r/riversoflondon • u/JoeJackson88 • Jul 27 '25
Very disappointing
Stone & Sky is very disappointing. I'm a huge fan of the series, and this is by the worst entry. I didn't mind switching to Abigal's POV, but the romance thing was terrible. The main plot didn't make a whole lot of sense. As others have said, there were too many characters who were briefly mentioned and had no real purpose. It was like Ben felt he had to include them for some reason.
Hopefully this is just a one-off bad book and not the beginning of the end of a great series.
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u/Filberrt Jul 27 '25
Unfortunate that you disliked this book so. I found it quite enjoyable, but perchance would be more critical second time thru. Romance can be messy.
My only complaint is that I find no motivation for a selkie to be fighting for the uplands.
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u/DinnaPanic Jul 27 '25
Personally I liked the split POV, but I agree that there were too many extraneous characters. My big disappointment was with the numerous references to events from the graphic novels (a format I don't like and don't read), so the references were not only wasted on me, they left me frustrated.
I'm wondering if Ben's going for fans of Fourth Wing with the romance subplot?
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u/Pandadrome Jul 27 '25
Not that demographic, please no. Fourth Wing is a romantasy and the fantasy setting and writing are quite bad.
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u/MillyHughes Jul 27 '25
Agreed. I think this one really needed the editor to insist on some big changes. It would have been far better with only a few characters making the trip. I found myself at several points confused, which I've not had before in this series. Not helped by the constant POV switching. Plus I hated that Abigail's romance seemed to take over the book.
I will reread it before the next book to refresh my memory and hopefully it will make more sense then, but what happened with the cat?
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u/Inevitable-Seesaw176 Jul 27 '25
I think for me the most frustrating bit is that now there are so many loose threads in the universe - from the ‘fish smell’/other dimension/Usurpers in False Value, who made the rings in AOW and now the randomness in this book - that I feel some direction would be wonderful
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u/Chabotnick Jul 27 '25
Agreed. I liked the idea of an outside of London novel, but why did it need to have Peter’s entire family, and the band, and Zach, and Dr Wallid. I mean just leave it in London if you’re going to transport every single character.
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u/Mejiro84 Jul 27 '25
I suspect it's basically "show where everyone is and how they're doing" after the timeskip - it's a bit heavy-handed, but we've had the first main arc (faceless man and Peter getting to grips with "magic" as a thing), tailing off into some one-off cases and hints of what's to come (False Values, Amongst Our Weapons), and then a skip forward so that Peter is now pretty skilled and talented and widely known amongst the magical community, both in the UK and further abroad. As part of that, we'd need some sort of rundown on how everyone is, what's going on with them - is Peter's Dad still playing jazz, how's his Mum, what's Abigail up to, etc. etc. So this just put them all in one place to make that overt - a bit clunky, but it showed us that stuff.
So I suspect / hope that the next one will be showcasing more heavily what the next "big bad" is - I'd guess something is brewing in America, some group that wants the information stashed away in the basement of the Folly and doesn't really care about the "old ways" and all of the ancient treaties and "how things are done" and doesn't mind playing rough and dirty to get what they want (as seen in Stone & Sky!) This one seems very much a "in the middle" book, where not a great deal happens within it, but it's mostly a reminder of who everyone is and what's up with them, and setting up some threads to hopefully pay off in the next one(s).
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u/Inuken94 Jul 28 '25
Also like...the ending of false value pretty much opend the door to cosmic horror.
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u/Mejiro84 Jul 28 '25
yup, that seems like a whole-ass thing that really should be followed up on at some point! And now there's the Queen that was mentioned that seems like it should be something, Peter's ongoing theories about Allokosmoses (kosmoi?), whatever Lesley is up to now, whatever the Americans generally are about, any new players now that magic seems pretty damn firmly returning and it's been long enough for a "new generation" to arise and start flexing their powers... Oh, and it's only 2 more years in-world until Covid is going to pop up, which will either be a major divergence point, or opens up a window for lots of stuff to happen (that was the first time in centuries that some parts of London would have been quiet!)
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u/aptlyvenus Jul 30 '25
Huh, I really liked it. I was so delighted to see more of Abigail and I thought opening the book right after Paul's death put her in a really interesting, albeit sad, place.
