The Naming of the Beasts, Audio Book

The Naming of the Beasts, Audio Book (2009) Mike Carey narrated by Michael Kramer

This is the final book of the Felix Castor series. It also switches back to Michael Kramer as the narrator, which was very jarring. The previous book switched to a narrator I really liked, which made Michael Kramer’s narrator fall even flatter. It’s not that he’s bad–he’s not–he just is nowhere near as good at the different voices (Juliette is particularly jarring) and it made the audio version a little less enjoyable.

Also a little less enjoyable is that this is my least favorite book of the series.

Yes, we get the resolution we’ve been coming towards in the previous four books, but this book makes me wonder why on earth Felix (nevermind Pen) cared so much about Rafi.

The ending also bothers me, in that Rafi seemingly gets off scot-free, while Fix and everyone else pays the price for his mistakes years earlier.

It’s not that I think Rafi deserved to suffer, but aside from lost years (that he doesn’t remember) he gets to pick up his life without any real consequences for the actions that got him involved with Asmodeus in the first place.

It makes me feel as if he’s going to continue along the path he was taking that led him to that bathtub.

But it’s complicated, because there is no way Rafi could remain sane, remembering all the things Asmodeus did when he had control over those final days. It’s ugly, and there was no way out of it, but it really really bothers me that Rafi essentially gets away with everything, and doesn’t have to remember any of the consequences of his actions. (And how he got away with things Asmodeus did legally?)

So, this was a somewhat disappointing ending to this series.
Rating: 7/10

Publisher: Hachette Audio

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