The Devil You Know: A Felix Castor Novel (Felix Castor Novel 1)
by Mike Carey
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 322)
Read in June, 2008
recommends it for:
Any one who liked the Exorcist
Many book authors make their way over to comics. It may seem like a sensible idea since it's just another medium and another way to tell a story. However, with comics you generally only have 22 pages to tell a story, while in a book you can have as many as you want. Authors such as Tad Williams, Jodi Picoult, Brad Meltzer, and Charlie Huston try to bring along the wonderful charm they have as book authors to the comic book medium. Many fail miserably, producing such terrible and tripe fluff that...more
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So what does a writer and artist known for his graphic work (for you may also know him as Mike Carey, super-comic-book-writer of Hellblazer and Lucifer fame) do in his spare time?
The answer is, of course, “Write a novel!”
That may be a sticking point for some readers: after all, the genre is littered with the failed experiments of others who have tried the same, and it can’t be said that his chosen area of writing, the world of supernatural realism, is an uncrowded one at the moment...more
The answer is, of course, “Write a novel!”
That may be a sticking point for some readers: after all, the genre is littered with the failed experiments of others who have tried the same, and it can’t be said that his chosen area of writing, the world of supernatural realism, is an uncrowded one at the moment...more
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Read in June, 2007
THE DEVIL YOU KNOW BY MIKE CAREY: Mike Carey, a well-known writer for the successful comic book series Lucifer and Hellblazer, makes his debut in the world of novel writing. The Devil You Know includes story and character elements from his comic book writing, but also has its own individual feel about it; Felix Castor is a similar character to John Constantine, but this is also Carey style’s and one big reason why people enjoy his work.
Welcome to a somewhat alternate world where it seems ...more
Welcome to a somewhat alternate world where it seems ...more
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Read in July, 2007
recommends it for:
anyone who likes a fast-paced horror/fantasy novel
Very simply, this is a kick-ass novel by a first-time novel author. Carey's done a ton of graphic novels, X-Men, Hellblazer and the like, but this is his first novel, and boy is it a doozy! Hooked me from the very first page and didn't bloody let go until I was done with it. Castor, Carey's main character, is an exorcist, but there isn't much of the way pertaining to religion, except that his brother is a priest, which is fascinating and kinda funny at the same time. Felix's approach to his ...more
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Mike Carey’s The Devil You Know intrigued me…after I was able to slog through the first 80 pages. At page 20 I was scratching my head. At 40 I was getting mildly annoyed. By 60 I was ready to throw the darn thing up against the wall. But by 80 I was hooked. I typically don’t give a book that long to gel for me. But since this was my first book in months that I sat down to read and since the last few months had been so impossibly crappy, I thought I might have been projecting my feelings on...more
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Read in May, 2007
The first in a new series of novels by Mike Carey, whose Lucifer and Hellblazer runs I really like. The series is set in a world very like ours—except a few years ago, the dead started to come back: as ghosts, as zombies, and as were (possessed and altered animals). Our narrator and guide to this world is the improbably named Felix Castor, an exorcist who's always been able to see dead people and who communes with them thro...more
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Read in July, 2008
This is an excellent story from a writer who has made his name writing graphic novels. In "The Devil You Know", Mike Carey makes clear that his skills transfer well from the graphic arts to pure writing. The main character in "The Devil You Know" is Felix Castor, an exorcist who lives in an alternate version of our world where ghosts, demons and zombies are facts of everyday life. Castor is similar to John Constantine of Hellblazer in his gruff personality type, love of cigs ...more
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Read in August, 2008
recommends it for:
fans of Jim Butcher and Simon Green
So apparently I've been this close to "discovering" Mike Carey these last few years. He took over Hellblazer soon after I dropped it, and the same with Ultimate Fantastic Four. He finally hit my radar last year when I picked up X-Men #200. Here was a guy who was not afraid of embracing the X-Men history in all it's beautiful, convoluted mess. He worked with it and acknowledged it, and it has served him well still to this day. So I was surprised to find he had written a novel som...more
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Read in October, 2007
Felix Castor is an exorcist; not the Catholic priest kind, but an exorcist all the same. He accepts jobs from people who are having problems with ghosts that won't leave; he comes in & gets rid of them. As the story gets going, the job he accepts is at the Bonnington archive, where several of the workers have seen a ghost haunting the place. His task is to exorcise her, but once he gets going to try to figure her out, he realizes he is more involved than he thinks. Someone, somewhere, does n...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in February, 2008
not much in terms of expectations for this, but it would still have been pretty engrossing with preformed expectations, i think. i did notice a weird pattern going on in the amazon reviews; people who liked it went into it expecting a book, people who didn't like it went into it expecting a comic book. so i guess in general most of the negative reviews are from fans of his comic book work? kind of an unfair basis, really.
anyway. very likeable main character, with full enough amounts of charm...more
anyway. very likeable main character, with full enough amounts of charm...more
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recommends it for:
people needing to be entertained and with a little time on their hands
This is the first of three Felix Castor novels - the two following are Vicious Circle and the new Dead Men's Boots with one more (at least) to come.
If you enjoy the first, then you will be hooked on the next two which create a distinctive 'universe' in which the dead return as ghosts, zombies and loup-garous and demons lurk in the wings - include a rather sexy succubus. This is really comic book turned into literature and this aspect of the writing has one odd effect.
The books are long...more
If you enjoy the first, then you will be hooked on the next two which create a distinctive 'universe' in which the dead return as ghosts, zombies and loup-garous and demons lurk in the wings - include a rather sexy succubus. This is really comic book turned into literature and this aspect of the writing has one odd effect.
