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Sep 12, 2011

Lady Danielle "The Book Huntress" rated it:

The tone of this novel is bleak, saturnine, and wry. Shades of horror and dark urban fantasy blended into a noir mystery that kept me guessing until the end. I love when a writer is able to pull all the elements together that he introduces to me, from beginning to end. And that's what Mike Carey does here. Tight plotting and subtle characterization. Even the characters that would seem stereotypical have depth and intensity.

Felix Castor gets added to my roster of male lead urban fant More...

7 comments like (13 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Trin rated it:

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 through music—his exorcism ritual involves a tin whistle; he's like the Pied More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 14, 2011

Carol rated it:

Solid three and a half stars. I'm rounding up in Carey's case, because I think his hero is suffering from comparison to Carey's own Constantine, and Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden. I too thought of Harry Dresden while I was reading, but I found Felix Castor to be more likeable, and the overall story more enjoyable. It is clearly a "first book in a series," meaning that there is a great deal of world building. I felt it was worthwhile, and not excessive to me, but I enjoy a well-thought More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 21, 2011

Mike (the Paladin) rated it:

Okay, I picked this up on the strength of a recommendation that if I liked Jim Butcher's Dresden series, I'd probably like these. I can't say that. There is a huge difference in this character, the world he functions in and the overall "feel" of the book. When I say the world is different I'm sure some thought (or said aloud) well of course the world's different, did you expect it to take place in the same world?

No. My meaning there was that the world is a much darker more More...

2 comments like (5 people liked it)

Aug 20, 2007

Karen rated it:

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 More...

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Dec 28, 2011

Kasia rated it:

This was an entertaining read, a detective story that involved solving something other than your usual crimes; this time the supernatural is involved and who better to battle it than Felix Castor, a freelance exorcist with musical talent.

Witty, charming and intelligent, he maps out the grid of the ghosts he's getting rid by playing music on his tin whistle, but this time something else is going on, for once Felix starts to care about why the ghost is haunting the Bonnington Archive, a More...

0 comments like

May 11, 2011

Tammykirk rated it:

I really enjoyed Carey's comic books so expected to enjoy his novels. In this first entry in the Felix Castor series Carey introduces the reader to the richly built world of a slightly futuristic London populated by ghosts and ghostbusters along w/zombies, loup-garou (ghosts that cobble together bodies out of animals), demons and regular people trying to get along in this new world.

The blurbs for this book compare it to Butcher's Dresden files. I think that's just because both ha More...

0 comments like

Dec 19, 2010

Traci rated it:

had read somewhere (probably in a review) that while Jim Butcher is good, Mike Carey is better; Harry Dresden is entertaining, but Felix "Fix" Castor is the real deal. Well, now I've read books by both authors, books in both series, and I have to say.... I like them both, just in different ways.

Felix is not a wizard, just an exorcist. He uses music, usually provided by a tin whistle (and for reasons I don't entirely fathom, the tin whistle works best and invokes the most More...

0 comments like

Apr 27, 2010

Bondama rated it:

The three books (so far) that Mike Carey has written about the exorcist Felix Castor, the one mentioned above, "The Devil You Know", "Vicious Circle" and the one I've just finished, "Dead Men's Boots" are truly delightful. Apparently, shortly after the year 2000, ghosts have begun to appear. Most ghosts simply "hang around" - some causing trouble. Others become "loup-garous" which are most definitely NOT werewolves. Others become zombies. re-i More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 02, 2010

Brian rated it:

After a long stint writing for comic books, Mike Carey gives us his first novel “The Devil You Know.” It's the tale of Felix Castor, a freelance exorcist working in a slightly alternate modern London. Here, ghosts are everywhere, a sign of the times and accepted by all. There are other things as well, all documented and (supposedly) understood; things like zombies, were-creatures and demons. Of an agnostic breed, Castor uses his tin whistle to move the undead on, much like others in his professi More...

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Nov 20, 2011

Erin rated it:

I loved the character Felix Castor. He is the perfect mix of sarcastically witty, doggedly persistent, self-deprecating, and smart. This is the first book in the series, and I also think this character has room to grow.

I love a good ghost story - and this book delivered a great ghost story. Felix is an exorcist, who plays a tune on his trusty tin whistle, a song for a ghost, one that captures and twists their existence into non-existence, like a pied piper of the spirit w More...

