The Sword and Laser discussion

Plenty of people have mentioned being long time readers/listeners of the series so I thought maybe a thread on the whole series would be OK? Is that OK? Kill this if it's not cool mods.

If you're new to RoL and enjoyed it (found it to be in your wheel house) I would say keep reading. It's pretty reliably readable and doesn't deviate far from the template established in RoL. Personally I felt like the law of diminishing returns meant I was enjoying each book a little less (still solid three star reads though) up until something clicked again with The Furthest Station novella.
This month instead of a re-read I've read The October Man (the third novella) and False Value (the eighth novel) and really enjoyed both.
If you're on the lookout for something that reads similarly but with a different theme I'd suggest Andrew Cartmel's The Vinyl Detective series. Cartmel collaborates closely with Aaronovitch on the RoL graphic novels.
There's no magic, so wouldn't be a sword or a laser, but does have a London centric mystery with a perspective character who eyerolls their way through life. Yeah, it felt pretty familiar.

I'm enjoying the series quite a lot. I had read the first three in audio a while ago, but I reread them for the August pick. I'm now on book 5 Foxglove Summer. i haven't tead any of the short stories or novellas that are before book 5. Smith is a fantastic narrator!

Leesa wrote: "...Foxglove Summer..."

That's probably my favorite so far, I think, though I haven't read the latest one yet. Hope you're enjoying it.

I found The October Man to be an interesting diversion from the Peter Grant novels (it’s in-universe but set in Germany, with a different POV). Although not narrated by Kobna, I thought it was a creditable listen and, if continued, would make an interesting side-thread to the main novels.

I think Aaronovitch is writing another in-universe story with POV of FBI Agent Kimberly Reynolds introduced in Whispers Under Ground. He's been asking about American English usage on Twitter lately.

I'm up to Foxglove Summer, which I really enjoyed. I think, if anything the books tend to improve as Aaronovitch gets more experience writing them, and develops the characters. On the other hand, yes, there is a law of diminishing returns and I recall not liking Broken Homes so much as the others. The novellas and comics remain on my to-read list just for lack of time at the present.

Copy edit of the Reynolds novella is done!

https://twitter.com/Ben_Aaronovitch/s...

I am a fan of the books and as a German October Man was a treat :) Not so much into the Graphic Novels, the drawings just don't do it for me.
I have to say that with the wrapup of the overarching story in the hanging tree I am interested in where we move going forward, and one element I absolutely love is how slowly Aaronovitch is edging towards some kind of awakening, with more and more of the service being aware and active on the supernatural side, without going as bombastic as the Dresden Files.

I’m a big fan of the series. While to a certain extent I’ve found some of the newer entries are rehashing old ground, I also really appreciate how Aaronovitch has continued to develop the world, without making our POV character too over-powered or everything getting out of hand and unbelievable.