CANR
WORK TITLE: The Boy on the Bridge
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S): Carey, M.R.; Lake, A.J.
BIRTHDATE: 1959
WEBSITE: http://www.mike-carey.co.uk/
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY: United Kingdom
NATIONALITY: British
LAST VOLUME: CANR 298
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born July 17, 1959, in Liverpool, England; married; wife’s name Linda (a writer); children: David, Ben, Louise.
EDUCATION:Attended St. Peter’s College, Oxford University.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Comic-book writer for various publications, including Rock-It Comics, Malibu Publishers; Th1rt3en and Carver Hale for 2000 AD; Inferno, Negative Burn, and Doctor Faustus for Caliber Comics; Lucifer, Sandman Presents, My Faith in Frankie, and Hellblazer, for DC/Vertigo Comics; Wetworks, for Wildstorm Comics; and Ultimate Elektra, for Marvel Comics, 2004. Head writer for X-Men and X-Men: Legacy, Marvel Comics, 2006-11. Previously worked as a teacher.
WRITINGS
Writer of and contributor to numerous other graphic novels, including 9-11: Volume One, 9-11: Volume Two, Carver Hale, Companero Leonardo, Crossing Midnight: Cut Here, Crossing Midnight: A Map of Midnight, Legion of Monsters, Lucifer: Mansions of the Silence, Lucifer: Exodus, Lucifer: The Wolf beneath the Tree, Lucifer: Crux, Lucifer: Morningstar, Lucifer: Evensong, Marvel Holiday Digest, Spellbinders, Th1rt3en, Ultimate Annuals #2, Ultimate Elektra: Devil’s Due, Vertigo: First Offenses, Wetworks, Volumes 1 and 2, What If? Mirror Mirror, X-Men: Supernovas, X-Men: Blinded by the Light, and X-Men: Endangered Species.
The Girl with All the Gift was adapted for film.
SIDELIGHTS
British comic-book writer Mike Carey has a versatile touch with series work, creating dark, brooding scenarios with works such as the “Lucifer” series, comedy with My Faith in Frankie, and a world of superheroes in Wetworks and the “Ultimate Elektra” series. Arune Singh, writing on the Comic Book Resources website, noted that “meeting Mike Carey, the first thing that’ll strike you about him is that he is truly a comic-book fan.” Carey cut his teeth on comics as a youth in postwar Liverpool, England, beginning his writing career by submitting reviews to a small fanzine. By the late 1980s, he had begun submitting story pitches to comic imprint Trident. Ideas for a psychological horror series and for a superhero book were contracted, but Carey’s debut titles died when his publisher went bankrupt.
He worked in the early 1990s for other small publishers until he was hired by New York’s DC Comics to work on several series titles. The first of these was the “Lucifer” series, a spin-off character from Neil Gaiman’s classic adult comic Sandman. Carey’s “Lucifer” series presents a character who is, basically, the devil. More than an antihero, Lucifer is “unrepentant,” according to Katherine Keller on the NinthArt website, and “utterly chilling in his penetrating intellect, cold gaze, and utter lack of empathy or compassion.”
Lucifer: Devil in the Gateway collects the initial four issues of the series, as well as the three-volume miniseries, in a paperback version. Carey’s miniseries finds Lucifer working for God, who wants some minor gods stopped before they gain too much power and disturb the balance of the world. The initial volumes of the ongoing series set up the ongoing storyline, with Lucifer Morningstar living among mortals and running a Los Angeles nightclub called the Lux. The sophisticated Lucifer is so self-centered that he has no regard for human life and will use his powers with no regrets. His “retirement” on Earth is continually spoiled by visits from people in his past, however, and soon he is busily setting up a parallel universe that will be in direct competition to God’s universe. The first book also introduces major characters, including Jill Presto and Elaine Belloc. Keller felt that the initial publication should have been broken into two books. Apart from that, however, she found that Lucifer: Devil in the Gateway “should serve to give new readers an ample taste of one of the most delicious titles to come out of Vertigo in a long time”; furthermore, she praised Carey as a “writer of dynamic vision and savage wit.” Reviewing the same title on the LogBook website, Dave Thomer wrote that “Carey succeeds [in this book] because the focus of the series is not so much on Lucifer’s dealings with mortals, but with the forces of heaven, hell, and other spiritual realms.” Similarly, Tom Knapp, writing on the Rambles website, observed that “Mike Carey certainly gives the devil his due, and I’m glad to see one of Gaiman’s characters in such capable hands. Lucifer may be an unlikely protagonist, but this series is worth checking out.”
A second “Lucifer” collection appeared in 2002, Lucifer: Children and Monsters, which includes issues five through thirteen of the ongoing series. Here, Lucifer travels to Japan in search of his lost wings, deals with the destruction of his nightclub, and sets himself to battle the forces of heaven. Concatenation website contributor Tony Chester noted that “Carey has done a brilliant job of continuing this series, creating a Lucifer of great intelligence, ruthlessness and humour.”
Issues fourteen through twenty were gathered in Lucifer: A Dalliance with the Damned, a collection that demonstrates, according to Chester, that “Lucifer” “is easily one of the best comics available today.” In Lucifer: Nirvana, Carey serves up a stand-alone book outside of the “Lucifer” comic-book series and story line. According to Randy Lander on the FourthRail website, this book “is mostly about a young Chinese woman seeking peace and a fallen angel seeking revenge.” For Lander, Lucifer: Nirvana is “an example of a great story, told in one issue.”
In Lucifer: The Divine Comedy, Lucifer has created his own world where nothing is allowed to be worshiped. However, Lucifer’s position as leader of all is soon threatened when others arrive from God’s kingdom. “Carey’s writing is full of intrigue and surprise,” wrote Steve Raiteri in Library Journal. The installment Lucifer: Inferno features a duel between Lucifer and the angel Amenadiel. Kliatt contributor George R. Galuschak noted that the book “should appeal to fans.”
In addition to his “Lucifer” series for DC Comics, Carey has worked on the “Hellblazer” series, featuring the adventures and misadventures of John Constantine, a character originally introduced by author Alan Moore in Swamp Thing; on Wildstorm Comics’ Wetworks, which features a band of mutant aliens who work in covert operations; and on his creator-owned comedy series, My Faith in Frankie. Speaking with Singh on the Comic Book Resources website, Carey was reserved about future projects: “I can’t say what the future will hold because my present is full to bursting. I will say that almost everything I’m doing at the moment is taking me into new places in terms of genre and narrative technique. I’m having a great time, and I think I’m writing more organically and more powerfully than I ever have before. I hope it doesn’t end any time soon.”
The graphic novel John Constantine, Hellblazer: All His Engines, with artwork by Leonardo Manco, features the ex-punk-rocker-turned-magician John Constantine running into a demon from hell after the granddaughter of Constantine’s friend Chas Chandler falls into a coma. Raiteri, writing in Library Journal, commented that “this book would make a fine introduction to the character and should please longtime fans.” Gordon Flagg wrote in Booklist that the novel “provides longtime fans with a satisfying adventure.”
John Constantine, Hellblazer: Black Flowers, finds the antihero protecting a woman who develops bravery equal to that of her protector. School Library Journal contributor John Leighton called John Constantine, Hellblazer: Black Flowers “a dark, complex, brainy book.” John Constantine, Hellblazer: Red Sepulchre features Constantine searching for his niece and meeting an old woman who has a portal to hell. Once again writing in the School Library Journal, Leighton commented: “The dialogue between the sarcastic Constantine and everybody else is amusing.” In John Constantine, Hellblazer: Stations of the Cross, Constantine is wandering the streets of London without his memory or his powers. John Constantine, Hellblazer: Reasons to Be Cheerful finds Constantine’s three demonic children out for revenge on their father. Constantine travels to hell to rescue his sister in John Constantine, Hellblazer: The Gift.
Carey began his “Felix Castor” series with The Devil You Know. The novel features Castor as a private detective who works as an exorcist. “The noir stuff just came naturally as I was writing,” the author told Andrew A. Smith on the ScrippsNews website. “Castor is a gumshoe exorcist—an exorcist out of a Raymond Chandler novel. It’s fun to write him like that, as a man who’s essentially walking the mean streets and doing the only thing he knows how to do to pay the bills.”
Although the author is neither an exorcist nor a detective, he told Alex Dueben in an interview on the California Literary Review website: “There’s a lot of me in Castor. It’s a little bit out of control. I started out deliberately giving him aspects of my past, just little bits and pieces. He comes from Walton in Liverpool. His dad works in a factory. Stuff like that I put in because I could write them with absolute conviction because I knew them. And then weirdly I began to realize that a lot of Castor’s back story is like a coded or a disguised version of my own story in ways that I can’t even begin to explain.”
In The Devil You Know, Castor has left the exorcism business behind him after a mishap that caused a demon to become incorporated into a friend’s soul. He’s working as a cheap stage magician at birthday parties when he reluctantly accepts a job ridding a museum of a faceless ghost. “Carey deftly melds gripping plots, memorable details, and dark humor, making Felix Castor and the beginning of this series irresistible,” wrote Laura Blackwell on the Strange Horizons website. A Kirkus Reviews contributor wrote: “Carey transcends his comic roots in this quirky, dark and imaginative tale that compels readers to keep turning pages long after they should have gotten to sleep.”
The next novel in the series, Vicious Circle, finds Castor hired by grieving parents to find the missing ghost of their daughter. “Although it’s enjoyable and easy to follow on its own, the second book builds on events from the first,” noted Blackwell, again on the Strange Horizons website. “It even picks up minor points from The Devil You Know and expands on them, suggesting that the series may have some overarching plot as well as these self-contained stories.”
The third book in the series, Dead Men’s Boots, follows Castor as he investigates the death and legal battle involving the disposition of the body of his friend and fellow exorcist John Gittings, needed to settle his ghost. Through the request of a friend’s wife, Janie Hunter, whose husband Doug has been accused of a rape and murder, he also gets involved in a recent murder enacted in the style of a serial killer, the gangster Myriam Seaforth Kale, who has been dead for forty years. Castor’s investigation looks to the dark side for answers in this story line as well. In addition, Castor must also check into the disputed claims involving the release of Rafael Ditko from an asylum that researches the paranormal.
Harriet Klausner, in a review for the Genre Go Round Reviews website, observed that the multiple subplots in Dead Men’s Boots “grip the reader from the moment the body of Gittings is interred and never slow down as every move the exorcist makes seems increasingly dangerous.” Booklist contributor David Pitt described the book as “a wholly engaging blend of the detective and fantasy genres.” A Kirkus Reviews contributor commented that the novel is not just a light read but “will have [readers] staying up much too late for the pleasure of ‘just one more chapter’ before dousing the lights.” A Publishers Weekly contributor noted: “Carey has a way with words … as well as a gift for creating a plausible alternate reality.”
In 2010 Carey published The Unwritten, Volume 1: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity with illustrator Peter Gross, the first in a monthly series of contemporary fantasy and horror comics, which went through twelve volumes, ending in 2015. Tom Taylor is something of a celebrity, widely presumed to be the model for the protagonist for his author-father’s widely popular fantasy novels. Tom has never fully embraced his semi-celebrity status, and his life is significantly complicated when it is revealed that he is not the biological child of his father, Wilson Taylor, who mysteriously disappeared when Tom was only twelve. Suddenly Tom finds himself having to dodge mobs of once-adoring fans and escape an attempt on his life. Tom relocates to Switzerland where he lived as a child, and begins to discover that some elements of his father’s fantasy novels may actually have been based on reality. As Tom ventures forth in search of his father and himself, the story mashes characters from Frankenstein Monster and Baron Munchhausen to Pinocchio and Sinbad the Sailor. As the story progresses, the question arise whether Tom is a real boy or purely fictional.
