The Naming of the Beasts

Felix "Fix" Castor has spent the last three weeks drunk. Not just drunk, but falling-down, blacking-out, puking-on-your-shoes drunk. Immediately prior to the decidedly unfun debauch he's just come out of, Fix was unable to keep nefarious forces from undoing the careful controls by which he'd endeavored for the last several years to keep his friend Rafael Ditko's--quite literal--demon under control. Now, a close friend is dead, her daughter is in a vegetative state, and the demon who drives Rafi's body is rampaging across London, cutting, it would seem, a very bloody swath.

Fix's only hope to capture Rafi (and his demon, Asmodeus) is to join forces with the evil Professor Jenna-Jane Mulbridge and her team of exorcists for hire...which, show more as far as Fix is concerned, is tantamount to selling his soul to the devil himself. But beggars can't be choosers and all that, so he does what he has to do. But there are so many other questions he has to answer, and sticky situations he has to contend with, such as why has former succubus Juliet begun beating up gentle Sue Book, the woman who made her want to become human? And why does the tenor of supernatural phenomena in London seem to have taken a turn for the scarier? And what the heck are the strange stones, painted with ancient characters and pentagrams, that keep turning up at the places Fix frequents?

The answers to these questions and more will be revealed, but not without a lot of shrieking and wailing, blood and gore. And perhaps, at the end, a little love interest for poor lonely old Fix?

The Naming of the Beasts, the fifth installment in a series which just keeps getting better, is a most satisfying read. Forewarned is forearmed, however: if you're interested, but haven't read the earlier books in the series, it's recommended that you do. This title would stand alone as a good scary read, but is much more meaningful when read in light of the vast character development that has occurred over the course of the previous four books. show less

So your best friend is possessed by a demon and on a murderous rampage. What do you do?

Well, what Fix does first is get completely soused. Everything he touches turns to shit, and everyone else pays the price. So why try to do anything, when inevitably he'll just make things worse?

Luckily his pity party doesn't last and he jumps right back into the action, laser focused on saving his best friend and exorcising the demon, come Hell or high water. And it ain't gonna be a picnic.

I've enjoyed this series, but I'll be honest and say this one disappointed me. Even more so because Mike Carey is such a talented author. There are multiple times Fix finds something strange and then just... doesn't mention it to anyone other than Nicky? Like, show more maybe the person who's house it's been hidden at? But what bothered me the most is the feeling that several story lines just petered out. Throughout this series, multiple demons have mentioned some mysterious "Great Project." Multiple times Fix comments on how the dead suddenly started rising en masse a few years back and no one knows why or what the catalyst was. If you're going to drop little nuggets like that, the reader expects it to pay off in the final book of the series. So when it doesn't, it feels like the biggest case of literary blue balls and let me tell you, it's not a good feeling.

I liked the resolution to the Rafi story, although I felt like Pen and Fix's friendship never really saw any repair from their prior fall out. Like, are they cool now? Is she still angry at him? What's going on? And the Trudi bit at the end felt like it came from nowhere.

I'm going back and forth on whether to read the newest novella in the universe. To be fair it was written 14 years after this one, so Carey had plenty of time to improve his craft. Maybe the problem is that I'm used to his more recent work, so The Ghost in the Bone will satisfy me... but unless it answers some of those bigger questions that were raised, I don't know if it can. show less

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, THIS volume is the strongest of the series.

In comparison with all the rest, writing gets progressively stronger, the plots less disjointed, the characters more sharp and the overarching story more defined.

And no, there's no real need to read them in the suggested order. In fact, I doubt anyone would really complain, knowing all the facts, if some random bloke like me said, "Skip the rest, just read the last one. You'll be kosher." Because you will be fine. All the story elements are there, and while the initial reach and problem entwining all these novels together is resolved in this one, we're not missing a thing from the other novels. Yay!

It really is the most solid of them all. show more Unfortunately, you can also tell. And then the series ends.

