions of a person's blood exploding out of them, is saying something. It just seemed overly graphic and didn't fit in with the way the violence was described in the rest of the book. Finally, I didn't appreciate the blatant set-up for the sequel novel. Not that this book ended with a cliff-hanger, exactly, but it reminded me of the old Halloween movies, where you think the villain is dead, then the final scene shows the empty spot where his body should be. It's a blatant set-up, and I find it extremely annoying. In fact, because of the weaknesses in this book and the way it ended, I don't plan on reading the follow-up. Your mileage may vary.
Because I read the paper edition, I will include my highlights here:
That had been the knife that had severed something she had herself stretched very tight. p. 85
It felt as if they hated her mistress, yet loved her at the same time. They lover her for being something they could hate. They might love her entirely if she became a victim..." p. 280
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