The books are long...more
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Read in September, 2008
recommended to Joel by:
The Dragon Pagerecommends it for: fans of Jim Butcher and Glen Cook
I am a big chicken. A scaredy-cat. A wuss. I hate ghost stories. They keep me up at night, glancing into the shadows and wondering what it is, exactly, that is going bump in the night.
So it was with a fair bit of trepidation that I picked up Mike Carey's "The Devil You Know," the first of Carey's Felix Castor novels. And, to be honest, I couldn't read the book late at night, when I do most of my reading. Not because the book is scary, or creepy, because it's not, but it is ab...more
So it was with a fair bit of trepidation that I picked up Mike Carey's "The Devil You Know," the first of Carey's Felix Castor novels. And, to be honest, I couldn't read the book late at night, when I do most of my reading. Not because the book is scary, or creepy, because it's not, but it is ab...more
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Read in August, 2007
recommends it for:
the masses, as long as they like the supernatural
I'm seriously supposed to write down "what I learned from this book"? (I am not impressed by this review form but as this is my first review I should probably curb my disdain a bit.) Very well then.
What I Learned from This Book: I learned that I very much enjoy books about ghosts and other supernatural creatures that have infested our modern world. I learned that I especially like books of this nature when they are narrated by sardonic and somewhat seedy male narrators who mak...more
What I Learned from This Book: I learned that I very much enjoy books about ghosts and other supernatural creatures that have infested our modern world. I learned that I especially like books of this nature when they are narrated by sardonic and somewhat seedy male narrators who mak...more
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OK, so I imagined Anthony Bourdain (of the Travel Channel's No Reservations) as the main character, which really made me giggle at times. If I'd known it was classified as urban fanatsy, I probably never would have picked it up; but I heard the author read an excerpt on a podcast and had to find it. It takes place in current day London, except the dead have risen and zombies and ghosts and loup-garous (animals inhabited by spirits) mix in with the living. The Catholic church can't keep up with...more
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Read in February, 2008
recommends it for:
Hellblazer fans, urban fantasy fans
This book was a slow starter, but once the intrigue picked up, I was hooked. Carey takes a unique approach to ghosts, lycanthropes, zombies, and so on; he then mixes that with a classic murder mystery, and for me, the set-up worked. I suppose it helps that I'm a fan of Hellblazer and Lucifer, which are Carey's graphic novels. There is definitely a sense of John Constantine in Felix "Fix" Castor, a down-on-his-luck exorcist who takes a seemingly simple job that quickly gro...more
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Read in May, 2008
recommends it for:
ghost/zombie story fans
In a not so distant future London where ghosts, zombies and were-folk are common occurences, Felix Castor works as a free-lance exorcist. What should be a simple exorcism turns into a muddled affair involving a succubus, a conspiracy fearing zombie and an illegal sex slave trade.
It seems as though the author is setting up a series in this book which includes lots of surface introductions to a wide cast of characters that could be better developed in future volumes. It's somewhat difficult at ...more
It seems as though the author is setting up a series in this book which includes lots of surface introductions to a wide cast of characters that could be better developed in future volumes. It's somewhat difficult at ...more
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Read in August, 2007
recommends it for:
Jim Butcher fans
I adored this book! I've been slowly reading the Harry Dresden novels, and they're OK, but as I read this, I thought, "This is what Jim Butcher wishes he could do."
The basic plots are remarkably similar - modern day setting, protagonist who trades in supernatural services in the style of a noir detective, plenty of suspects and double crosses. This book just struck me as more literary, more polished. (Though Butcher's later books may be as well - I'm only on number 3.)
One ...more
The basic plots are remarkably similar - modern day setting, protagonist who trades in supernatural services in the style of a noir detective, plenty of suspects and double crosses. This book just struck me as more literary, more polished. (Though Butcher's later books may be as well - I'm only on number 3.)
One ...more
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Read in May, 2008
The paranormal craze just won't stop, but as long as people like Mike Carey come along to inject something a little different into it, that's not a bad thing at all. Carey's exorcist hero, Felix Castor, is very much set in the traditional wise-cracking P.I.-style, but Carey adds a nice amount of depth in his characterization that helps make Felix unique. The downbeat feel of this alternate London creates additional atmosphere, and most of the aspects of the plot feel well thought out. Felix's...more
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Read in August, 2007
Fix is a temporarily retired exorcist, taking some time off after one failed in a rather horrible manner. He is not a religious man, he is just a rather ordinary guy who can see ghosts and get them to go away, and doesn't particularly concern himself with the whys or where's of the afterlife.
Upon finding himself in a bit of a monetary bind, he takes a simple exorcism, job at an Archive, only to find himself drawn into a good old fashioned mystery, trying to track down how the ghost arrived t...more
Upon finding himself in a bit of a monetary bind, he takes a simple exorcism, job at an Archive, only to find himself drawn into a good old fashioned mystery, trying to track down how the ghost arrived t...more
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Read in May, 2006
recommends it for:
Hellblazer fans, lovers of witty supernatural fiction
Felix Castor is an exorcist. An altogether too cocksure for his own good kind of Marlowe-esque exorcist (freelance... just to pay the bills).
This novel is well written, erudite, character driven, at times disturbing and darkly witty. There are some wonderful plot devices, surprising twists on the conventional view of certain supernatural beasties, interesting supporting characters and is set in an utterly believable alternate London. Above all a gripping and fun read.
For those wh...more
This novel is well written, erudite, character driven, at times disturbing and darkly witty. There are some wonderful plot devices, surprising twists on the conventional view of certain supernatural beasties, interesting supporting characters and is set in an utterly believable alternate London. Above all a gripping and fun read.
For those wh...more
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