I can honestly say I love what happens in the novel, and while I'm not too huge on paramilitary operations, the action sequences were pretty damn good, the descriptions and rulesets to the magic and the beasties were much more well-defined than the previous novels, and Fix has finally been fixed. (The opening sequence notwithstanding.) :) But that was on purpose, so I'm not holding his drunk-ass accountable.

The most positive and interesting thing I can say about the series and Fix in particular is that he never gets too big for his britches. No unexplained power increases, no deux ex machinas. It revolves around solid mysteries that happen to have a lot of connections to the supernatural beasties now overwhelming the Earth for some reason. The normal bloke makes good, and the last novel doubly so, but I say this from a style viewpoint.

Of course, now that the series is ended, (as of this writing,) I'm sad to see it go and a bit angry that I won't get the chance to revisit it now that it HAS gotten good. If I were mean, I'd probably knock off a star for that, but I feel generous. I want to let the novel stand on its own. show less

This (#5) is a disappointing book in the series and to get an idea why you should read the review of #4 'Thicker than Water' - http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2808554.Thicker_Than_Water

It is a good basic read - a supernatural thriller (though with very little 'real' horror). It has all the favourite characters, a consistent universe, a generally coherent story line and the usual grounding in a Central London that Londoners would recognise. But it is still a bit of a potboiler, albeit one with some good set pieces (like the fear monster living just off the Strand and a visit to Macedonia).

What happened? In #4, Carey was on the cusp of something better - there was a dash of JG Ballard in there, character development had gone beyond the show more formulaic and he introduced some interesting new ideas on the origin of demons and on ambiguities in the universal balance of good and evil that boded well for a cracking sequel. None of these creative ideas are followed through in #5 - the demons are mcguffins to move the plot along. Asmodeus is a thug and little more.

The tale, a natural continuation of previous novels, is like the comfort food of American supernatural TV series. This may not be a bad thing if you just want to be entertained: Carey is, after all, primarily a graphic novel 'auteur'. But a sudden inadequately explained change of allegiance of a leading enemy to move the plot along is the sort of thing that the mindless drift of TV can permit but which irritates in a text. It looks and reads as lazy and bored.

Either Carey's publisher dragged him back to safe harbour to please the fans and/or the booksellers (or to increase the chances of TV take-up) or Carey himself has got bored and taken his best ideas elsewhere - or he has abandoned them altogether.

This is not a reason not to read the book. It is still superior to the vast acreage of books by women for women in which the reader can fantasise a) bonking, b) being or c) killing a vampire that crowd out more imaginative literature. Horror has reached a recessionary nadir when Jane Austen's heroes meet zombies, vampires and creatures from the Lovecraftian deeps.

Carey's determined maintenance of the adventure genre in this context is admirable and welcome but it is scarcely 'horror' any more. As with Christopher Fowler's once-admirable Bryant & May series, the market drives 'masculine' writing away from the horror shelves and inexorably towards the thriller section of the larger crime shelves. #4 was an imaginative novel of supernatural horror with urban crime overtones. #5 is a pedestrian thriller with supernatural overtones.

Still, all the old characters are here - both heroes and villains. The wit is diminished but Carey can still make you chuckle out loud. Londoners can mentally trace movements in real streets and Carey writes well of location - a journey down the abandoned Kingsway tram tunnel is a minor tour de force. The disappointment is merely relative from someone who had hoped for better - so buy it, read it, enjoy it, move on. show less

You may also read my review here: http://www.mybookishways.com/2012/01/review-the-naming-of-the-beasts-felix-casto...