In a review of the work on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer Online, contributor Eilonvi remarked: “Carey is a real master of the written word—he creates believable dialog. While intelligent and sophisticated, he never overdoes sarcasm or drama. He always maintains a graceful simplicity, even when using up-to-date foul language.” Booklist contributor Olson noted that The Unwritten, Volume 1 is “the start of something very promising for horror-thriller fans.” A Publishers Weekly contributor lauded the book as “a brisk and addictive story, sketched with crafty allusions to classic literature.” Rizal Soloman, a contributor to New Straits Times, awarded the book high praise: “When it comes to creating layers of reality and peeling away the mundane of the one we live in, very few writers possess the power of Carey’s storytelling ability.” Soloman also asserted: “If you’re looking for a book that is intelligent, submerges you into a fantastic world and rewards your loyalty sticking with it … this one should be high on your reading priority.”
The Unwritten, Volume 3: Dead Man’s Knock “deepens in complexity, adding to the agile metaliterary thriller a touch of light satire on publishing mega-events,” according to Booklist reviewer Ian Chipman. Here, evil forces are creating a literary hoax in a purported new volume of Tommy Taylor’s adventures. Now Tom must battle his fictional doppelganger.
In The Unwritten, Volume 4: Leviathan, Tom sails the fictional seas of Herman Melville as he continues his quest, and ends up hunting the great white whale, Moby Dick. “This story is turning into the most precarious mind trip going in comics,” noted Chipman in Booklist. Tom continues to dig into the origins of Tommy Taylor and his father’s history in The Unwritten, Volume 5: On to Genesis, a “twisty, enticing mystery,” according to Booklist reviewer Sarah Hunter.
The Unwritten: Tommy Taylor and the Ship That Sank Twice is a “superb standalone graphic novel … [in which] Carey and Gross explore the roots of their mythology,” according to a Publishers Weekly reviewer. Here the diaries of Wilson Taylor are revealed as is his callous use of his son as a mere publicity tactic. Superman blends with C.S. Lewis and the world of Harry Potter in this “welcome addition to an already compelling, well-wrought series,” as Hunter noted in Booklist. School Library Journal writer Peter Blenski felt that this work “can serve as an entry point to the author’s ‘The Unwritten’ series, or as a standalone prequel.” Carey’s series concluded in 2015, with The Unwritten, Volume 11: Apocalypse.
Carey has also written a graphic novel that contains some Sandman characters. With The Sandman Presents: The Furies, Carey introduces three separate story lines that link together in a tale of Greek gods and goddesses. Among other characters are Cronus, the last in the Titans lineage, along with Hippolyta, Hermes, and the Furies, who are “dogging some of [these characters] for varied sins of patricide,” according to Booklist reviewer Ray Olson. While Olson had praise for the “excitingly lurid artwork” of John Bolton, he was less positive about what he termed Carey’s “lurching scenario” and an air of “New Age … sentimentality.”
God Save the Queen, painted by John Bolton, was described as “a midsummer’s nightmare” by Booklist contributor Francisca Goldsmith, who noted that the story borrows from Shakespeare. In this tale, Linda lives in modern London and becomes involved with a very different group of squatters and, through her mother, discovers that there exists an alternate world of Faerie. Goldsmith noted “the horror and wonder of Carey’s script.” A Publishers Weekly contributor called the novel “a treat for any fan of the fantastic.”
Sonny Liew and Marc Hempel provide the artwork for Re-gifters, a tale by Carey that features martial artist Dixie falling for a fellow martial artist named Adam Heller. The plot revolves around Dixie trying to impress Adam by winning a martial arts contest, and Adam getting a gift from Dixie and re-gifting it to another girl he likes. Galuschak, again writing in Kliatt, noted the graphic novel’s “quirky characters, spot-on dialogue and a fast-paced, entertaining plot.” Booklist contributor Goldsmith commented on the book’s “well-developed characters, plot, and setting.”
Carey teamed up with his daughter, Louise Carey, to write the graphic novel Confessions of a Blabbermouth. The novel focuses on young Tasha, who writes about the problems of her life on her blog Blabbermouth. The blog turns out to be immensely popular, even with Tasha’s mother, who is always bringing home new boyfriends who are regularly berated by Tasha in her writings. The plot revolves around yet another new boyfriend and Tasha’s efforts to help the man’s daughter change her life. Andrea Lipinski, writing in School Library Journal, noted: “The dialogue, and especially the humor, rings true.”
Working with illustrator Salvador Larroca, Carey presents the first original X-Men graphic novel in over three decades with his 2014 X-Men: No More Humans. The tale focuses on the malevolent son of Wolverine and Mystique, who attempts to banish all humans from Earth. Now the X-Men must forget their differences and fight a common enemy in a story that “feels both classic and original,” according to Booklist reviewer Ben Spanner, who further noted that “Carey brings his lofty intelligence to the dialogue.”
Carey worked with his wife, Linda Carey, and their daughter Louise to write the novel The Steel Seraglio, a story of the ancient Middle Eastern city of Bessa. When the sultan is killed, his concubines are fortunate to escape the religious rebellion that has overcome the city. But their fate is uncertain in the harsh desert until one of their number, Zuleika, a trained assassin, takes a leadership role. A Publishers Weekly reviewer termed this a “thrilling tale.” Writing in Booklist, David Pitt similarly praised the “richly detailed characters and setting and dialogue that, in places, verges on poetry.”
Writing under the pseudonym Adam Black, the prolific Carey has also written thrillers in the style of Dan Brown. In The Dead Sea Deception, London policewoman Heather Kennedy and ex-mercenary Leo Tillman team up to solve a series of deaths that ultimately leads them to the Dead Sea Scrolls. But they have little time to ponder the gospel that has been hidden therein, for they become the target of a group of assassins who claim to be descendants of Judas and who cry blood tears. This group of self-styled fallen angels will go to any lengths to preserve the secret of the true manner of Christ’s death that is revealed in the Scrolls.
Writing in the online Reviewing the Evidence, Arnold Taylor noted: “Intelligence, good characterisation and an imaginative plot combine to make The Dead Sea Deception a delight for those who enjoy this kind of thriller.” Similarly, a contributor in For Winter Nights website commented: “There is a sensationalist element but when the writing’s as good as this and the characters are as intriguing, it’s not too much of a hardship to surrender to it. It’s always good to discover a new author who writes intelligent thrillers.” A Publishers Weekly reviewer felt that the author “hits all the genre tropes in fresh and exciting ways.”
Writing under his own name, in the 2014 novel The Girl with All the Gifts, Carey weaves a postapocalyptic tale of a world devastated by a fungus that turns humans into “hungries,” or zombie-like creatures that feed on healthy humans. The remaining healthy humans have sequestered themselves from the hungries in guarded areas such as the Beacon. One group of humans is trying to find a cure by experimenting on the children who become the zombified hungries. Some of these have kept their emotional and cognitive state intact until the scent of human becomes overpowering. Caroline Caldwell is the head scientist at one such area, and she is experimenting on a child named Melanie when the base is attacked. Caldwell flees with a teacher, Helen Justineau, who disapproves of Caldwell’s experiments. Agreeing to take Melanie with them, they later meet up with a pair of soldiers who have been guarding this base, and now they must make their way through dangerous territory. Melanie ultimately proves her true humanity by helping to end the disease and rebuild the world.
Reviewing The Girl with All the Gifts, a Publishers Weekly contributor noted: “The requisite action sequences are also well constructed, and the book will appeal to fans of zombie fiction.” A Kirkus Reviews critic similarly felt that this is “one of the more imaginative and ingenious additions to the dystopian canon.” An Entertainment Weekly Online reviewer commented: “Melanie is empathetic and sympathetic, and her deeply tragic existence is proof that zombie tales can elicit an emotion other than fear.” Slate.com writer Torie Bosch also had praise for the novel, observing: “ The Girl with All the Gifts is crossover horror at its best: a book that can appeal to readers like me who are interested in the altered social dynamics of a collapsed society, but who are inclined to skim over lengthy descriptions of dull, gory battles.” London Guardian Online contributor James Smythe called the novel a “testament to Carey’s skill.” Smythe added: “Not every writer can make you feel emotionally attached to a genius-level undead 10-year-old. But then, not every zombie novel can make you forget that you were sick of the genre in the first place.”
In Fellside, Jess Moulson nods out on heroin and a fire erupts in her apartment, killing a boy named Alex, who lives in her building. She is sent to a women’s prison called Fellside. Jess determines to kill herself through starvation. When she has almost succeeded, Alex’s ghost comes to her and asserts that she did not kill him. The ghosts tells Jess she must find justice for the real killer. “In the end, there are too many loose ends to tie up. The leaps between reality and supernatural fantasy are just too hard to navigate,” commented a Kirkus Reviews critic. However, Michelle Herbert, contributor to the Fantasy Book Review website, remarked: “This is a heartbreaking story where bad things happen to good and bad people, but it is also a wild ride where, once you have started reading, you will need to find out what happens next. Whether Jess needs to get to the truth of her story or not, you as the reader are locked into seeing how Fellside will play out.” Booklist writer, Stacy Alesi, suggested: “This is a dark, suspenseful, and occasionally brutal paranormal mystery with an unreliable narrator.” “This eerie tale is sure to hook crime fiction and horror lovers,” asserted Portia Kapraun in Library Journal.
The Boy on the Bridge is a sequel to The Girl with All the Gifts. It finds a group of scientists traveling through the United Kingdom in search of a cure for an epidemic. Among the scientists is Samrina Khan, who learns she is pregnant while on their mission. With them are a group of soldiers to protect them and a teenage boy named Stephen Greaves, whose supernatural abilities may give the scientists a better chance to find a cure.
Writing on the National Public Radio website, Genevieve Valentine commented: “There are occasional beats of bone-dry self-awareness. … But despite the many point-of-view characters and the ethical dilemmas of a cure, there’s also a certain remoteness to all the machinations. Though the stakes are clear and the group’s escalating disasters turn into ethical clashes, the pieces don’t connect into a compelling whole.” Other assessments of the volume were more favorable. Stephanie O’Connell, reviewer on the 100 Percent Rock website, suggested: “There were a couple of things that were potential plot holes of the kind discovered when travelling to an earlier part of a timeline that was written after the events that followed, but not enough to excuse skipping The Boy on the Bridge.” O’Connell added: “This is a slower build than the previous book, but all said and done, this is a wonderful trip back into the universe of The Girl With All The Gifts, full of Carey’s brilliant words that somehow capture the gore and the atrocity of a situation in a beautiful way, and full of characters you can’t help but root for, even though you’re pretty sure they’re doomed because Rosie never returned from her voyage.” A Kirkus Reviews contributor noted: “Carey weaves a creeping dread into his already tense narrative and doesn’t rely on clichéd zombie tropes to drive it.” The same contributor described the book as “a terrifying, emotional page-turner that explores what it means to be human.” A writer in Publishers Weekly asserted: “Plausible science and solid prose and characterization elevate this dystopian thriller above similar works.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, February 1, 2003, Ray Olson, review of The Sandman Presents: The Furies, p. 966; January 1, 2005, Francisca Goldsmith, review of My Faith in Frankie, p. 844; February 15, 2005, Gordon Flagg, review of John Constantine, Hellblazer: All His Engines, p. 1070; August, 2005, Ray Olson, review of Lucifer: The Wolf beneath the Tree, p. 2010; February 15, 2006, Gordon Flagg, review of John Constantine, Hellblazer: Staring at the Wall, p. 55; March 15, 2006, Tina Coleman, review of Lucifer: Crux, p. 37; September 1, 2006, Ray Olson, review of Lucifer: Morningstar, p. 69; October 1, 2006, Gordon Flagg, review of John Constantine, Hellblazer: Stations of the Cross, p. 46; March 15, 2007, Francisca Goldsmith, review of God Save the Queen, p. 35; June 1, 2007, Francisca Goldsmith, review of Re-gifters, p. 71; July 1, 2007, Gordon Flagg, review of Batman: Black & White, Vol. 3, p. 45; July 1, 2007, Gordon Flagg, review of John Constantine, Hellblazer: Reasons to Be Cheerful, p. 46; September 1, 2007, Tina Coleman, review of Crossing Midnight: Cut Here, p. 68; September 1, 2007, Gillian Engberg, “Core Collection: Sports Fiction for Girls,” p. 135; November 1, 2007, Gordon Flagg, review of John Constantine, Hellblazer: The Gift p. 34; July 1, 2009, David Pitt, review of Dead Men’s Boots, p. 36; December 15, 2009, Ray Olson, review of The Unwritten, Volume 1: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity, p. 25; April 15, 2011, Ian Chipman, review of The Unwritten, Volume 3: Dead Man’s Knock, p. 40; November 15, 2011, Ian Chipman, review of The Unwritten, Volume 4: Leviathan, p. 41; March 15, 2012, David Pitt, review of The Steel Seraglio, p. 28; April 15, 2012, Sarah Hunter, review of The Unwritten, Volume 5: On to Genesis, p. 49; October 15, 2013, Sarah Hunter, review of The Unwritten: Tommy Taylor and the Ship That Sank Twice, p. 38; November 15, 2014, Ben Spanner, review of X-Men: No More Humans, p. 33; March 1, 2016, Stacy Alesi, review of Fellside, p. 56.
