The Devil You Know, Audio Edition

The Devil You Know, Audio Edition (2006/2007) Mike Carey narrated by Michael Kramer

We’re now listening to the Felix Castor series while traveling. Michael doesn’t remember if he read the books or not, and he’s also not sure whether he likes Castor or not, but he wanted to listen to the next book.

One of the things I like about this series is the British wit that underlies everything. Like this description of a birthday party for 14 year-old boys:

The party guests milled around like a decapitated squid— lots of appendages, no brain, faintly suspect smell.

Quick primer on Felix Castor: around the turn of the millennium, ghosts started to appear to the general populace, not just sensitives, and they reached a point where exorcists were suddenly in demand, which is Castor’s business.

the Bible is strangely coy on the subject of the were-kind, hedges its bets on demons, and draws a big fat blank on ghosts, so the Christians and the Jews didn’t really seem to be any better placed than the rest of us to call the toss.

Except, that he’s not been working his trade since he accidentally destroyed his friend Rafi’s life.

Rafi. Nobody else wrote like that. Nobody sane could write like that.

What, for me, makes this series so enjoyable is 1) that the world-building is so good, and 2) Fix is a really complicated character, who is often not especially likable, although he does try to do the right thing as he sees it.

And the narrator is good. However, he does have a lower voice, and I’ve noticed that lower voices are harder to listen to in the car, because they sometimes disappear briefly into the road noise.

Publisher: Tantor Audio
Rating: 8/10

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