The aftermath of the disastrous events of Thicker Than Water still has Felix Castor reeling. They’ve left his former best friend (possessed by a rather nasty demon) free, and Felix an emotional mess, drowning himself in alcohol and sorrow. After a pretty nasty binge, Felix shakes off his sorrow in an attempt to get a handle on a mess that deep down, he blames himself for; finding Rafi Ditko and freeing him from the demon Asmodeus once and for all. The demon definitely has his own agenda, and after visiting the crime scene of his first victim, Felix knows he must track him down, at all costs. Unfortunately, he’s not show more the only one working the case. His old nemesis, Dr. Jenna-Jane Mulbridge, is also on his trail, not to mention the Anathemata, who was the cause of the massive mess that set Rafi free. To add to the considerable stress of finding Rafi, Juliet, Fix’s sometimes partner and incidentally, also a succubus demon, is acting very, very strangely, to the detriment of her wife, Sue. It’s getting worse all the time and Fix is at a total loss as to how he can help, but he’s determined to do what he can. Eventually, he’ll have to seek the help of Jenna-Jane and her crew, which now includes Trudie Pax, a former Anathemata member, and also the nephew of a man that was killed during an exorcism gone wrong, and he blames Fix for his death. You can imagine that things are a bit strained, but Fix will need everything at his disposal to find Rafi and get rid of Asmodeus for good, before he kills everyone Fix loves, and then heads after Fix himself.

The Naming of the Beasts is the 5th book in the Felix Castor series, and it’s just as good as the previous four. No one writes like Mike Carey. He has created an alternate London full of ghosts, zombies (not of the brain eating kind), loup-garous, demons, and other supernaturals that lovers of urban fantasy and noir will want to visit again and again. Fix is tough and smart, but certainly not superhuman, and it’s his rumpled charm that will get you every time (at least it does me). We get to wrap up a huge storyline in this one, with explosive results, but I have no doubt that Mike Carey has plenty more in store for Fix and his friends. There are endless possibilities with this series, and I hope Mr. Carey keeps Fix’s world alive for some time to come. If you like Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files, or Ben Aaronovitch’s Peter Grant novels, you’ll want to dive into this one head first. Superb writing, fascinating characters, and a haunted London steeped in history make these books a must! Very highly recommended. show less

This is the 5th (and currently the latest but hopefully not the last) instalment of the Felix Castor books and follows directly on from the previous book of the series. With the demon Asmodeus out in the world thanks to the Anathemata and in full control of Rafi's body, Fix manages to break his downward spiral from his latest bender in order to attend a crime scene consultation at the request of Gary Coldwood (his friend on the force). He quickly comes to the conclusion that the brutally slain woman is the result of Asmodeus' handiwork and will probably be just the first of many, a point that is hammered home on a chance encounter with said demon. As if these events weren't enough to have to deal with it seems that Juliet (the succubus show more demon) is having some control issues and her wife, Susan the mild-mannered librarian, is in fear for her life. Realising he's out of his depth Fix must do the unthinkable and choose between the Anathemata or Jenna-Jane Mulbridge for help. Both are willing but who's price will be too high to pay?

I know Mike Carey intends to return to this series at some point but in the meantime this is not a bad place to leave it for a while. There is at least a resolution to one of the main overarching plotlines in the story but there is still more to be told. It's an action packed tale weaving several threads around the main plot with Fix being the central character that drives them all. Most of the regular cast make at least a brief appearance and there's room for interesting developments to come on that score too. While this is a self-contained novel I really wouldn't recommend reading it as a stand-alone book. The characters rely on their back-story quite a bit and you would certainly miss out on that if you were to do so but as the preceding four novels are all very good then starting at the beginning wouldn't be a bad thing especially if you like your urban fantasy books to come with more than a hint of noirish overtones. Here's hoping that we don't have to wait too long for the next book to arrive. show less

A series that ends more with a fizzle than a bang.

