Top Five Book Series - #5

I thought I'd do a new, occasional feature here at PRN looking at my top five things in certain categories that just come to mind. For the first list, I'm going to look at my favourite series of novels (single books would make it too difficult to limit to just 5, or even 15). I should point out that the order is somewhat fluid depending on my feelings at the time.

Anyway, let's start with...

5. Felix Castor series by Mike Carey

I almost went with Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden books as my fifth choice. Both those and Mike Carey's Felix Castor books are similar, in that they both concern investigators of the supernatural, are written in the first person and feel like pulpy detective novels. And, of course, both are highly entertaining and most definitely recommended.

However, the first Felix Castor novel - The Devil You Know - was my introduction into the modern urban fantasy genre of books, is set in England (specifically London) and is by a writer of X-Men comics. Hence, it makes the list ahead of the Dresden Files! Admittedly, I only read Carey's book first because Storm Front (the first Dresden book) wasn't available at the library but hey, it's my list.

In a way, these books blend bits of the horror genre - ghosts, zombies, werewolves and demons feature - with a little bit of magic regarding exorcists abilities to control and banish these creatures and sets them in the modern day world. What I like about the Felix Castor books is that the existence of the supernatural are known by everyone. They're not common, and most people tend to want to ignore the existence of ghosts and the like, but they're not hidden, secretive phenomena known only to a very small number of people. There's even mention of the government bringing about laws concerning the returned souls.

Overall, the Felix Castor books are a fantastic read, as I stated in my review of the first book. They certainly rank up there at the top of the urban fantasy books.