The Naming Of The Beasts: A Felix Castor Novel: Amazon.co.uk: Mike Carey: Books

Review

A welcome return for Felix Castor... You'll literally find hours disappearing when turning the pages of The Naming of the Beasts, and afterwards you'll be clamouring for more. Carey's unique and eminently readable style, with his excellent command of concise description and dialogue lends itself perfectly to the pacing of the book, one that we found ourselves wanting to re-read as soon as we finished it. It's highly recommended for fans of the Castor books, and for those that aren't familiar with the character, we'd be amazed if it didn't entice you to pick up earlier entries from this grim and depressing, yet wholly engrossing series. At the very least, you might not look at London in the same way again. SciFi Now Like Humphrey Bogart meets John Constantine, Felix Castor makes for an enjoyably, untrustworthy guide through the undead-filled streets of London, as painted by Mike Carey ... huge verve and energy ... engaging and vivacious ... Carey has a fine e SFX Mike Carey's Felix Castor novels are something special ... the writing is just brilliant with each volume jam-packed with vividly descriptive prose, witty dialogue, clever phrases and some of the best similies/metaphors I've had the pleasure of reading ... Mike's books possess remarkable depth which applies to both the aforementioned characters and prose as well as dense plotting and highly creative supernatural elements that have their own scientific logic. In other words, reading most urban fantasy nowadays is like watching a movie trailer on your computer - short and fun, but unsatisfying - whereas the Felix Castor novels offer the full IMAX experience ... Mike Carey's Felix Castor novels are simply one of the best urban fantasy series on the market today ... ' FantasyBookCritic.blogspot.com: reviews of all five books 'The Naming of the Beasts is Mike Carey's best outing yet for Felix Castor. Book six cannot come soon enough as far as I'm concerned!' Graeme'sFantasyBookReview.com There are some authors that guarantee a good read. Mike Carey is one of them. His Felix Castor novels are edgy and realistic, portraying London and its surroundings in a way that makes you hurry past dark alleyways even faster than usual, your back hol

Review

A welcome return for Felix Castor... You'll literally find hours disappearing when turning the pages of The Naming of the Beasts, and afterwards you'll be clamouring for more. Carey's unique and eminently readable style, with his excellent command of concise description and dialogue lends itself perfectly to the pacing of the book, one that we found ourselves wanting to re-read as soon as we finished it. It's highly recommended for fans of the Castor books, and for those that aren't familiar with the character, we'd be amazed if it didn't entice you to pick up earlier entries from this grim and depressing, yet wholly engrossing series. At the very least, you might not look at London in the same way again. (SciFi Now )

Like Humphrey Bogart meets John Constantine, Felix Castor makes for an enjoyably, untrustworthy guide through the undead-filled streets of London, as painted by Mike Carey . . . huge verve and energy . . . engaging and vivacious . . . Carey has a fine e (SFX )

Mike Carey's Felix Castor novels are something special . . . the writing is just brilliant with each volume jam-packed with vividly descriptive prose, witty dialogue, clever phrases and some of the best similies/metaphors I've had the pleasure of reading . . . Mike's books possess remarkable depth which applies to both the aforementioned characters and prose as well as dense plotting and highly creative supernatural elements that have their own scientific logic. In other words, reading most urban fantasy nowadays is like watching a movie trailer on your computer - short and fun, but unsatisfying - whereas the Felix Castor novels offer the full IMAX experience . . . Mike Carey's Felix Castor novels are simply one of the best urban fantasy series on the market today . . . ' FantasyBookCritic.blogspot.com: reviews of all five books (‘The Naming of the Beasts is Mike Carey’s best outing yet for Felix Castor. Book six cannot come soon enough as far as I’m concerned!’ Graeme’sFantasyBookReview.com )

There are some authors that guarantee a good read. Mike Carey is one of them. His Felix Castor novels are edgy and realistic, portraying London and its surroundings in a way that makes you hurry past dark alleyways even faster than usual, your back hol

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

And then there was one... 8 Sep 2009

By Call Me Sparky VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

I'm a bit sad if truth be told. I've waited for ages for this book to come out and then read it in a day.

Picking up shortly after the events of 'Thicker Than Water', we find Castor being torn between self-pity and self-loathing. Having taken to the bottle, he is almost prepared to give up on everything, until enemies and friends conspire to drag him out of his funk.

Asmodeus/Rafi are on the run, causing random acts of savagery and havoc, Juliet is going mental, and human enemies are all over him...

I won't go into detail about the plot as it would spoil the ending, and seeing as there is one more book left (according to Carey), it may give you clues as to who/what his nemeses (plural) may be.

Excellently written, we get a feel for Castor, a laconic, sarcastic and down at heel exorcist with a clear sense of morals in a world that is being torn apart. The support sharacters are well drawn out too, from his undead version of Huggy Bear, to the new allies he amasses.

Possibly best read immediately after 'Thicker Than Water', this is the best book in the series by far and when Carey finally does finish up, I can only hope his next hero/anti-hero is as well realised as Felix Castor.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

Better and better... 9 Sep 2009

By Sandra Smythe

This is the 5th book in Mike Carey's Felix Castor series and it is certainly one of the best so far, if not the best book in the series. The book is set a few weeks after the events in Thicker Than Water and we find Felix initially drowning his sorrows in spectular style before pulling himself together to once again face the dangers caused by Asmodeus. I won't go into detail about the plot so as not to give any spoilers away but, as I have come to expect from Carey, the action is tightly plotted, well-written and compulsive. I think Felix is one of the best protaganists I have come across in this type of series and the development of his character by Carey has been excellent and this novel fully realises his ability for inventiveness and his way of seeing totally "outside of the box" whilst retaining the dark sense of humour and quips found in the other books.

The usual cast of characters is present, along with a couple of new and interesting additions but I do feel that Felix is more often on his own in this novel than some of the others. Not that this was a bad thing as it seemed to make the action move along faster. The ending is brilliant and once again shows Carey's ability to bring in elements and comments from earlier on that didn't always seem important at the time. As usual, it isn't a totally happy, we won sort of ending, but this just keeps us eager to know what will happen in the next book.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

Fix still cracking 14 Sep 2009

By Gareth Wilson - Falcata Times Blog TOP 500 REVIEWER VINE™ VOICE

If there's a UK paranormal series that really does hit the spot its Mike Carey's Felix "Fix" Castor. What you're guaranteed is a novel that delivers on all aspects of the typical Gumshoe, a mystery that needs the characters special talents to solve, personal conflict and above all a plotline that has a breakneck speed that doesn't let up. Its an absolute corker of a series and one that should make it all the way stateside. Whilst Butcher may have a certain amount of the genre sowed up if you want mystery and a character that takes a good many lumps, bumps and scrapes through by the skin of his teeth, there really is no one that does this better than Mike. Give him a go, you won't be disappointed and hopefully Mikes own army of fans will soon rival the spiritual presence of Old London Town.