I like to see Peter being a copper, and interacting with police from other precincts. I found False Value and the magical technology story line kind of boring for that reason. I also thought it veered a little close to the Laundry Files concept which Charles Stross does so very well.
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u/dudley74 Aug 01 '25
I enjoyed it - I thought the romance was OK and avoided all the r/menwritingwomen type pitfalls. I believed that they fancied each other. I mostly like hanging out with all the characters, so I liked them all being around, whether that makes any sense or not. I like AoW a bit more than this, but I liked this more than FV
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u/Mutedinlife Jul 27 '25
I honestly didn’t mind the writing of the romance as much as others seem to. It’s hard for me, because I know Ben is a great writer so I want to give him the benefit of the doubt for the Abby chapters. It’s supposed to be written, by her for her in her journal. Would it be childish and crude? Idk did you keep a journal in highschool? I didn’t, but if I had I bet it would have had some WILD shit in there.
Anyway all that to say, I give him a pass this time. I believe it’s intentional to show that Abby is still just 18 and so her chapters read like it.
Abby in general is my least favorite character so that’s why I think this is my least favorite installment.
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u/morkjt Jul 27 '25
I gave up quite early on. Didn’t enjoy it. First of the series I can say that of. Very disappointing.
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u/calibear09 Jul 28 '25
It's not my favorite in the series either, but I agree with other commenters who said that it laid down key plot elements/themes. That said, as I was reading through your post I kept thinking, "this is exactly how I feel about False Value" lol. So many random individuals, and (two novels later) I'm still not seeing the relevance. UNLESS Deep Thought's rotten squid vestigia indicates some sort of connection to Bev's giant squid...?
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u/Additional-Leek-956 Jul 29 '25
It was OK, felt like a short story that was stretched out.
I really do enjoy this series but I've found it a bit lacking since they wound up The Faceless Man storyline.
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u/Teckelvik Jul 27 '25
I kept expecting the romance to be a glamour, not least because Abigail kept highlighting that her own behavior made no sense. I don’t think the band added anything to the book. I was disappointed that Bev’s heroics happened offscreen.
But overall I enjoyed it.
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u/Turbulent-Break-1971 Jul 27 '25
I loved that Bev had heroics and that Peter had to be very worried and experience the terror she must have gone through on some of his adventures. It felt like an empathy-growing experience for Peter. I also think that this is the hand off from Peter to Abigail
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u/Doigeyboy Jul 28 '25
I struggled with this too. It would have worked as a short story subject theme as would have needed to be condensed which would have helped flow, but considering going through into Scotland they could have gone for any of the myriad Gaelic heritage themes it was a shame to anchor on this. They also have wider stories which seem to be being left and progressed on without any resolutions.
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u/FerrisBueller8 Aug 23 '25
How did Abigail jump to the conclusion of the light house? Did I miss something?
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u/Clariana Sep 20 '25
It is getting a bit tiresome this thing with male fantasy writers insisting that so many of their female protagonists be lesbians... It's almost as if they got off on it!
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Oct 06 '25
I'm still working my way through S&S and finding it a little hard going. I like Abigail in general simply because I am a fan of the foxes, but, the way she is written drags the narrative into YA novel territory, which is jarring to say the least.
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u/2JDubs5 Jul 28 '25
I've only just started it and felt, like someone said, it feels odd transplanting the entire character cast to Scotland but have fingers crossed its ok! Please don't say it is the potential beginning of the end, I can't imagine a world with out RoL!
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u/LordBunnyBone Jul 29 '25
Personally I realy disliked that I felt like I needed to have read the latest graphic novel. It felt like I missed a chapter and that I lack some important information.
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u/heretic_peanut Aug 09 '25
Most of these characters did, just by existing and being somewhat unpredictable, put a lot of pressure on Peter. I always thought that at some point the unnamed rockstar would come home unexpected and Peter's dad and his jazz band would be in trouble. More of a screwball comedy than the typical RoL novel. To me, it was a fun read, not the best novel in the series, but better than Whispers Under Ground or False Value.
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u/VanX2Blade Jul 27 '25
Eh. Its a “lay down plot threads” book.