A linked series gives the author the opportunity to play with theme development over time, to awaken the characters (and reader) to larger issues and complexities. Carey's fourth book [b:Thicker Than Water|2808554|Thicker Than Water (Felix Castor, #4)|Mike Carey|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1328730472s/2808554.jpg|2834452] did just that by taking the issue of ghost identity and the ethics of exorcism from the third book, and raising the moral stakes with demon identity and exorcism. By linking the issue back to Felix's family, the issue hit home for both Felix and the reader. Unfortunately, The Naming of the Beasts fails to live up to the promise of issues raised the show more fourth book and instead goes back to Felix's beginning to untangle the mess he made attempting to exorcise Asmodeus the demon from his friend Rafi. Had I not found book four in the series to be such a fabulous read that transcended the normal UF, I might not have been so disappointed.

The story opens with Felix at a crime scene, but quickly reverts to a memory (more or less) of the drunken bender that commenced with the end of book four. We learn Felix woke up sober, decided to stay sober, and then had a heart to heart with Pen. The crime scene, of course, has Rafi/As' fingerprints all over it. Soon Felix finds himself stalked by As. When he learns that the holy order Anathemata has received permission for As to be taken 'dead or alive,' he decides to join forces with Delores Umbridge Jenna-Jane and her team of exorcists (not a bad name for a band). A lead sends him to Rafi's brother, about to be executed. Upon return, the team has him work on a haunting.

What did I like? Series completion. The ending. The resolution to the Rafi-As possession. Nicky the zombie and his decision to branch out into sales. Rosie the sex-pot ghost. The predictable but well-done rescue and escape from Jenna-Jane's house of horrors. The occasional image or turn of phrase that elevated the mundane into something special. An instance of interest: "I was already so sure it was him that I felt no surprise, just a faint sense of increased pressure weighing down on me, as though my invisible bathysphere had descended another hundred feet or so into the shit soup that now surrounded us."

Since the scope of the challenge was known (find As and exorcise him/it), the story had to content itself with a couple of small mysteries, both of which proved problematic. First were problems in ability: several times Fix failed to investigate clues (why hello, mysterious writing) and then failed discuss them with more than one person--it was so obviously going to be part of the final 'reveal' that I found myself annoyed. Second was the fact that the old Rafi seems like a huge egotist and generally so-so specimen of humanity. Even his brother on death row thinks he's an ass. Why exactly is Fix working so hard to save him? We get the guilt line and that's it. Third, Fix is given unexpected aid near the end when Jenna's head henchman has a crisis of conscience, which is about as trope-ridden an excuse as one can find for the miraculous last-minute help. Then there are hints that "something deep is afoot" and "the world is changing" that seem to go beyond the issue of a demon running amok but failed to turn into anything interesting.

In retrospect, Fix's increased drinking bothered me even more. Not only that he did it, but that he was able to get himself "dry" by willpower and going cold-turkey. As someone who has cared for detoxing people, I can safely say withdrawing from alcohol can be a medical emergency and can take days (as in 2 to 3) to start to get to the worst of it. It's the kind of detail that says, "meh. I don't need to research. I just need to knock this book off."

I was also bothered by the failure of Carey to follow-up on the promising philosophical discussions raised in the fourth book. Although Fix has a couple of almost-conversations about it with another necromancer, Trudi, he doesn't actually spell it out or argue with details--when they exorcise ghosts, in one sense they are killing a spirit. A conversation with some zombies starts to touch on the issue as well. I think by now I know where Fix stands, so it's strange that he wouldn't start talking the new gospel with others in his profession.

There's some weird domestic violence stuff as well that is supposed to show personality change in Juliet, but mostly just seems like a crutch and serves to make the reader uncomfortable. Carey does better when he emphasizes how she is losing her humanity through lack of empathy and a temptation to swallow Fix whole.

All in all, I'd have to say it just wasn't as tightly woven as the fourth, [b:Thicker Than Water|2808554|Thicker Than Water (Felix Castor, #4)|Mike Carey|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1328730472s/2808554.jpg|2834452].

Review for Thicker: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/169826728

Cross posted at http://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2013/07/24/the-naming-of-the-beasts-by-mike-carey... show less