Bookseller, December 9, 2005, review of The Devil You Know, p. 34.
Europe Intelligence Wire, June 7, 2010, “Giving up the Day Job to Take Charge of the X-Men.”
Kirkus Reviews, May 15, 2007, review of The Devil You Know; June 15, 2009, review of Dead Men’s Boots; April 15, 2014, review of The Girl with All the Gifts; February 1, 2016, review of Fellside; March 15, 2017, review of The Boy on the Bridge.
Kliatt, July, 2004, George R. Galuschak, review of Lucifer: Inferno, p. 33; July, 2007, George Galuschak, review of Re-gifters, p. 34.
Library Journal, September 1, 2003, Steve Raiteri, review of Lucifer: The Divine Comedy, p. 138; July 1, 2005, Steve Raiteri, review of John Constantine, Hellblazer: All His Engines, p. 61; July 1, 2007, Martha Cornog and Steve Raiteri, “Graphic Novels,” p. 64; July 1, 2009, Karl G. Siewort, review of Dead Men’s Boots, p. 90; March 15, 2016, Portia Kapraun, review of Fellside, p. 99.
Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July, 2005, Charles De Lint, review of John Constantine, Hellblazer: All His Engines, p. 36; October-November, 2007, Charles De Lint, review of God Save the Queen, p. 28.
New Straits Times (Malaysia), March 13, 2010, Rizal Soloman, “The Other Boy Wizard.”
Publishers Weekly, August 25, 2003, review of Lucifer: The Divine Comedy, p. 42; January 12, 2004, review of The Sandman Presents, p. 39; January 3, 2005, review of My Faith in Frankie, p. 38; January 31, 2005, review of John Constantine, Hellblazer: All His Engines, p. 51; November 27, 2006, review of Red Sonja, p. 38; February 19, 2007, review of God Save the Queen, p. 154; June 4, 2007, review of Re-gifters, p. 53; June 4, 2007, review of The Devil You Know, p. 34; June 25, 2007, review of Crossing Midnight, p. 41; May 18, 2009, review of Dead Men’s Boots, p. 33; November 16, 2009, review of The Unwritten, Volume 1, p. 43; January 30, 2012, review of The Steel Seraglio, p. 38; September 23, 2013, review of The Unwritten: Tommy Taylor and the Ship That Sank Twice, p. 64; April 14, 2014, review of The Dead Sea Deception, p. 36, and review of The Girl with All the Gifts, p. 39; March 27, 2017, review of The Boy on the Bridge, p. 84.
School Library Journal, February, 2004, Hillias J. Martin, review of Lucifer: The Divine Comedy, p. 174; July, 2005, Erin Dennington, review of John Constantine, Hellblazer: All His Engines, p. 128; September, 2005, John Leighton, review of John Constantine, Hellblazer: Red Sepulchre, p. 242; March, 2006, John Leighton, review of John Constantine, Hellblazer: Black Flowers, p. 252; November, 2007, Andrea Lipinski, review of Confessions of a Blabbermouth, p. 155; May, 2014, Peter Blenski, review of The Unwritten: Tommy Taylor and the Ship That Sank Twice, p. 143.
ONLINE
100 Percent Rock, http://magazine.100percentrock.com/ (May 2, 2017), Stephanie O’Connell, review of The Boy on the Bridge.
Bitten by Books, http://bittenbybooks.com/ (July 23, 2009), author interview.
Blogcritics http://blogcritics.org/ (August 27, 2007), Scott Butki, “An Interview with Mike Carey, Author of The Devil You Know—Part 1”; (September 11, 2007), Scott Butki, “An Interview with Mike Carey, Author of The Devil You Know—Part 2.”
California Literary Review, http://calitreview.com/ (October 16, 2007), Alex Dueben, “Mike Carey: Novelist and Comic Writer.”
Comicbookbin.com, http://www.comicbookbin.com/ (February 5, 2007), Al Kratina, “Mike Carey’s One-Sided Bargains.”
Comic Book Resources, http://www.comicbookresources.com/ (October 20, 2003), Arune Singh, “Care(y) Bear Countdown”; (May 23, 2004), Arune Singh, “Make Mike’s Marvel: Mike Carey First Marvel Comics Work, Ultimate Elektra”; (January 3, 2006), Arune Singh, “In Depth with Mike Carey: Marvel, Vertigo & More”; (April 10, 2007), Arune Singh, “Mike Carey Celebrates the Present in ‘Re-gifters’”; (December 4, 2007), George A. Tramountanas, “X-Position Week 28: Mike Carey”; (October 6, 2009), Dave Richards, “Mike Carey on ‘The Unwritten’”; (December 1, 2009), George A. Tramountanas, “X-Position: Mike Carey.”
Comic Related, http://www.comicrelated.com/ (August 28, 2010), Eric Ratcliffe, author interview.
Concatenation, http://www.concatenation.org/ (December 22, 2002), Tony Chester, review of Lucifer: Children and Monsters; (April 17, 2004), Tony Chester, review of Lucifer: A Dalliance with the Damned.
Entertainment Weekly Online, http://www.ew.com/ (August 7, 2014), review of The Girl with All the Gifts.
Fantasy Book Review, http://www.fantasybookreview.co.uk/ (July 25, 2017), Michelle Herbert, review of Fellside.
For Winter Nights, https://forwinternights.wordpress.com/ (May 4, 2012), review of The Dead Sea Deception.
FourthRail, http://www.thefourthrail.com/ (August 28, 2002), Randy Lander, review of Lucifer: Nirvana.
Geek Planet Online, http://www.geekplanetonline.com/ (August 6, 2009), Chris Brosnahan, author interview.
Genre Go Round Reviews, http://genregoroundreviews.blogspot.com/ (May 26, 2009), Harriet Klausner, review of Dead Men’s Boots.
Guardian Online, http://www.theguardian.com/ (January 15, 2014), James Smythe, review of The Girl with All the Gifts.
Internet Movie Database, http://www.imdb.com/ (June 8, 2015), brief author biography.
KQED.org, http://www.kqed.org/ (January 23, 2007), brief profile of author.
LogBook, http://www.thelogbook.com/ (June 14, 2004), Dave Thomer, review of Lucifer: Devil in the Gateway.
Mike Carey Website, https://www.mikecarey.net/ (August 7, 2017).
Mike Carey and Peter Gross Joint Website, http://mikeandpeter.com/ (August 7, 2017).
National Public Radio Online, http://www.npr.org/ (June 11, 2014), Genevieve Valentine, review of The Girl with All the Gifts; (May 6, 2017), Genevieve Valentine, review of The Boy on the Bridge.
Newsarama, http://www.newsarama.com/ (May 27, 2004), interview with Mike Carey; (January 23, 2007), “Spoiler Sport: Mike Carey on X-Men #2000”; (February 27, 2009), Chris Arrant, “Mike Carey & Peter Gross on Vertigo’s The Unwritten.”
NinthArt, http://www.ninthart.com/ (August 3, 2001), Katherine Keller, review of Lucifer: Devil in the Gateway.
PopMatters, http://www.popmatters.com/ (February 11, 2010), Kevin M. Brettauer, review of The Unwritten.
Rambles, http://www.rambles.net/ (February 8, 2003), Tom Knapp, review of Lucifer: Devil in the Gateway.
Reviewing the Evidence, http://www.reviewingtheevidence.com/ (September, 2011), Arnold Taylor, review of The Dead Sea Deception.
ScrippsNews, http://www.scrippsnews.com/ (September 18, 2007), Andrew A. Smith, “Talking with Comic-Book Writer—and Novelist—Mike Carey.”
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Online, http://www.seattlepi.com/ (June 7, 2010), Eilonvi, review of The Unwritten.
Slate.com, http://www.slate.com/ (July 8, 2014), Torie Bosch, review of The Girl with All the Gifts.
Strange-Haven, http://www.strange-haven.com/ (December 14, 2003), Jennifer Contino, interview with Mike Carey.
Strange Horizons, http://www.strangehorizons.com/ (September 7, 2007), Laura Blackwell, review of The Devil You Know and Vicious Circle.
Vertigo Comics Website, http://www.vertigocomics.com/ (August 7, 2017), author profile.
WSJ Blogs, http://blogs.wsj.com/ (January 25, 2010), author interview.*
Mike Carey
10.10.10MikeCareyByLuigiNovi1.jpg
Carey at the New York Comic Con in Manhattan, 10 October 2010.
Born Michael James Carey
1959 (age 57–58)
Liverpool, England
Nationality British
Area(s) Writer
Notable works
Lucifer
Hellblazer
X-Men
Crossing Midnight
The Unwritten
X-Men: Legacy
mikeandpeter.com
Mike Carey (born 1959) is a British writer of comic books, novels, and films.
Contents [hide]
1 Early life and career
2 Writing career
3 Bibliography
3.1 Comics
3.1.1 Early work
3.1.2 DC Comics/Vertigo
3.1.3 2000 AD
3.1.4 Marvel Comics
3.1.5 Other publishers
3.2 Novels
3.3 Short stories
3.4 Poems
3.5 Films
4 References
5 External links
5.1 Interviews
Early life and career[edit]
Carey was born in Liverpool, England, in 1959 – describing his young self as "one of those ominously quiet kids... [who] lived so much inside my own head I only had vestigial limbs". As a child, he maintained an interest in comics, writing and drawing primitive stories to entertain his younger brother.[1] He studied English at St Peter's College, Oxford,[2] before becoming a teacher. He continued to teach for 15 years before moving on to writing comics.
Writing career[edit]
After a series of one-off jobs for independent comics companies, including a biographical comic of Ozzy Osbourne and a fantasy about the band Pantera, Carey gained regular employment at 2000 AD, where he created the original series Th1rt3en and Carver Hale.
For the Vertigo imprint of DC Comics Carey went on to write the entire run of the Eisner Award-nominated comic book Lucifer,[3] and issues 175 to 215 of Hellblazer, a run on that title only exceeded in length by Garth Ennis and Peter Milligan.[4] He also wrote the original graphic novels The Sandman Presents: The Furies with John Bolton and Hellblazer: All His Engines with Leonardo Manco.[5]
He is the ongoing writer of X-Men: Legacy working with artist Scot Eaton,[6] plus Ultimate Fantastic Four for Marvel Comics.
