The Naming Of The Beasts by Mike Carey
Dec. 23rd, 2012 08:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
They say the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, but if you ask Castor he'll tell you there's quite a bit of arrogance and reckless stupidity lining the streets as well. And he should know. There's only so many times you can play both sides against the middle and get away with it. Now, the inevitable moment of crisis has arrived and it's left Castor with blood on his hands. Well, not his hands, you understand; it's always someone else who pays the bill: friends, acquaintances, bystanders.
So Castor drowns his guilt in cheap whisky, while an innocent woman lies dead and her daughter comatose, his few remaining friends fear for their lives and there's a demon loose on the streets. But not just any demon - this one rides shotgun on his best friend's soul and can't be expelled without killing him.
Looks like Felix Castor's got some tough choices to make, because expel the demon he must or all Hell will break loose. Literally . . .
It’s three months since THICKER THAN WATER. Asmodeus has broken free of the controls binding him and taken over Rafi’s body, killing anyone associated with Rafi’s possession, using their deaths to taunt Felix and Pen. Felix has been taking refuge in alcohol but when Asmodeus starts targeting innocent people, he realises that he’s got to come up with a plan to stop him, which means forming an uneasy alliance with Jenna-Jane and her Institute. Somehow Felix has to find a way of expelling Asmodeus from Rafi’s body without destroying his friend’s soul before Asmodeus finds a way of breaking free from hell …
Mike Carey’s final book in the FELIX CASTOR SERIES is a satisfying conclusion to the overall arc, tying together various plot lines but maintaining enough tension and twists to keep you turning the pages.
Felix has never been an easy character to like and he really tested my patience at the beginning of the book. His brush with alcoholism does fit his character but he’s so self-pitying that I wanted to slap him. Things perk up when he hooks up with Jenna-Jane’s Institute and I liked the way Carey shows the uneasy nature of their alliance and the double-dealing going on in both sides. I also liked the return of Trudie who’s swapped the Anathema for the Institute and her sparring with Felix gives him a much-needed kick up the backside.
Asmodeus is really given free-rein here and for the first time I found him a fitting villain and a genuine threat. The way he sets about taunting Felix and Pen is cruel and chilling and he’s an expert manipulator, able to get under the skin of Juliet. It’s actually the Juliet storyline that didn’t work for me – the breakdown in her relationship with Susan was so out of character that I did wonder why it wasn’t ringing alarm bells with her (although Carey does explain this). I was also disappointed with its easy resolution, given that the situation is bad enough to involve domestic violence.
Carey manages to pull together all of the strands together for the finale, setting up a confrontation that kept me turning the pages waiting to see how it ends and which was a fitting conclusion to the series.
All in all, this was a great conclusion to an excellent series and I look forward to reading Carey’s next work.
The Verdict:
Mike Carey’s final book in the FELIX CASTOR SERIES is a satisfying conclusion to the overall arc, tying together various plot lines but maintaining enough tension and twists to keep you turning the pages. I didn’t like the Juliet storyline, mainly because the domestic violence seemed so out of character that I thought it should have rung alarm bells and because it gets given a happy, consequence-free ending. Nevertheless, I’m really looking forward to reading Carey’s next work.
They say the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, but if you ask Castor he'll tell you there's quite a bit of arrogance and reckless stupidity lining the streets as well. And he should know. There's only so many times you can play both sides against the middle and get away with it. Now, the inevitable moment of crisis has arrived and it's left Castor with blood on his hands. Well, not his hands, you understand; it's always someone else who pays the bill: friends, acquaintances, bystanders.
So Castor drowns his guilt in cheap whisky, while an innocent woman lies dead and her daughter comatose, his few remaining friends fear for their lives and there's a demon loose on the streets. But not just any demon - this one rides shotgun on his best friend's soul and can't be expelled without killing him.
Looks like Felix Castor's got some tough choices to make, because expel the demon he must or all Hell will break loose. Literally . . .
It’s three months since THICKER THAN WATER. Asmodeus has broken free of the controls binding him and taken over Rafi’s body, killing anyone associated with Rafi’s possession, using their deaths to taunt Felix and Pen. Felix has been taking refuge in alcohol but when Asmodeus starts targeting innocent people, he realises that he’s got to come up with a plan to stop him, which means forming an uneasy alliance with Jenna-Jane and her Institute. Somehow Felix has to find a way of expelling Asmodeus from Rafi’s body without destroying his friend’s soul before Asmodeus finds a way of breaking free from hell …
Mike Carey’s final book in the FELIX CASTOR SERIES is a satisfying conclusion to the overall arc, tying together various plot lines but maintaining enough tension and twists to keep you turning the pages.
Felix has never been an easy character to like and he really tested my patience at the beginning of the book. His brush with alcoholism does fit his character but he’s so self-pitying that I wanted to slap him. Things perk up when he hooks up with Jenna-Jane’s Institute and I liked the way Carey shows the uneasy nature of their alliance and the double-dealing going on in both sides. I also liked the return of Trudie who’s swapped the Anathema for the Institute and her sparring with Felix gives him a much-needed kick up the backside.
Asmodeus is really given free-rein here and for the first time I found him a fitting villain and a genuine threat. The way he sets about taunting Felix and Pen is cruel and chilling and he’s an expert manipulator, able to get under the skin of Juliet. It’s actually the Juliet storyline that didn’t work for me – the breakdown in her relationship with Susan was so out of character that I did wonder why it wasn’t ringing alarm bells with her (although Carey does explain this). I was also disappointed with its easy resolution, given that the situation is bad enough to involve domestic violence.
Carey manages to pull together all of the strands together for the finale, setting up a confrontation that kept me turning the pages waiting to see how it ends and which was a fitting conclusion to the series.
All in all, this was a great conclusion to an excellent series and I look forward to reading Carey’s next work.
The Verdict:
Mike Carey’s final book in the FELIX CASTOR SERIES is a satisfying conclusion to the overall arc, tying together various plot lines but maintaining enough tension and twists to keep you turning the pages. I didn’t like the Juliet storyline, mainly because the domestic violence seemed so out of character that I thought it should have rung alarm bells and because it gets given a happy, consequence-free ending. Nevertheless, I’m really looking forward to reading Carey’s next work.
