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Book Review #65: Thicker Than Water
Title: Thicker Than Water
Author: Mike Carey
Genre: Urban Fantasy (book 4 of a series, although stands alone well)
Thingummies: 3.5
Synopsis: Is it Constantine fan fiction when the author was a Hellblazer writer?
Thoughts: I loved Mike Carey's work on Hellblazer. Apparently he didn't quite get over it. Because Felix Castor is essentially a reskinned John Constantine, tragic family, friend-destroyed-by-a-botched-exorcism, succubus ally and all.
But if he wants to write new Constantine materials free of Constantine's continuity (and rights issues), I'm not going to complain too hard. It's a fun paranormal mystery, if rather dark. I particularly appreciated the fact that Castor doesn't just walk away from a beating--when he gets beat up, he spends the next couple days in the hospital, the way most people with broken ribs might.
This is the fourth in a series, but I picked it up used for fifty cents without having read the first three. It's not really necessary. There are a lot of characters clearly from earlier in the series, but Carey does a great job of getting new readers up to speed without too much info-dumping. (Although I suspect some of the earlier books are spoiled a bit as a result.)
My objection is more that while the main plot wraps up, the book ends on a metaplot cliff hanger. Which is irksome.
Author: Mike Carey
Genre: Urban Fantasy (book 4 of a series, although stands alone well)
Thingummies: 3.5
Synopsis: Is it Constantine fan fiction when the author was a Hellblazer writer?
Thoughts: I loved Mike Carey's work on Hellblazer. Apparently he didn't quite get over it. Because Felix Castor is essentially a reskinned John Constantine, tragic family, friend-destroyed-by-a-botched-exorcism, succubus ally and all.
But if he wants to write new Constantine materials free of Constantine's continuity (and rights issues), I'm not going to complain too hard. It's a fun paranormal mystery, if rather dark. I particularly appreciated the fact that Castor doesn't just walk away from a beating--when he gets beat up, he spends the next couple days in the hospital, the way most people with broken ribs might.
This is the fourth in a series, but I picked it up used for fifty cents without having read the first three. It's not really necessary. There are a lot of characters clearly from earlier in the series, but Carey does a great job of getting new readers up to speed without too much info-dumping. (Although I suspect some of the earlier books are spoiled a bit as a result.)
My objection is more that while the main plot wraps up, the book ends on a metaplot cliff hanger. Which is irksome.