He also had three recent Vertigo series that have wrapped up: Faker a six-part mini-series with art by Jock;[7][8] a second graphic novel, God Save the Queen, with John Bolton, featuring Queen Titania, Oberon, Puck, Nuala and Cluracan from the Sandman and Books of Magic comics; and Crossing Midnight with Jim Fern.[9][10] September 2006 saw the long-delayed debut of Wetworks: Worldstorm with Whilce Portacio for Wildstorm Comics.[11] He is also one of the first authors on DC's Minx imprint for teenaged girls, his second Minx title being co-written with his daughter, Louise.[12] The Unwritten[13] premiered in May 2009, with art by Peter Gross and covers by Yuko Shimizu.
Carey at the DC Comics booth at the New York Comic Con, 10 October 2010.
In 2008 Carey worked on a number of different titles, including tie-ins to the "Secret Invasion" crossover storyline, that included an eight-page story in the one-shot anthology Secret Invasion: Who Do You Trust?, which features Abigail Brand of S.W.O.R.D., and a four-issue mini-series, Secret Invasion: X-Men.[14][15] That same year he began writing Queen's Rook, the first of Virgin Comics' Coalition Comix on MySpace, where users could suggest ideas for a comic which would then get made.[16][17] He also wrote "Dark Deception", a crossover story arc that appeared across X-Men: Legacy and Wolverine: Origins,[18] and tied into X-Men: Original Sin,[19] he retold the Beast's origin story in X-Men: Origins,[20] wrote an Iceman story in X-Men: Manifest Destiny,[19][21] a comic book adaptation of Ender's Shadow,[22] and the Vertigo Comics series The Unwritten.[23]
Carey's first prose novel, The Devil You Know, was released in the UK by Orbit books in April 2006, and as a hardcover in the US in July 2007. Its sequel, Vicious Circle, was published in October 2006, and the following three novels in the series, Dead Men's Boots, Thicker Than Water, and The Naming of the Beasts, followed in September 2007, March 2009 and September 2009, respectively.
Carey's first feature film, the erotic ghost story Frost Flowers, was reported in June 2006 to be in pre-production, with filming to begin that September under the direction of Andrea Vecchiato, but the project collapsed before production began and the script is in limbo.[24] Carey is also working on the TV series The Stranded, the first co-production between Virgin Comics and the Syfy network.[25]
In 2011 he wrote a crossover between X-Men Legacy and New Mutants titled Age of X.[26] In August 2011, Marvel announced Mike Carey's final X-Men-Legacy arc.[27]
In January 2014, he had another prose novel published which was titled The Girl With All The Gifts. It was released to critical acclaim and was later that year announced to be made into a film. Filming began in May 2015, with newcomer Sennia Nanua in the lead role of Melanie, Gemma Arterton as Helen Justineau, Glenn Close as Caroline Caldwell, and Paddy Considine as Sergeant Parks. TV veteran Colm McCarthy directed the movie.
Bibliography[edit]
This article contains embedded lists that may be poorly defined, unverified or indiscriminate. Please help to clean it up to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Where appropriate, incorporate items into the main body of the article. (August 2014)
Comics[edit]
Early work[edit]
Titles published by various British and American publishers include:
Apocalypse:
Toxic! #30–31: "Aquarius: Promised Lands" (with Ken V. Meyer, Jr., 1991)
Malibu:
Ozzy Osbourne: "The Comeback" (with Tom Kyffin, one-shot, 1993)
Pantera: "Power in the Darkness" (with Trevor Goring, one-shot, 1994)
Caliber:
Inferno #1–5 (with Michael Gaydos, 1995–1996) collected as Inferno (tpb, 144 pages, Titan, 2003, ISBN 1-84023-764-3)
Negative Burn #49: "Suicide Kings" (with Paul J. Holden, 1997)
Dr. Faustus (with Mike Perkins, one-shot, 1997)
DC Comics/Vertigo[edit]
Titles published by DC Comics and its Vertigo imprint include:
Lucifer:
Devil in the Gateway (tpb, 160 pages, 2001, ISBN 1-56389-733-4) includes:
The Sandman Presents: Lucifer #1–3 (with Scott Hampton, 1999)
"A Six-Card Spread" (with Chris Weston, in #1–3, 2000)
"Born with the Dead" (with Warren Pleece, in No. 4, 2000)
Children and Monsters (tpb, 208 pages, 2002, ISBN 1-56389-800-4) collects:
"The House of Windowless Rooms" (with Peter Gross, in #5–8, 2000–2001)
"Children & Monsters" (with Dean Ormston and Peter Gross, in #9–13, 2001)
A Dalliance with the Damned (tpb, 160 pages, 2002, ISBN 1-56389-892-6) collects:
"Triptych" (with Dean Ormston and Peter Gross, in #14–16, 2001)
"A Dalliance with the Damned" (with Peter Gross and Dean Ormston, in #17–19, 2001)
"The Thunder Sermon" (with Dean Ormston, in #20, 2002)
The Divine Comedy (tpb, 192 pages, 2003, ISBN 1-4012-0009-5) collects:
"Paradiso" (with Peter Gross, in #21–23, 2002)
"The Writing on the Wall" (with Dean Ormston, in #24, 2002)
"Purgatorio" (with Peter Gross, in #25–27, 2002)
"Breaking & Entering" (with Dean Ormston, in #28, 2002)
Inferno (tpb, 168 pages, 2004, ISBN 1-4012-0210-1) collects:
"Inferno" (with Peter Gross, in #29–32, 2002–2003)
"Bearing Gifts" (with Dean Ormston, in #33, 2003)
"Come to Judgment" (with Peter Gross, in #34–35, 2003)
Mansions of the Silence (tpb, 144 pages, 2004, ISBN 1-4012-0249-7) collects:
"Naglfar" (with Peter Gross and Dean Ormston, in #36–40, 2003)
"Sisters of Mercy" (with David Hahn, in No. 41, 2003)
Exodus (tpb, 168 pages, 2005, ISBN 1-4012-0491-0) collects:
"Brothers in Arms" (with Peter Gross, in #42–44, 2003–2004)
"Stitchglass Slide, Part 1: The Weaving" (with Peter Gross, in #46, 2004)
"Wire, Briar, Limber Lock, Part 1: The Winnowing" (with Peter Gross, in #47, 2004)
"Stitchglass Slide, Part 2: The War" (with Peter Gross, in #48, 2004)
"Wire, Briar, Limber Lock, Part 2: The Widow" (with Peter Gross, in #49, 2004)
The Wolf Beneath the Tree (tpb, 160 pages, 2005, ISBN 1-4012-0502-X) collects:
"Neutral Ground" (with Ted Naifeh, in No. 45, 2004)
"Lilith" (with P. Craig Russell, in No. 50, 2004)
"The Wolf Beneath the Tree" (with Peter Gross, in #51–54, 2004)
Crux (tpb, 168 pages, 2006, ISBN 1-4012-1005-8) collects:
"The Eighth Sin" (with Marc Hempel, in No. 55, 2004)
"Crux" (with Peter Gross, in #56–57, 2005)
"The Yahweh Dance" (with Ronald Wimberly, in No. 58, 2005)
"The Breach" (with Peter Gross, in #59–61, 2005)
Morningstar (tpb, 192 pages, 2006, ISBN 1-4012-1006-6) collects:
"The Wheels of God" (with Colleen Doran, in No. 62, 2005)
"Morningstar 1" (with Peter Gross, in #63–65, 2005)
"The Beast Can't Take Your Call Right Now" (with Michael Kaluta, in No. 66, 2005)
"Morningstar 2" (with Peter Gross, in #67–69, 2005–2006)
Evensong (tpb, 216 pages, 2007, ISBN 1-4012-1200-X) collects:
"Fireside Tales" (with Zander Cannon, in No. 70, 2006)
"Evensong" (with Peter Gross, in No. 71, 2006)
"Untitled" (with Peter Gross, in No. 72, 2006)
"The Gaudium Option" (with Dean Ormston, in No. 73, 2006)
"Eve" (with Peter Gross, in No. 74, 2006)
"All We Need of Hell" (with Peter Gross, in No. 75, 2006)
Lucifer: Nirvana (with Jon J Muth, one-shot, 2002)
The Sandman Presents: Petrefax #1–4 (with Steve Leialoha, 2000)
Flinch #16: "The Wedding Breakfast" (with Craig T. Hamilton, 2001)
Hellblazer:
9-11 Volume 2: "Exposed" (with Marcelo Frusin, 2002, graphic novel, tpb, 224 pages, ISBN 1-56389-878-0)
Hellblazer:
Red Sepulchre (tpb, 144 pages, 2005, ISBN 1-4012-0485-6) collects:
"High on Life" (with Steve Dillon and Marcelo Frusin, in #175–176, 2002)
"Red Sepulchre" (with Marcelo Frusin, in #177–180, 2002–2003)
Black Flowers (tpb, 144 pages, 2005, ISBN 1-4012-0499-6) collects:
"The Game of Cat and Mouse" (with Jock, in No. 181, 2003)
"Black Flowers" (with Lee Bermejo, in #182–183, 2003)
"Third Worlds" (with Marcelo Frusin, in #184–186, 2003)
Staring at the Wall (tpb, 168 pages, 2006, ISBN 1-4012-0929-7) collects:
"Bred in the Bone" (with Doug Alexander Gregory, in #187–188, 2003)
"Staring at the Wall" (with Marcelo Frusin, in #189–193, 2003–2004)
Stations of the Cross (tpb, 192 pages, 2006, ISBN 1-4012-1002-3) collects:
"Ward 24" (with Leonardo Manco, in No. 194, 2004)
"Out of Season" (with Leonardo Manco and Chris Brunner, in #195–196, 2004)
"Stations of the Cross" (with Marcelo Frusin, in #197–199, 2004)
"Happy Families" (with Steve Dillon, Marcelo Frusin and Leonardo Manco, in No. 200, 2004)
Reasons to be Cheerful (tpb, 144 pages, 2007, ISBN 1-4012-1251-4) collects:
"Event Horizon" (with Leonardo Manco, in #201, 2004)
"Reasons to be Cheerful" (with Leonardo Manco, in #202–205, 2005)
"Cross Purpose" (with Giuseppe Camuncoli, in No. 206, 2005)
The Gift (collects #207–215, tpb, 224 pages, 2007, ISBN 1-4012-1453-3) collects:
"Down in the Ground Where the Dead Men Go" (with Leonardo Manco, in #207–212, 2005)
"The Gift" (with Frazer Irving, in No. 213, 2005)
"R.S.V.P." (with Leonardo Manco, in #214–215, 2006)
"With a Little Help for my Friend" (with John Paul Leon, in No. 229, 2007)
Hellblazer: All His Engines (with Leonardo Manco, graphic novel, hc, 128 pages, 2005, ISBN 1-4012-0316-7)
The Sandman Presents: The Furies (with John Bolton, graphic novel, hc, 96 pages, 2002, ISBN 1-56389-935-3)
Batman:
Batman: Gotham Knights #37: "Fear is the Key" (with Steve Mannion, 2003)
Detective Comics #801–804: "The Barker: When You're Strange" (with John Lucas, co-feature, 2005)
My Faith in Frankie #1–4 (with Sonny Liew, 2004) collected as My Faith in Frankie (tpb, 112 pages, 2004, ISBN 1-4012-0390-6)
Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere #1–9 (with Glenn Fabry, 2005–2006) collected as Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere (tpb, 224 pages, 2007, ISBN 1-4012-1007-4)
Crossing Midnight (with Jim Fern and Eric Nguyen, 2006–2008) collected as:
Cut Here (collects #1–5, tpb, 128 pages, 2007, ISBN 1-4012-1341-3)
A Map of Midnight (collects #6–12, tpb, 168 pages, 2008, ISBN 1-4012-1645-5)
The Sword in the Soul (collects #13–19, tpb, 168 pages, 2008, ISBN 1-4012-1966-7)
God Save the Queen (with John Bolton, graphic novel, hc, 96 pages, 2007, ISBN 1-4012-0303-5)
Re-Gifters (with Sonny Liew, graphic novel, tpb, 176 pages, Minx, 2007, ISBN 1-4012-0371-X)
Faker #1–6 (with Jock, 2007–2008) collected as Faker (tpb, 160 pages, 2008, ISBN 1-4012-1663-3)
