Saturday, September 12, 2009

Review of "Dead Men's Boots" by Mike Carey (Felix Castor series)



Well! I just finished "Dead Men's Boots" by Mike Carey, part of his Felix Castor series, and wow! This is definitely a book everyone interested in science fiction/fantasy should read. If you like Jim Butcher, you'll like him!

From the book jacket: " Castor's fellow exorcist John Gittings made several calls asking for help before his untimely demise, and if Castor had answered them, his friend might still be alive. So when a smooth -talking lawyer comes out of nowhere to claim the corpse, Castor owes it to John's unhappy ghost and even more miserable widow to help out. But life is rarely that simple for Felix Castor. A brutal murder in King's Cross bears all the hallmarks of a long-dead American serial killer, and it takes more good sense than Castor owns not to get involved. He's also fighting a losing battle for the body - if not the soul - of his demon-possessed friend, Rafi, and can't shake the feeling that his three problems might be related. With the help of the succubus Juliet and paranoid zombie data-fence Nicky Heath, Castor might have a chance of fitting the pieces together before someone drops him down an elevator shaft or rips his throat out. Or not... "

Well, there you go. Oh, you mean you wanted my thoughts on the book? Oh! Oh, okay, well then.. I quite enjoyed this book. But it's not the first book in the series, and if I hadn't been busy with school work, I would have gotten the others from the library and read those first. But despite it not being the first in the series, it was very easy to get into, and things were explained enough that I got it all fairly quickly. As for the book itself, Carey is very descriptive, and in fact, has problem the best description of a knee to a man's happy place I've ever read. "... I sidestepped it and kicked him in the crotch. He folded in on his pain, his universe shrinking to a few cubic inches of intimate agony" (73). As morbid as it may be, I couldn't help but snicker a little at that line.

The story itself has a very interesting premise - in the not-too-distant past, ghosts started rising in numbers people would never have guessed, and people with the exorcist gene, such as Castor, have their work cut out for them. As I said, Felix Castor is a very Harry Dresden-esque character, and he's someone you can connect with. And if not.. well, you want to know what trouble he gets into, and how he manages to get himself out of it, if he does. I loved the beginning hook, definitely caught my attention! "I don't do funerals all that often, and when I do, I prefer to be either falling-down drunk or dosed up on some herbal fuzz-bomb..." (1).

As for an official raiting, I would give this a FOUR out of FIVE. I liked it, I do recommend it, and I plan to find the other books in the series and give them a read as well.

Happy Reading everyone, and thank you to Marta Acosta for the book!!

Image courtesy of amazon.com

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Books received 09/09/09

You know, maybe today really is a lucky day, like I've been told. I received two books in the mail today, well.. technically I received one of them yesterday, but it was shoved into my mailbox rather late at night (Fed Ex has some odd operating times..) and I didn't notice it until today. Okay, actually I got 3 books, but one is for school.

"Dark Hunger" by Rita Herron was the poor dear left overnight in my mailbox. I got this one courtesy of Chris at http://www.stumblingoverchaos.com/ Love that blog. I check it every weekday. And I never used to be a cat person, but I find myself curious what Chaos and Mayhem are up to each day.

The second book "The Blue Enchantress" by M. L. Tyndall, the second book in the Charles Towne Belles series, was sent to me by Barbour Publishing. Got this one through http://www.librarything.com/ 's Early Reviewer program. If it wasn't for that program, I never would have gotten the urge to start my review blog.

See? Now I have even more books to read, I need to get out of this slump! Not to mention I got two books from the library today (Mammoth book of paranormal romance, and Mammoth book of vampire romance). Oh, and the book for school? Sherlock Holmes. All in all, not a bad day!

Happy Reading, and happy Hump Day!
~Morning Glow

ETA: For anyone going "Where the heck is the review for Bad Moon Rising??" Well, I know I said I'd give one, but I just can't. It wouldn't be a fair, unbiased review. I love Sherrilyn Kenyon and all she does, and I always will. After finishing the book, I just gushed over it for days. Maybe when I've taken some time to get over it, I'll post the review. In short, Loved It! Five stars! And I definitely recommend the whole series (Dark-Hunters by Sherrilyn Kenyon) to anyone and everyone.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

A slump???

Yes! I've been in a reading slump lately! And it's not that I don't have anything to read, I currently have 6 books in the TBR pile, plus at least a few more on the way. I just can't get into anything, all I have the urge to do is re-read some old favorites, and even that urge is rare.

The only explanation I can come up with is that school is back in session, so now I'm doing reading for school (which so far isn't bad, just time consuming, and takes a good deal of concentration). But summer can't last forever! Unfortunately. Actually, I love winter more than anything. Curling up under mountains of blankets with a good book.

Maybe it's just a beginning-of-the-semester thing. I hope so, because I have some very interesting books in the pile. I've listed them before, but next up is "Dead Men's Boots" by Mike Carey (Supernatural Thriller). I've heard he's every bit as good as Jim Butcher, whom I enjoy. Following that, I have "Mr Darcy, Vampyre" by Amanda Grange. Stay tuned!

Happy reading! And I hope you all had a great Labor Day Weekend, if you celebrate it!