Vicious Circle...

[fajrdrako]

I read the second of Mike Carey's series of novels about exorcist Felix Castor, Vicious Circle. Didn't like it quite as much as the first one - but some scenes were better.

1. I preferred the way the theme about Rafi and Asmodeus played out. I keep changing my mind about whether (or to what extent) we should believe Felix and Rafi were lovers once.
   
2. Interesting developments in Felix's relationships with Pen and with Juliette.
   
3. Interesting ideas, some of them throw-away: the boat in the Thames that was a refuge for exorcists, the ex-Catholic Anathemata (which reminded me of Dan Brown's version of the Opus Dei), the Christian werekind, the use of geographical space.
   
4. Will all the books be about ghost-abuse, one way or another? With ghosts who are victimized innocents?
   
5. I continue to like the contrast between Felix's atheism and the religious people around him.
   
6. What these books need is an interesting warrior angel. He wouldn't have to be named Castiel.

It still makes me think of John Constantine, and I'm reading for style rather than plot. I got a little bored or impatient about halfway through - and then by three quarters of the way through, it picked up, and I didn't want to put it down.