Confessions of a Blabbermouth (with Louise Carey and Aaron Alexovich, graphic novel, 176 pages, Minx, 2007, ISBN 1-4012-1148-8)
The Unwritten (with Peter Gross, 2009–2015) collected as:
Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity (collects #1–5, tpb, 144 pages, 2010, ISBN 1-4012-2565-9)
Inside Man (collects #6–12, tpb, 168 pages, 2010, ISBN 1-4012-2873-9)
Dead Man's Knock (collects #13–18, tpb, 160 pages, 2011, ISBN 1-4012-3046-6)
Leviathan (collects #19–24, tpb, 144 pages, 2011, ISBN 1-4012-3292-2)
On to Genesis (collects #25–30, tpb, 144 pages, 2012, ISBN 1-4012-3359-7)
House of Mystery Halloween Annual #2: "Infernal Bargains: Just Say No!" (with Peter Gross, 2010)
2000 AD[edit]
Works published in the British science fiction-oriented comic 2000 AD include:
Pulp Sci-fi:
"Eggs is Eggs" (with Cliff Robinson, in #1145, 1999)
"Doin' Time" (with Ben McCloud, in #1147, 1999)
Tharg's Future Shocks:
"Inside Job" (with John Charles, in #1230, 2001)
"Right Back at Ya" (with John Charles, in #1287, 2002)
Carver Hale (with Mike Perkins, in #1236–1240 and 1247–1249, 2001) collected as CH: Twisting the Knife (hc, 44 pages, 2005, ISBN 1-904265-62-6)
Thirteen (with Andy Clarke, in #1289–1299, 2002) collected as Th1rt3en (tpb, 96 pages, 2005, ISBN 1-904265-36-7)
Marvel Comics[edit]
Titles published by Marvel include:
Ultimate Elektra: Devil's Due #1–5 (with Salvador Larroca, 2004–2005) collected as UE-DD (tpb, 120 pages, 2005, ISBN 0-7851-1504-8)
Spellbinders #1–6 (with Mike Perkins, 2005) collected as Spellbinders: Signs and Wonders (tpb, 144 pages, 2005, ISBN 0-7851-1756-3)
Fantastic Four:
Ultimate Fantastic Four:
Volume 2 (hc, 240 pages, 2006, ISBN 0-7851-2058-0) includes:
"Think Tank" (with Jae Lee, in #19–20, 2005)
Volume 4 (hc, 320 pages, 2007, ISBN 0-7851-2872-7) collects:
Ultimate X4 #1–2 (with Pasqual Ferry and Leinil Francis Yu, 2006)
"God War" (with Pasqual Ferry, in #33–38, 2006–2007)
"Untitled" (with Stuart Immonen and Frazer Irving, in Annual No. 2, 2006)
"Devils" (with Mark Brooks and Scott Kolins, in #39–41, 2007)
Volume 5 (hc, 288 pages, 2008, ISBN 0-7851-3082-9) collects:
"Silver Surfer" (with Pasqual Ferry, in #42–46, 2007)
"Ghosts" (with Mark Brooks, in #47–49, 2007–2008)
"Four Cubed" (with Tyler Kirkham, in #50–53, 2008)
Volume 6 (hc, 256 pages, 2009, ISBN 0-7851-3781-5) includes:
"Salem's Seven" (with Tyler Kirkham and Eric Basaldua, in #54–57, 2008)
Fantastic Four: The Movie (with Dan Jurgens, one-shot, 2005)
Marvel Holiday Special:
"Christmas Day in Manhattan" (with Mike Perkins, in '05, 2006)
"A is for Annihilus" (with Mike Perkins, in '06, 2007)
"The Meaning of Christmas" (with Nelson DeCastro, in '07, 2008)
What If?.. featuring FF (with Marshall Rogers, one-shot, 2006) collected in What If: Mirror Mirror (tpb, 152 pages, 2006, ISBN 0-7851-1902-7)
X-Men:
X-Men (with Chris Bachalo, Clayton Henry, Humberto Ramos, Mark Brooks and Mike Choi, 2006–2007) collected as:
Supernovas (collects #188–199 and Annual #1, hc, 336 pages, 2007, ISBN 0-7851-2514-0; tpb, 2008, ISBN 0-7851-2319-9)
Blinded by the Light (collects #200–204, tpb, 144 pages, 2008, ISBN 0-7851-2544-2)
Endangered Species (hc, 192 pages, 2008, ISBN 0-7851-3012-8; tpb, 2008, ISBN 0-7851-2820-4) includes:
X-Men: Endangered Species (with Scot Eaton, one-shot, 2007)
"Chapter 1" (with Scot Eaton, in No. 200, 2007)
"Chapter 2" (with Mark Bagley, in Uncanny X-Men No. 488, 2007)
"Chapter 3" (with Mark Bagley, in X-Factor No. 21, 2007)
"Chapter 6" (with Mike Perkins, in Uncanny X-Men No. 489, 2007)
"Chapter 7" (with Mike Perkins, in X-Factor No. 22, 2007)
"Chapter 12" (with Mike Perkins, in New X-Men No. 42, 2007)
"Chapter 13" (with Mike Perkins, in No. 203, 2007)
"Chapters 16 and 17" (with Scot Eaton, in No. 204, 2007)
Messiah Complex (includes #205–207, hc, 352 pages, 2008, ISBN 0-7851-2899-9; tpb, 2008, ISBN 0-7851-2320-2)
Wolverine: Firebreak (with Scott Kolins, one-shot, 2008) collected in Wolverine: Dangerous Games (hc, 144 pages, 2008, ISBN 0-7851-3471-9)
X-Men: Divided We Stand (tpb, 136 pages, 2008, ISBN 0-7851-3265-1) includes:
"Danger Room" (with Brandon Peterson, in #1, 2008)
"Lights Out" (with Scot Eaton, in #2, 2008)
X-Men: Legacy (with Scot Eaton, John Romita, Jr., Billy Tan, Greg Land, Brandon Peterson, Mike Deodato, Jr., Ken Lashley, Marco Checchetto, Phil Briones, Dustin Weaver, Daniel Acuña, Laurence Campbell, Clay Mann, Yanick Paquette, Paul Davidson, Harvey Tolibao, Jorge Molina, Rafa Sandoval, Khoi Pham and Steve Kurth, 2008–2012) collected as:
Divided He Stands (collects #208–212, hc, 120 pages, 2008, ISBN 0-7851-3000-4; tpb, 2008, ISBN 0-7851-3001-2)
Sins of the Father (collects #213–216, hc, 168 pages, 2008, ISBN 0-7851-3002-0; tpb, 2009, ISBN 0-7851-3003-9)
Original Sin (collects #217–218 and X-Men: Original Sin one-shot, hc, 144 pages, 2009, ISBN 0-7851-3038-1; tpb, 2009, ISBN 0-7851-2956-1)
Salvage (collects #219–225, hc, 168 pages, 2009, ISBN 0-7851-4173-1; tpb, 2009, ISBN 0-7851-3876-5)
Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Utopia (includes #226–227, hc, 368 pages, 2009, ISBN 0-7851-4233-9; tpb, 2010, ISBN 0-7851-4234-7)
Emplate (collects #228–230 and Annual No. 1, hc, 112 pages, 2010, ISBN 0-7851-4020-4; tpb, 2010, ISBN 0-7851-4115-4)
X-Necrosha (collects #231–234 and X-Necrosha one-shot, hc, 448 pages, 2010, ISBN 0-7851-4674-1; tpb, 2010, ISBN 0-7851-4675-X)
Second Coming (includes #235–237 and Prepare one-shot, hc, 392 pages, 2010, ISBN 0-7851-4678-4; tpb, 2011, ISBN 0-7851-5705-0)
Collision (includes #238–241, hc, 168 pages, 2011, ISBN 0-7851-4668-7; tpb, 2011, ISBN 0-7851-4669-5)
Age of X (collects #245–247, New Mutants #22–24 and Alpha one-shot, hc, 256 pages, 2011, ISBN 0-7851-5289-X; tpb, 2012, ISBN 0-7851-5290-3)
Aftermath (collects #242–244 and 248–249, hc, 120 pages, 2011, ISBN 0-7851-5635-6; tpb, 2012, ISBN 0-7851-5636-4)
Lost Legions (collects #250–253, hc, 112 pages, 2011, ISBN 0-7851-5291-1; tpb, 2012, ISBN 0-7851-5292-X)
Five Miles South of the Universe (collects #254–260, hc, 160 pages, 2012, ISBN 0-7851-6067-1; tpb, 2012, ISBN 0-7851-6068-X)
X-Men: Manifest Destiny (hc, 208 pages, 2009, ISBN 0-7851-3817-X; tpb, 2009, ISBN 0-7851-2451-9) includes:
"Pixies and Demons" (with Greg Land, in Free Comic Book Day '08: X-Men, 2008)
"Kill or Cure" (with Michael Ryan, in X-Men: MD #1–5, 2008)
Secret Invasion: X-Men #1–4 (with Cary Nord, 2008) collected in SI: X-men (tpb, 136 pages, 2009, ISBN 0-7851-3343-7)
X-Men Origins (hc, 192 pages, 2009, ISBN 0-7851-3451-4; tpb, 2010, ISBN 0-7851-3452-2) includes:
Beast (with J. K. Woodward, one-shot, 2008)
Gambit (with David Yardin, one-shot, 2009)
Ultimate Vision #1–5 (with Brandon Peterson, 2007–2008) collected as Ultimate Vision (tpb, 160 pages, 2008, ISBN 0-7851-2173-0)
Legion of Monsters: Werewolf by Night: "Smalltown Girl" (with Greg Land, one-shot, 2007) collected in LoM (hc, 280 pages, 2007, ISBN 0-7851-2754-2)
Secret Invasion: Who Do You Trust?: "Agent Brand: In Plain Sight" (with Timothy Green II, one-shot, 2008)
Ender's Shadow (with Sebastian Fiumara, 2008–2010) collected as:
Battle School (collects #1–5, hc, 128 pages, 2009, ISBN 0-7851-3596-0)
Command School (collects #1–5, hc, 128 pages, 2010, ISBN 0-7851-3598-7)
Ultimate Collection (collects Battle School #1–5 and Command School #1–5, tpb, 256 pages, 2012, ISBN 0-7851-6338-7)
The Torch #1–8 (with Alex Ross, Jim Krueger and Patrick Berkenkotter, 2009–2010) collected as The Torch (hc, 200 pages, 2010, ISBN 0-7851-4631-8)
Breaking into Comics the Marvel Way! #2: "Butterfly Blade" (with Shaun Turnbull, 2010)
The Mystic Hands of Doctor Strange: "Duel in the Dark Dimension" (with Marcos Martín, one-shot, 2010)
Thor: Wolves of the North (with Mike Perkins, one-shot, 2011)
Sigil #1–4 (with Leonard Kirk, 2011) collected as Sigil: Out of Time (tpb, 96 pages, 2011, ISBN 0-7851-5622-4)
Other publishers[edit]
Titles published by various British and American publishers include:
Boom! Studios:
Rowans Ruin (with Mike Perkins)
Suicide Risk (with Elena Casagrande, #1-25, 2013-15) collected as:
Volume 1 (collects #1–4, tpb, 128 pages, 2013, ISBN 1608863328)
Volume 2 (collects #5-8, tpb, 128 pages, 2014, ISBN 1608863603)
Volume 3 (collects #9-12, tpb, 128 pages, 2014, ISBN 1608863999)
Volume 4 (collects #13-16, tpb, 128 pages, 2015, ISBN 1608864618)
Volume 5 (collects #17-20, tpb, 128 pages, 2015, ISBN 1608867218)
Volume 6 (collects #21-25, tpb, 160 pages, 2016, ISBN 1608868141)
Dark Horse:
9-11 Volume 1: "In the House of Light" (with Mike Collins, graphic novel, tpb, 196 pages, 2002, ISBN 1-563898-81-0)
Desperado Publishing:
Negative Burn #14: "Red Shift" (with David Windett, 2007)
Dynamite:
Red Sonja #0–6 (with Michael Avon Oeming and Mel Rubi, 2005) collected as RS: She-Devil with a Sword (hc, 150 pages, 2006, ISBN 1-933305-36-3)
Untouchable (with Samit Basu and Ashok Bhadana, one-shot, 2010)
Harris:
Vampirella: Revelations #0–3 (with Mike Lilly, 2005) collected as Vampirella: Revelations (tpb, 88 pages, 2006, ISBN 0-910692-92-0)
Image:
Thought Bubble Anthology: "The Timeless Genius of Leonardo" (with M.D. Penman, one-shot, 2011)
Virgin:
Voodoo Child #1–6 (with Nicolas Cage, Weston Cage and Dean Hyrapiet, 2007) collected as Voodoo Child (tpb, 144 pages, 2008, ISBN 1-934413-13-5)
The Stranded #1–5 (with Siddharth Kotian, 2007–2008) collected as The Stranded (tpb, 144 pages, 2008, ISBN 1-934413-25-9)
Wildstorm:
Wetworks: Worldstorm (with Whilce Portacio, 2006–2008) collected as:
Volume 1 (collects #1–5, 136 pages, 2007, ISBN 1-4012-1375-8)
Volume 2 (includes #6–9, tpb, 160 pages, 2008, ISBN 1-4012-1639-0)
Novels[edit]
Felix Castor series:
The Devil You Know (UK: 6 April 2006 & US: 10 July 2007)
Vicious Circle (UK: 5 October 2006 & US: 28 July 2008)
Dead Men's Boots (UK: 26 September 2007 & US: 23 July 2009)
Thicker Than Water (UK: 1 March 2009)
The Naming of the Beasts (UK: 3 September 2009)
The City of Silk and Steel (US title: The Steel Seraglio) (co-written with Linda Carey and Louise Carey; US/CAN: March 2012)[28]
The Girl With All The Gifts (UK: January 2014)[29]
The House of War and Witness (UK: 19 June 2014) (co-written with Linda Carey and Louise Carey)[30]
