Malin’s #CBR5 Reviews #84-85: The Unwritten vol 6 and 7 by Mike Carey and Peter Gross

Rating: Vol 6: Tommy Taylor and the War of Words – 4 stars
Vol 7: The Wound – 4.5 stars

This review covers volume 6 and 7 of The Unwritten, which collects issues 31-41 of the comic book. If you haven’t read any of the previous volumes, this is really not the place to start, although you should totally read it, because it’s awesome. This review will probably unavoidably contain spoilers for earlier volumes, so if you want to avoid them, skip this review for now.

In Tommy Taylor and the War of Words, things are coming to a head between Tommy and the mysterious Cabal that’s been hounding him him and killing pretty much everyone he loves. Lizzie and Richie are still by his side, but they are worried that Tommy is using too much of his newly discovered powers without proper control. In alternating chapters, we see Tom taking the battle to them, ignoring the warnings of his closest friends, and we learn more about the Cabal and the sinister and deadly Mr. Pullman, and his true agenda. Tommy’s battle is fraught with danger, and not without personal cost.

In The Wound, a year has passed since the dramatic events in Oxford at the end of the last volume, which finished off several of the story lines set up over the first 30 issues of the comic, and much of this volume centres around a new character, Australian police detective Didge Patterson. She’s investigating a series of mysterious disappearances, believed to be linked to the rapidly growing cult The Church of Tommy. Tommy himself is on his way to Australia, as part of his world-wide lecture tour. Meanwhile, Richie has become world famous in his own right, having written a best-selling book. He’s parted ways with Tommy and is trying to track down and get some answers from the ancient puppet mistress Frau Rasch. More on my blog.

Rochelle’s #CBR5 Review #15: The Devil You Know by Mike Carey

I’ve had Mike Carey’s The Devil You Know on my TBR list for a couple of years.  After I read Teresaelectro’s review of Thicker Than Water, I couldn’t resist.   I got it at Audible, narrated by Michael Kramer.  It was great.

It’s a great first book in a series that looks like it gets more interesting.   One of the reasons I had resisted The Devil You Know was all the comparisons to the Dresden Files.  They are both in the same genre.  Harry and Felix  ‘Fix’ Castor are both hard on their friends with and have similar “investigative” styles.   But apart from some surface similarities Mike Carey and Jim Butcher are very different writers and the worlds they create are very much their own.

One of the things I found surprising was the degree to which Carey married real events with his fantasy London.  Bringing in real world events gives depth and gravity to the story.  I wasn’t surprised when I found out that Carey also wrote comics.  His writing style creates strong visual images.

The Devil You Know is a great start to a series.  If Carey had never written another Felix Castor novel, I would have been happy with the book I got.  But there is a lot of room in this universe for the story to grow.  From the review of Thicker Than Water, I can tell a lot changes.  I’m looking forward to diving in to this series.

 

Teresaelectro’s #CBR5 Review #3: Thicker Than Water by Mike Carey

Thicker than Water is the fourth tale of Felix Castor’s trials and tribulations in modern day London. Fix as his friends call him is a freelance exorcist with a problem with authority and penchant for chaos. Demons, ghosts, zombies and werewolves are very real and aren’t hiding in the shadows these days. Nevertheless, Fix can barely make enough money to pay his eccentric landlady and confidant Pen.

This time, the case is personal – a bully from his past named Kenny Seddon has written “F..Castor” on a bloody car window where said bully had a party with a couple of straight razors. Fix is already on the Met’s radar for past indescretions and is promptly dragged into the case. One cop in particular really hates Castor, which thrusts him upon an unwanted walk down memory lane to clear his name. And if that wasn’t enough, his estranged brother who is Catholic Priest striving for sainthood is somehow mixed up with the case and refuses to show his cards.

Read the rest of the review on my blog.