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Feb 08, 2012

Melbourne on my mind rated it:

I enjoyed this book, really I did. But it seemed like it took a lot of time to actually get to the point. For a book of 470 pages, uncovering the truth, tracking down the perpetrator, and helping the ghost find peace were all crammed into about 70 pages.

Felix Castor is an exorcist in a London where ghosts and demons are common. He gets asked to exorcise a ghost at an archives building, only to discover something more sinister.

Maybe I've blocked it out, but there didn't seem More...

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Aug 30, 2009

Schnaucl rated it:

A few decades ago some of the dead started rising as ghosts. Weres also start to appear, but in Carey's world, weres are animals that are taken over by a strong ghost who then forces the animal into a human shape. There's no explanation for why the dead have started to rise, although, of course, there's the usual suggestion from some quarters that it's the beginning of the end of the world (the theory is mentioned only in passing, not a focus of the book).

Some people can see ghosts More...

0 comments like

Jul 04, 2011

Deborah rated it:

Having read some of Mike Carey’s writing in trade paperbacks I was interested but reserving judgment; the Lucifer series never grabbed me all that much. The devil you know however, did grab me very effectively. The main character, Felix Castor shares more than a few personality traits with John Constantine in the Hellblazer series (that is, the trade paperback series not the travesty that hollywood produced of it).

It is an enjoyable book. The dark and gritty London, enriched with the m More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 04, 2011

Carissa rated it:

I picked this book out from the library through a suggestion from amazon. I had typed in 'Sandman Slim' and came up with this book for my husband to read. He said it was entertaining, but not as good as 'Sandman Slim'. Well, I was in a lull between trips to the library so I read it. It took me longer than usual because the first half of the book wasn't anything exciting. I had enough interest to keep reading, though. Halfway through, the storyline picked up. 3/4 of the way I was devouring More...

0 comments like

Sep 19, 2010

Sharon rated it:

Mike Carey The Devil You Know Book One.
Felix Castor is a hardboiled gumshoe/exorcist, who never goes anywhere without his handy whistle, lock picks. He has a perchant for the wrong type of women. Always owes money to his long suffering landlady & has a past that he regrets everyday regarding Kate & his best waster friend Rafi, who is in a mental institution & spiritually merged with a manipulative powerful demon Asmodeus.

He's called on a job to simply banish a spirit that phy More...

0 comments like

Oct 18, 2011

Donald rated it:

The first in the Felix Castor series, "Devil You Know" is set in a London where shortly before the turn of the Millennium, the dead started coming back to the Earth, first just as ghosts, and later as more solid forms (zombies, werewolf-like creatures, etc.). Felix is a freelance exorcist trying to make a buck and stay in one piece.

What I really like about this series is that *everyone* *knows* that all this is happening, society isn't oblivious to the presence of the super More...

0 comments like

Sep 13, 2011

Kate rated it:

I liked it. I think I was expecting to like it more, however, and found it to be much heavier than the reviews led me to believe. The main character, Felix, is called upon to exorcise a ghost from a London Archive building. However, he stumbles through a series of seemingly non-related, but threatening, events and realizes that there may be more to this ghost than meets the eye. What started as an exorcism becomes a detection story, with characters that seem rather willing to put themselves in o More...

0 comments like

May 02, 2011

Andres rated it:

I read this on a recommendation and am now thoroughly hooked on the characters and the world they live in.

First off, this book sets everything up for the series. Felix Castor is the narrator and his witty turns of phrase are addicting---it's great to have a character say genuinely funny things as opposed to just being snarky, obnoxious or juvenile.

Second, even though Castor isn't a detective, he does detective-y things (and the book is full of the usual detective-story trappi More...

0 comments like

Jun 11, 2010

Lawrence rated it:

I started out kind of lukewarm on this one, but I think the secondary characters are the bomb, so I warmed up quick. A noire urban fantasy for those what don't mind violence. My only caveat to that is that human trafficking is a strong theme in the plot.

In the near future, the dead have risen. Hauntings are common occurrences, even to the point that ghosts haunt their own corpse (as homeless zombies) or the bodies of animals, that they twist to resemble their former human forms (loup More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 23, 2010

JC rated it:

I wasn't a fan of Mike Carey's work in comics. Although I could appreciate his skills as a writer, he never quite grabbed me the way Neil Gaiman, Garth Ennis or Michael Bendis did. Maybe it was because he never seemed to get the "great" artists working with him. I tried (I really did) to like him, but I dropped Hellblazer from my pull list shortly after he took over, and I tried to like Lucifer, it just didn't hold my interest for very long.