Fellside (UK: 7 April 2016 & US: April 5, 2016)[31]
The Boy on the Bridge (UK/US: 2 May 2017)
Short stories[edit]
now! and then! (an incomplete piece published in Murky Depths Issue 10 Winter 2009)
Poems[edit]
In Thule with Jessica (in Xconnect vol. 6 #2)
Films[edit]
Carey's screenplay for “She Who Brings Gifts” appeared on the Brit List in 2014[32] The film is a British post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller film directed by Colm McCarthy. [33] The screenplay was written by Carey adapted from his own novel The Girl with All the Gifts. The film stars Glenn Close, Gemma Arterton and Paddy Considine. The plot depicts a dystopian future following a breakdown of society after most of humanity is wiped out by a fungal infection and focuses upon the struggle of a scientist, a teacher and two soldiers who embark on a journey of survival with a special young girl named Melanie.[34]
Series
Felix Castor
1. The Devil You Know (2006)
2. Vicious Circle (2006)
3. Dead Men's Boots (2007)
4. Thicker Than Water (2009)
5. The Naming of the Beasts (2009)
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Novels
The Steel Seraglio (2012) (with Linda Carey and Louise Carey)
The City of Silk and Steel (2013) (with Linda Carey and Louise Carey)
The House of War and Witness (2014) (with Linda Carey and Louise Carey)
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Graphic Novels
Sorry, we're not listing graphic novels by this author
Awards
British Fantasy Society Best Novel nominee (2007) : The Devil You Know
British Fantasy Society Best Novel nominee (2010) : The Naming of the Beasts
Series
Girl With All The Gifts
1. The Girl With All The Gifts (2014)
2. The Boy on the Bridge (2017)
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Novels
Fellside (2016)
About Mike & Peter
mike-carey-1Mike Carey is a British writer whose work spans comics, books, TV and film scripts, and radio plays. His novel The Girl with All the Gifts was an international bestseller, and adapted by Carey for the 2016 Colm McCarthy-directed film.
He’s written for DC and Marvel, including acclaimed runs on Ultimate Fantastic Four and X-Men, and with Peter Gross, Lucifer and The Unwritten. His books include Fellside, the Felix Castor series, and The Steel Seraglio (with Linda and Louise Carey).
peter-gross-1Peter Gross is a U.S. artist and writer who lives in Minnesota, where as a 29-year-old he helped launch publishing company Northern Lights. After self-publishing Empire Lanes, a comic about a group of medieval adventurers who wind up in south Chicago, he began drawing and eventually writing DC’s acclaimed The Books of Magic.
In 1999 he collaborated with Mike on DC Sandman-spinoff Lucifer, drawing nearly all of the series’ 75 issues. His work includes Chosen (with Mark Millar), Fables (with Bill Willingham), and—with Mike Carey—Lucifer, The Unwritten and Highest House.
You may know Mike Carey from his record-breaking run on Hellblazer, or from the impressive Sandman spin-off title Lucifer. In fact, a fair portion of his output has been concerned with either Hellblazer- or Sandman-related stories; throw in the work that he’s done with various X-Men titles, and you get a fair picture of what to expect from this writer.
However, the unexpected diversions and twists in his bibliography reveal that there may be even more to Mike Carey than one of the better ‘Gaiman- Moore’-style writers, of which there seems to be an endless supply.
He happens to have a cousin who is a well known maritime lawyer. Maritime lawyers practice what for many of us land based folks would consider a niche law specialty. But after the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, we know much more about what maritime lawyers do. For a quick course about maritime law and those who practice it: Maritime attorneys primarily focus on issues pertaining not only to maritime law, often referred to as admiralty law, but also to the Jones Act. Admiralty law refers to the longstanding US laws and regulations, including international agreements and treaties that govern the activities in any US navigable waters whether its inland waterways (the big rivers where barges transport all sorts of products) or the open sea. Admiralty law formalizes the long-standing maritime maintenance and cure traditions, which have been recognized for centuries. I would not be at all surprised if Carey has pumped his cousin for details about the BP oil disaster, what happened on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig and its ecological consequences of the actual spill. I’m sure we’ll see some influence of his insider knowledge sometime in his future writing.
You might think that Mr. Carey’s long tenure on Hellblazer would have drained the author on ways to make the ‘supernatural detective’ premise fresh over and over again. Yes, his “Felix Castor” series of books will certainly satisfy any Hellblazer fan, and the comparisons to John Constantine are unavoidable. However, whether you love Hellblazer and are just looking for “more”, or simply want to see what Carey can do with the premise when unburdened by established canon, The Devil You Know and its sequels will satisfy all of your questions.
Most recently, the buzz is beginning over the upcoming feature film Frost Flowers, in which an actor (Rupert Holmes) becomes romantically obsessed with a ghost — pursuing her to the point of sending strange, yet luxurious gift baskets filled with diaphanous fabrics, bunches of sweet smelling flowers, pearls and other precious stones dangling from gold necklaces, succulent fruit, and paper and colored pens (with the hope she could communicate via writing him messages. She returns the gift baskets to him that now are filled all sorts of strange supernatural objects ranging from crystals, stones, tiny ornate vases filled with exotic oils, old broken pieces of jewelry, burned playing cards, a stuffed blue parrot, shells, poems on old parchment, and dried flowers. The gift baskets were a most unusual devise for the author to use, but also most effective. Eventually she becomes pregnant with his child. Yikes! We’ll see how well Mr. Carey can explain that one. I’m a pretty big fan here, so I’m thinking of sending Carey a gift basket, but I’ll fill it with sweet and savory goodies and maybe a few bottles of wine.
Personally, I think his most impressive work to date has been The Unwritten, a Vertigo series that deals with issues such as child celebrities and mentally-unbalanced fandom. Not so much about online blackjack, but the series hasn’t finished yet!
Okay, so once again any reasonable reader will be unable to make certain obvious comparisons (the plot revolves around a bestselling young adult series starring a boy wizard and his two companions, a boy and a girl his own age…gee, we hope a certain lawsuit-happy writer doesn’t get herself a copy!) . However, the combination of wild creativity and authentic human experience makes this series something truly special.
Mike Carey
Biography
Showing all 8 items
Jump to: Overview (1) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (1) | Trivia (5)
Overview (1)
Date of Birth 1959, Liverpool, England, UK
Mini Bio (1)
Mike Carey was born in 1959 in Liverpool, England. He is a writer, known for The Girl with All the Gifts (2016), X-Men: Destiny (2011) and Tristan & Isolde - Im Land der Riesen und Feen (2002).
Spouse (1)
Lin Carey (? - ?) (3 children)
Trivia (5)
Is best known as a comic book author whose most acclaimed work is the Eisner Award-nominated Lucifer, which was published by Vertigo Comics from 1999-2006.
First foray into the world of novels, a series about freelance exorcist Felix Castor, was optioned for British television in 2006 by the production company behind the hugely popular detective series "Midsomer Murders".
Lives in London with his wife Lin and his children: twins Davey and Ben and daughter Louise.
Earliest written works include a pair of comics about Ozzy Osbourne and Pantera. To this day, Carey maintains that the Pantera comic is the worst thing he's ever written and has expressed a desire to hunt down and destroy every copy in the world.
Was an English teacher before he became an author.
Awards
Showing all 0 wins and 2 nominations
BAFTA Awards
2017 Nominated
BAFTA Film Award Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer
The Girl with All the Gifts (2016)
Shared with:
Camille Gatin
London Critics Circle Film Awards
2017 Nominated
ALFS Award Breakthrough British/Irish Filmmaker of the Year
The Girl with All the Gifts (2016)
Filmography
Jump to: Writer | Self
Hide HideWriter (4 credits)
2016 The Girl with All the Gifts (novel) / (screenplay)
2011 X-Men: Destiny (Video Game) (written by)
2004 Shadow of the Elves (TV Series) (12 episodes)
- Utter Silence (2004)
- Trickster (2004)
- Trapped (2004)
- The Trojan Box (2004)
- The Challenge (2004)
Show all 12 episodes
2002 Tristan & Isolde - Im Land der Riesen und Feen
Hide HideSelf (1 credit)
2010 Fantastic Forum (TV Series)
Himself
- The Super Power of Love (2010) ... Himself
Mike Carey
Credited as: Writer, Introduction
Mike Carey is a British comic book writer who began his career writing for U.S. independent publisher Caliber Press, where he created the original series Inferno and produced the graphic novel Dr. Faustus with artist Mike Perkins. He went on to write a number of projects for DC Comics' Vertigo imprint including the Eisner Award-nominated series LUCIFER, an extended run on HELLBLAZER and the original graphic novels THE SANDMAN PRESENTS: THE FURIES with John Bolton and HELLBLAZER: ALL HIS ENGINES with Leonardo Manco. He is currently the writer of Vertigo's acclaimed series THE UNWRITTEN, which he co-created with his LUCIFER collaborator, artist Peter Gross. Carey is also known for his work on WETWORKS for DC Comics as well as X-Men and Ultimate Fantastic Four for Marvel Comics. As a novelist, he has penned five supernatural thrillers in the Felix Castor series and co-wrote The Steel Seraglio (UK title City of Silk and Steel) along with his wife, Linda, and their daughter Louise.
