A review by samedi
The Naming of the Beasts by Mike Carey

5.0

This is the second best in the series, imo, but still really great. “Specifics” was the magic word in this one, using the old definition of “a medicine or remedy effective in treating a particular disease or part of the body.” Which I absolutely love, because it is super on-theme for the book. A noticeable amount of rhyming slang, too, in this one, which I guess is also on-theme. And “President Ahmed Ahmedinajad,” which threw me until I realized: themes! (I mean, I guess it’s possible neither the author nor his editor knew the name of the Iranian president, but I prefer to think it was intentional that Castor didn’t.) I just think it’s really cool to see that kind of stuff in urban fantasy, which is not typically “literary” at all.

Sad to be done with this reread; I haven’t found anything else like it since I read them the first time about a decade ago. Probably 4 stars in general, but 5 stars for the genre!

(Eta: I’m talking in this review as if you’ve read my reviews of the other books in the series, and the review probably isn’t that useful otherwise. Or at all.)