This is why I had to give 5 stars More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 11, 2011

Dawn rated it:

A great series starter! Felix "Fix" Castor is an unusual character. A "freelance" exorcist and atheist, he uses music to send ghosts away - where he's not sure. He grapples a bit with what he does (he has many questions, just one of which is where the ghosts go when he sends them away) and finds himself not just in one particular exorcism job for the money when a ghost steps in to help him. The characters are interesting - Pen, his landlady and sometimes helper;, his disappro More...

0 comments like

Sep 07, 2010

Angel rated it:

A really breathtaking book written by a man who appears to be a master of thrill and suspese. The Devil You know follows the story of an exorcist named Felix Castor, who's job is one done by very few individuals in the world. Mostly because it's a gosh darn dangerous one.

Exorcists can see the ethereal beings around us (or at least that's what the author says), but they're not exactly dead people on earth. They're instead usually a shell of a person, only appearing in the spot whe More...

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Oct 27, 2009

Sensitivemuse rated it:

I can see the small similarities between the Harry Dresden series and this one. There are differences though. I found Felix Castor more dark and grittier than Dresden. It definitely more "noir" and having the setting taking place in London is perfect. London is so dark and wet most of the time and cold. I think the setting fits well and is described perfectly for this novel. The world here is much different than present day. The dead and ghosts are actually out and we're aware that the More...

0 comments like

Jan 01, 2012

Sara rated it:

I am not generally a fan of ghost stores. But when I read the first section of the book, I was impressed with my response to Carey's writing. I had been searching for something to read and was getting more and more discouraged by the rather flat line of mediocre writing I was encountering. So, finding someone who actually used words in a way I enjoyed was nice.

A caveat - This is a very British language book. I looked up a fair number of words, because I had absolutely no idea wha More...

0 comments like

Aug 19, 2011

Ken rated it:

I read this book and enjoyed it. I only ever picked it up because it was compared to Jim Butchers Dresden Files. I see that in a lot of the reviews, people dont think it really is all that similar and I'll agree the story is darker, slower, the magic is spiritual instead of multifaceted and Fix cusses like a sailor and likes to mention his erections.

The detecive type fantasy is where the comparison comes from, that and he sort of borrows a few sides from Butcher.

Fix's fr More...

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Oct 29, 2010

Trevor rated it:

Felix Castor is an English exorcist in a world where ghosts, the undead and things that go Bump in the Night have just started to enter mainstream awareness.

Mr. Carey is an English author; that manifests very clearly in the slang and the vernacular and the author's turn of phrase throughout the series. Not a drawback by any means, but definitely something to be aware of.

I don't love his work, but I do enjoy it - and he writes in a "contemporary fantasy" or " More...

0 comments like

Jun 02, 2009

Vickie rated it:

I can't remember if it was on a blog or on Shelfari on the Pararnormal Mystery group....I am very glad to have seen the review for this one. I don't necessarily like comparing one writer or character to another, but if I did, I'd compare this to Jim Butcher and his character, Harry Dresden. Harry is a wizard who helps people in need and Felix Castor is a freelance exorcist who helps people in need of getting rid of ghosts.....comparison over....
Felix has gone on ghostbuster sabbatical afte More...

0 comments like

Sep 20, 2011

Christopher rated it:

Some friends of mine recommended this book to me because I am a rabid fan of the Dresden Files books by Jim Butcher.

So, I can't help but compare the two.

Dresden reads like a comic book in many ways - cosmic hero battles forces of evil with awesome larger than life super powers... That's what I like about it :)

This series reads like a horror novel. The grit and unease that emanate from the story get into the pit of your belly like something awful you ate the More...

1 comment like

Sep 09, 2009

Summer rated it:

Setting, tone, style, pacing--everything about this book was really well done. The only problem I had was that I'm an American and the book is set in London, written by an Englishman, so a lot of the slang was over my head--but that didn't detract at all from an enjoyable read.

The book's world was very believable, as pretty much everything paranormal is viewed from the perspective of ghosts, including were-creatures, which I found very interesting.

Felix Castor is a lika More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)