QUOTED: "Plausible science and solid prose and characterization elevate this dystopian thriller above similar works."
The Boy on the Bridge
264.13 (Mar. 27, 2017): p84.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
The Boy on the Bridge
M.R. Carey. Orbit, $26 (400p) ISBN 978-0-316-30033-9
Plausible science and solid prose and characterization elevate this dystopian thriller above similar works. In the same alternate future as Carey's The Girl with All the Gifts, a fungus, Cordyceps, which began as an insect parasite, has infected people, repurposing their brains and turning them into "hungries," mindless creatures with an appetite for human flesh. Carey moves quickly to engage readers' sympathies for epidemiologist Samrina Khan, one of a group of scientists and soldiers on a research mission. They travel through the U.K. in a motor home, on a desperate quest for an inhibitor that could make people resistant to the fungus. In the midst of the devastating horror the world has become, Samrina learns that she is pregnant, news she considers "a high tide of wonder and dismay and disbelief and misery in which hope bobs like a lifeboat cut adrift." This development radically complicates things for her, and her colleagues, as the plot builds to a satisfying conclusion. (May)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"The Boy on the Bridge." Publishers Weekly, 27 Mar. 2017, p. 84+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA487928139&it=r&asid=4cea030a86d92e8b38598eade7571eb8. Accessed 25 July 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A487928139
QUOTED: "Carey weaves a creeping dread into his already tense narrative and doesn't rely on cliched zombie tropes to drive it."
"a terrifying, emotional page-turner that explores what it means to be human."
Carey, M.R.: THE BOY ON THE BRIDGE
(Mar. 15, 2017):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Carey, M.R. THE BOY ON THE BRIDGE Orbit/Little, Brown (Adult Fiction) $26.00 5, 2 ISBN: 978-0-316-30033-9
Carey returns to the post-apocalyptic world of The Girl with All the Gifts (2014).The Rosalind Franklin, aka "Rosie," carries five scientists, one very special boy, and their escort of six military personnel in her heavily armored belly trundling over the decimated landscape of a ruined Scotland, collecting caches of data left by a previous expedition. Their mission is to find a cure for the Cordyceps pathogen that, 10 years ago, began transforming people into mindless killing machines, dubbed "hungries." Epidemiologist Dr. Samrina "Rina" Khan hopes 15-year-old Stephen Greaves, and his unique abilities, will make a cure even more possible. After all, Stephen is something of a savant whose intelligence arguably outstrips that of all the scientists on board even though he suffers crippling social anxiety. One day, Stephen ventures off from a sampling expedition and discovers a female child among the hungries, a girl with the speed and reflexes of an infected but who also seems to be intelligent. Stephen knows that his discovery could change everything, if he can only make contact. Meanwhile, Rosie's crew can't get in touch with Beacon, their home base, and Rina is harboring a secret that could endanger the entire mission. Packing 12 people into a vehicle with coffinlike bunks and one shower would be stifling during the best of times, and tensions are high, amplifying power struggles between the civilian commander, Dr. Alan Fournier, and his scientists and between Col. Isaac Carlisle and his soldiers, especially volatile sniper Lt. Daniel McQueen. Carey weaves a creeping dread into his already tense narrative and doesn't rely on cliched zombie tropes to drive it. Each crew member is compelling, but Stephen is the standout here, and his idiosyncrasies, of which he's painfully aware, only make him easier to root for, and Rina's love for him is an anchor. Just as they think they're close to a breakthrough, events force them to head for home, but they may not have a home to return to. A terrifying, emotional page-turner that explores what it means to be human.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Carey, M.R.: THE BOY ON THE BRIDGE." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Mar. 2017. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA485105384&it=r&asid=ecd01258697a0336ec1df9e05dd553a3. Accessed 25 July 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A485105384
QUOTED: "This eerie tale is sure to hook crime fiction and horror lovers."
Carey, M.R.: Fellside
Portia Kapraun
141.5 (Mar. 15, 2016): p99.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
* Carey, M.R. Fellside. Orbit: Hachette. Apr. 2016. 496p. ISBN 9780316300285. $27; ebk. ISBN 9780316300308. F
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Jess wakes up in a hospital room with no memory of how she got there. She is under arrest for setting her apartment on fire, an act that left her disfigured, injured her boyfriend, and killed Alex Beech, a young boy who lived upstairs. Her own recollections too muddled by her heroin use to know what happened, Jess begins to believe the accusations. When she is convicted of murder, Jess is sent off to Fellside, a new privately run high-security prison bordering the Yorkshire moors. There she is visited by Alex's ghost, who tells her she was not to blame for his death. As she and Alex search for the truth, Jess becomes embroiled in the schemes of a drug-smuggling ring that has turned Fellside into a dangerous place for anyone who doesn't play along.
VERDICT Carey presents another genre-defying novel. While his first, The Girl with All the Gifts, was frightening because of an imagined future, this new book is terrifying owing to the realistic possibilities explored. Less a traditional ghost story than a send-up of the prison-industrial complex with a healthy dose of magic realism, this eerie tale is sure to hook crime fiction and horror lovers.--Portia Kapraun, Delphi P.L., IN
Kapraun, Portia
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Kapraun, Portia. "Carey, M.R.: Fellside." Library Journal, 15 Mar. 2016, p. 99. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA446521110&it=r&asid=cfd7eb8fedacc0fc6fbe2e7c8503ec22. Accessed 25 July 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A446521110
QUOTED: "This is a dark, suspenseful, and occasionally brutal paranormal mystery with an unreliable narrator."
Fellside
Stacy Alesi
112.13 (Mar. 1, 2016): p56.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Fellside. By M. R. Carey. Apr. 2016. Orbit, $27 (9780316300285); paper, $17.99 (9780316395007); e-book (9780316300308).
Jess Moulson is a heroin addict who wakes up in the hospital with no memory of why or how she got there. Eventually she learns that she started a fire in her apartment, where she suffered severe burns requiring multiple surgeries, but that's not the worst of it; she is also under arrest for killing Alex, the little boy upstairs. She won't cooperate with her lawyer and ends up in Fellside, a women's prison in Yorkshire, England. There she goes on a hunger strike, the only way she can take her own life. When she is just a day or two from death, the ghost of Alex appears in her room and tells her she is not his murderer, demanding her help in finding the real killer. That won't be easy, as she is returned to the general prison population after abandoning her hunger strike; branded a child killer, she is treated accordingly. This is a dark, suspenseful, and occasionally brutal paranormal mystery with an unreliable narrator.--Stacy Alesi
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Alesi, Stacy. "Fellside." Booklist, 1 Mar. 2016, p. 56. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA447443616&it=r&asid=1eeb374126a878a539de523cb507a36e. Accessed 25 July 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A447443616
QUOTED: "In the end, there are too many loose ends to tie up. The leaps between reality and supernatural fantasy are just too hard to navigate."
Carey, M.R.: FELLSIDE
(Feb. 1, 2016):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Carey, M.R. FELLSIDE Orbit/Little, Brown (Adult Fiction) $27.00 4, 5 ISBN: 978-0-316-30028-5
A woman in prison must fight violent inmates and suspicious ghosts to find some measure of redemption. Jess Moulson wakes up in the hospital with no memory of where she is or what has happened. High on heroin, she started a fire that burned her own face beyond recognition, severely injured her addict boyfriend, and led to 10-year-old Alex Beech's death by smoke inhalation. Jess is found guilty of Alex's murder and sentenced to Fellside, a notorious women's prison in the remote Yorkshire moors. Alex's ghost visits her in prison, assuring her that she was not the one who hurt him and begging her to uncover the truth behind his murder. Soon Jess is projecting into "the Other World" with Alex while simultaneously navigating the very dangerous real world of Fellside. Sociopathic inmate Harriet Grace rules the hierarchy. With the help of a corrupt guard, she controls a lucrative drug ring that operates within the prison walls. Jess sets out to solve the boy's murder and expose Grace, but gradually she realizes that Alex is not who she thought he was, and she may be trusting a false ghost. This novel may appeal to those who like ghost stories, but its success requires an extreme suspension of disbelief. The problem is that most of the novel is relatively realistic and grim, so it's rather a lot for the reader to openly accept the ghost/astral projection angle when Jess begins to walk through other inmates' dreams and visit "the Other World" populated by people's souls. The mystery of Alex does have a satisfying answer, but in the end, there are too many loose ends to tie up. The leaps between reality and supernatural fantasy are just too hard to navigate.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Carey, M.R.: FELLSIDE." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Feb. 2016. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA441735148&it=r&asid=4d03256ece4617af6d85309de21acc21. Accessed 25 July 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A441735148
QUOTED: "This is a heartbreaking story where bad things happen to good and bad people, but it is also a wild ride where, once you have started reading, you will need to find out what happens next. Whether Jess needs to get to the truth of her story or not, you as the reader are locked into seeing how Fellside will play out."
Fellside by MR Carey
Fellside book cover
Free preview
Rating
9.5/10
A tightly interwoven and thought-provoking novel.
A Recommended Book of the Month
What would it feel like to wake up and not remember who you were or where you are? This is what happens to Jess Moulson, when she wakes she struggles to remember what happened to her, having to slowly put the pieces together to discover the truth, before being blind-sided by the facts. Jess discovers that she is accused of murder and yet as she was high on heroin doesn't remember anything about the night in question. If you haven't read anything by M. R. Carey before, welcome to Jess' life and prepare to read a story that isn't as simple as the prosecution is presenting.
Jess wakes in a hospital bed where she gradually begins to remember who she is and the events that left her with half her face seriously burnt. Jess is also told that she is under arrest for the murder of her ten year old neighbour Alex. The events of that evening are fuzzy in her mind as she had been injecting heroin with her boyfriend. Jess, along with the general public soon believe that she is "The Inferno Killer". The problem with Jess as a character is that you want to believe that she didn't light the match that started the fire, but the evidence is stacked against her. Even then Jess doesn't seem like a bad person although she sees herself as one; with her heroin addiction, bad boyfriend and feeling like a burden to her aunt. As the book is named after a maximum security prison, it isn't a spoiler to say that is where Jess is heading, but it is the journey she goes on from the events in the hospital to her time in prison that really show what kind of person Jess is.
The guilt Jess feels over Alex's death leads her to attempt to end her life by going on a hunger strike. This doesn't stop her from being transferred to Fellside but does mean that Jess will not be let into the general prison population, instead she will be allowed to die as humanely as possible in the infirmary. This part of the book is quite harrowing, and as Jess is dying she meets someone who convinces her to live. This person Jess meets in what seems like a dream, gives her a reason to face her punishment as she tries to solve their mystery.
Fellside has a host of different characters, including the other inmates, the medical staff, and the wardens who protect their own interests whilst keeping an eye of the cell blocks. All of these characters lives entwine around each other under the watchful eye of Grace, the top dog of Goodall block. Grace runs everything from the drugs entering the block, to keeping people she doesn't like inline. Grace is helped by Devlin "the devil", the inside man (senior warden) - he is a bully who likes to feel in control, exerting his power over the people he comes into contact with, whether they are staff or inmates. Jess' arrival on Goodall gets everyone worked up and, as expected, the inmates are in two minds about her as she is a convicted "child killer" but also less expectedly from some of the staff.
The issue that stops this being just another women's prison story is that Jess has the ability to enter other people's dreams, as well as visit somewhere she calls The Other Place. This is something Jess hasn't done since she was a child, when she was sent to a psychologist as her stories upset her mother. Jess has pushed these events out of her mind as she acted like any child would by telling the psychologist that she had made it all up. After that, Jess forced herself to stop dreaming. Once she is at Fellside, Jess has to confront the possibility that she may have a connection to the supernatural. Or is her wish for forgiveness from Alex so strong that it has given her a sense of purpose at this time of huge mental strain?
This is a tightly interwoven story with Jess and her guardian angel (who in Jess' mind must be Alex) at the centre of the narrative. Jess though isn't the only character the novel focuses on, and her time in prison affects everyone in different ways, and some of this is physical, but as Jess and Alex are able to walk through the other inmates dreams, whether knowingly or unknowingly they start to change things. In the case of Nurse Sally Stock, she is able to blame all her misfortune and discontent on Jess, rather than taking responsibility for her own actions. Fellside is a grim place with a lot of human suffering, bitterness, bravery and guilt, with most of the inmates trying to keep out of trouble while serving their sentences.
M. R. Carey has written a thought-provoking novel that crosses between the rational day to day running of a maximum security prison and gives some thoughts to how well these privatised prisons are run; to the unimaginable concept of the human mind and how it is linked to The Other Place. This is a heartbreaking story where bad things happen to good and bad people, but it is also a wild ride where, once you have started reading, you will need to find out what happens next. Whether Jess needs to get to the truth of her story or not, you as the reader are locked into seeing how Fellside will play out.
This Fellside book review was written by Michelle Herbert
QUOTED: "There are occasional beats of bone-dry self-awareness. ... But despite the many point-of-view characters and the ethical dilemmas of a cure, there's also a certain remoteness to all the machinations. Though the stakes are clear and the group's escalating disasters turn into ethical clashes, the pieces don't connect into a compelling whole."
Actions Can Have Horrifying Consequences In 'The Boy On The Bridge'
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May 6, 20177:00 AM ET
GENEVIEVE VALENTINE
The Boy on the Bridge
The Boy on the Bridge
by M. R. Carey
Hardcover, 392 pages purchase
In 2014, M.R. Carey's The Girl with All the Gifts wrapped a coming-of-age tale in a zombie apocalypse and assured us that the children were our future, except for the part where everyone alive was kind of doomed to become fungus-brained "hungries." The last few bastions of human civilization could try any ethically-questionable miracle cures they wanted, but once you caught a case of Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, it was game over, man. And given that The Girl With All the Gifts ended with an airborne mutation, only Melanie — a second-generation hungry who retains her reason — was going to offer much hope for the future.
The Boy on the Bridge returns to this world for a sidelong prequel detailing what, exactly, happened to the original mission of the Rosalind Franklin, the impenetrably-armored mobile science lab that Melanie and her motley crew commandeer in The Girl With All the Gifts. And Carey seems to know that, given the bleakness of the first book, there's not much point pretending there might be a happy ending here. Instead, The Boy on the Bridge has the familiar shape of a disaster movie, and you're shoulder to shoulder with the crew of the Rosalind Franklin as they realize what they're up against and start calculating who stands a chance of making it out alive.
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The crew is once again an uneasy, morale-devouring mix of determined scientists and resentful military, with one precocious youngster who has the power to upset the delicate balance. Greaves is a fifteen-year-old science prodigy, perceived as either somewhere on the autism spectrum or irreversibly shaken by childhood trauma depending on who's doing the perceiving, and his interest in the hungries for reasons beyond their tissue samples ends up powering many of the novel's twists. (By extension, he's also the source of some of the book's more demanding suspensions of disbelief.)
'Girl With All The Gifts' Is A Thriller With (Sharp, Scary) Teeth
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But the stakes here are a little more institutional than in The Girl with All the Gifts; there are several sidelong parallels to be found in the oppressive government, the scientists racing to solve a global problem before it's too late, and the plain fact that any pathogenic zombie setup is a superbug metaphor waiting to happen. And for the most part, Carey uses this larger crew and the slightly earlier timeline to explore the anxiety and desperation of living on the precipice of a breakdown. Civilization is precarious, but everybody still has the energy for government coups, and the scientists start out with a shred of hope that there's a cure. You can imagine how well that goes.
There are occasional beats of bone-dry self-awareness, particularly whenever things are lined up to connect with The Girl with All the Gifts. But despite the many point-of-view characters and the ethical dilemmas of a cure, there's also a certain remoteness to all the machinations. Though the stakes are clear and the group's escalating disasters turn into ethical clashes, the pieces don't connect into a compelling whole. (For me — and perhaps fittingly, given the subject matter — this series is like watching a cooking show; you can see the work that goes into the dishes, but you can't satisfy yourself with what's been made.)
But for those who enjoyed the first novel, The Boy on the Bridge is a careful companion, including thematic parallels that remind us, in sometimes horrific ways, that our actions always have wider consequences than we think.
Genevieve Valentine's latest novel is Icon.
QUOTED: "There were a couple of things that were potential plot holes of the kind discovered when travelling to an earlier part of a timeline that was written after the events that followed, but not enough to excuse skipping The Boy on the Bridge."
"This is a slower build than the previous book, but all said and done, this is a wonderful trip back into the universe of The Girl With All The Gifts, full of Carey’s brilliant words that somehow capture the gore and the atrocity of a situation in a beautiful way, and full of characters you can’t help but root for, even though you’re pretty sure they’re doomed because Rosie never returned from her voyage."
BOOK REVIEW: The Boy on the Bridge by M.R. Carey
Stephanie O'Connell | May 02, 2017 | Comments 0
BOOK REVIEW: The Boy on the Bridge by M.R. Carey
Orbit
May 2017
Paperback, $29.99
Reviewed by Steph O’Connell
Speculative Fiction
8/10
Once upon a time, in a land blighted by terror, there was a very clever boy.
The people thought the boy could save them, so they opened their gates and sent him out into the world.
To where the monsters lived.
In The Boy on the Bridge, M. R. Carey returns to the world of The Girl With All the Gifts, the phenomenal word-of-mouth bestseller which is now a critically acclaimed film starring Sennia Nanua, Glenn Close, Gemma Arterton and Paddy Considine.
The Girl With All The Gifts has been on my best of the year lists for two years running, for the physical book and the audiobook respectively, so words are incapable of describing how much I was anticipating this new book. And it does not disappoint.
The book, and this review, will likely have some spoilers for those who haven’t read M. R. Carey’s word-of-mouth hit The Girl With All The Gifts.
The Boy on the Bridge is actually a prequel, and it follows the events that led to the Rosalind Franklin, the mobile, armoured lab, being left where the crew of The Girl With All The Gifts would discover it a decade later, but you should read The Girl With All The Gifts first, if you haven’t already!
The Girl With All The Gifts is the story of a world gone mad, in which a virus spread out of control, turning all those infected into “Hungries”, Carey’s new take on zombies. These zombies need little protein, exist in a state of perpetual waiting and reacting to outside sources and potential food, and there’s something in the virus that makes them want to spread it to as many people as they can.
But there does seem to be an anomaly in that there are children who are hungries but also able to learn and speak and interact, so long as they don’t smell human flesh. Melanie is one of these children, who was rounded up by the army and brought in for testing. Her life is ruled by routine, until one day everything changes.
An attack on the compound forces Melanie; her favourite teacher Miss Justineau; Dr Caldwell, the scientist who has been cutting open the heads of Melanie’s classmates; Sergeant Parks and Private Gallagher, to flee together on a journey that is going to change the world.
Along the way they discover the Rosalind Franklin, or Rosie, the second of two mobile labs that were sent out ten years earlier to obtain specimens that might change the way they view the virus, might lead them to a cure, but were never heard from again.
Until now readers, along with the cast of The Girl With All The Gifts, could only speculate as to what happened, and none of it was good. Now we’re finally privy to what went on decades before the story that has captured the attention of readers and now moviegoers the world over (so long as they don’t live in Australia, for some reason. Why no movie in Australia, you guys?!).
The team assembled here is a lot more structured than the one that escaped a nightmare situation in the previous book. Rosie is able to carry twelve, and within those chosen are six scientists and six military personnel, but within the group there are certain tensions, bound to make the journey rocky enough to be felt by all, even within the protected, armoured safety of the Rosalind Franklin. Perhaps especially in these tight quarters.
Within this team, we have the following highly-memorable characters and issues:
Samrina “Rina” Khan is pregnant, which is most certainly against the rules of the mission. Her baby daddy is one of the other scientists.
Dr Alan Fournier, the leader of the scientific and civilian side of the mission is insisting she reveal the identity of the father.
No one can stand Dr Fournier, as he seems set to be antagonistic, just to prove that he has the overall command of the mission. He’s in a constant battle with Colonel Carlisle for the respect of the team.
Colonel Isaac Carlisle has always been a man to follow orders, including the firebombing of citizens expecting help, back in the days of the original outbreak
Lieutenant Daniel McQueen resents the man to whom he is second-in-command.
Stephen Greaves is the youngest of the crew at fifteen, but he’s also the inventor of the eblocker, and he could just be the one with the right tools to find a cure. He’s also on the spectrum, doesn’t like being touched or making eye contact, and has a hard time reading people. The military members of the crew call him the Robot.
Rina and Stephen are essentially family, and the’re the focus characters for a large chunks of this book. Stephen disconnection from people being what it is, this is a less emotional book than TGWATG, but Rina acts as something of a point of connection for him. Even as he struggles to feel many emotions, and even as he sees everything in calculations, his determination to do whatever he can to save her shows that he’s not as far out of reach as the rest of the team might think.
He set out to school the Robot and got schooled himself. That is pretty funny, any way you look at it.
Everything is a lesson. This one is about not judging by appearances. Just because the kid has a face as empty as a bucket with a hole in it doesn’t mean he’s stupid. And just because he creeps around like a whipped puppy doesn’t mean he’s got no spirit.
Everyone is special, right?
The concept of the hungry children, as introduced in TGWATG, is a fascinating one, and in this book we see less in the way of hungry chases and more from these second-generation infected children who are neither hungry nor human, but both.
Greaves is enthralled by all this, so excited it’s all he can do to make himself breathe. The children shift in his mind, semiotically adrift. They are hungries, but not hungries. They have the feeding urge that defines the condition, the preternatural strength and speed, but are social beings with some degree of intelligence.
And after a mess of events that lead to the van being pursued by these hungry children and unable to get in touch with their home base at Beacon, they come to realise that Rosie isn’t going to keep them safe forever.
And you hear stories about squads driving for days on end in a jeep or a hummer on good tarmac with a hungry chasing their tail the whole way. It’s a moot point, though. She doesn’t think these are hungries. She has no idea what they are. She didn’t even mention the creepiest part, which is that they’re pint-sized. Human body plan, just way too small.
Man-eating hobbits? Feral ten-year-olds?
There were a couple of things that were potential plot holes of the kind discovered when travelling to an earlier part of a timeline that was written after the events that followed, but not enough to excuse skipping The Boy on the Bridge.
This is a slower build than the previous book, but all said and done, this is a wonderful trip back into the universe of The Girl With All The Gifts, full of Carey’s brilliant words that somehow capture the gore and the atrocity of a situation in a beautiful way, and full of characters you can’t help but root for, even though you’re pretty sure they’re doomed because Rosie never returned from her voyage.