Read: February 2009
Title: Fool Moon (Book 2 of the Dresden Files)
Author: Jim Butcher
ISBN: 0451458125
Binding: Paperback
At the start of the second book, Harry has been called to a building under construction just outside of town to view a body apparently savaged by a large animal. He just has time to determine that the attacking animal appears to be somewhat but not exactly like a wolf when a group of FBI agents show up to take over the case and somewhat forcefully remind Murphy that she's a little out of her jurisdiction.Of course, based on the title and the opening scene, I'm sure you've guessed that this book is all about werewolves. What you might not have guessed is just how many different types of were Butcher manages to cram in. As an incomplete list, he's got a pack of college kids who change back and forth with a magic spell, Hexenwolves who transform via magical artifacts given to them by some unnamed other, a Loup Garou cursed to turn into a ravening beast at the full moon, and Lycanthropes who retain their human shape but have souls filled with pure rage (as well as enhanced strength and healing and quite an appetite for blood - think viking berserker). Of course, Harry must bounce from one suspect to another - sometimes literally - as he tries to unravel the mystery of who or what is committing the murders and who or what stands to gain from the results. Oh, and I shouldn't forget to mention that Marcone, the big Mob boss who played a tangential role in the first book, gets much more time in the spotlight this time around.
There's still a good dose of the screaming stupids in this book. Not surprising, since it was published less than a year after the first one hit the bookstores (though it did take a few years for the first one to find a publisher, so the time spent writing the second couldn't have been all that compressed). My biggest pet peeves with this one are that Harry continues to knowingly do dumb and risky things and also continues to withhold crucial information from Murphy in order to "protect" her. Not surprisingly, this leads to a somewhat extreme lack of trust on Murphy's part which results in some of the bruises Harry picks up coming at her hands.
Overall, I rate this book on par or very slightly above the first book. Well-written fight scenes, but they fail to completely overcome the annoying characterizations.
Read: February 2009
Title: Grave Peril (Book 3 of the Dresden Files)
Author: Jim Butcher
ISBN: 0451458443
Binding: Paperback
This one opens with Harry and his long-time friend Added Character, er, Michael Carpenter racing to get to Cook County Hospital in time to stop a ghost from snuffing out the lives of every baby in the maternity ward. It seems that something has been stirring up Chicago's ectoplasmic population and Harry and Michael have had a rough week of ghostbusting.Let's back up for a second and introduce this Michael guy properly. He's a holy Knight, carrying one of only three Swords containing a nail from the true Cross, and sent by the Creator to wherever he's most needed. He's also a contractor (making his last name all the more appropriate) and a family man with several children and a wife who really dislikes Harry. To be fair, she probably has a point, since Michael apparently winds up injured every time he and Harry work together.
Ok, back to the plot. During the battle with the supernatural suffocatrix, Harry figures out that she's probably going completely off the rails because someone has wrapped her in something like spiritual barbed-wire. Soon after, it's proven that the torture spell isn't just for the dearly departed when it hits some of Harry's acquaintances. This includes Murphy, taking her out of action for most of the rest of the book. Harry has to figure out who or what the Nightmare (as he calls the thing causing all the spectral distress) is, whether it's working for itself or for somebody else, and how to take it down before it achieves whatever it is it's working toward. This is further complicated when he's picked to be the representative of the White Council (think of it as the wizards' guild) to a kind of vampire* summit, being held at the home of a vampire he didn't really endear himself to back in the first book.
Of course, just about everything is interconnected somehow. Lots of screaming and large explosions ensue. As has become the norm, Harry gets the everliving shit kicked out of him more than once. And something very very bad happens to someone Harry cares about (in addition to the something merely very bad that happens to someone else). In the end, of course, Harry survives (as you might guess by the fourth book being reviewed below) - but things have gotten quite a bit more complicated and the scars he bears aren't just on his body.
The writing started to come together for me with this one. Apparently, it (in addition to Fool Moon and perhaps the fourth one as well) was already completed before the first one actually got published, but, in the words of Jim Butcher himself, "I had started putting together enough craft skills to overcome the lack of inborn talent." I admit I was thrown a bit by the way Michael was suddenly introduced in such a "I haven't mentioned him yet? But he's always been here!" kind of way. Butcher's explanation for this is that each book only really covers the absolute worst week of Harry's entire year because it's not really worth writing about the other eleven point something months when he's paying his bills by finding lost pets and spending his off hours at the drive-in movie. I guess I can accept that.
*Much like the weres in the second book, Butcher can't stop at just one type of vampire. He's got at least three, with hints of more. There's the Red Court, mentioned in the first book, that look like humans until they rip off their skins to reveal the slimy black batlike monstrosity beneath. Oh, and their spit is a powerfully addictive narcotic. Then there's the Black Court. Dracula was one of these. They're the undead ones with the power to turn into mist and a bad allergy to garlic. Apparently, Stoker wrote his book at the behest of the White Council as a kind of "how-to" guide on destroying the things. And then there's the White Court. They don't feed on blood. Instead, they subsist on emotions and life energy. Think "Sex Vampire."
Read: February 2009
Title: Summer Knight (Book 4 of the Dresden Files)
Author: Jim Butcher
ISBN: 0451458923
Binding: Paperback
Harry's chilling at his office when a femme fatale straight out of a noir novel saunters in and promptly causes his blood to freeze. Not literally. Though she could. It's Queen Mab, the faerie queen of Winter, and she wants to hire him to clear her name. Someone has killed the Summer Knight, the mortal champion of the Summer Sidhe, and suspicion is falling on her. Even though Harry would love to tell her no, he takes the job because Mab has bought out his debt with his faerie godmother (don't think Cinderella, think more of the one that curses Sleeping Beauty). He has to either find or create proof of Mab's innocence before the Autumn Equinox, when power passes from the Summer Court to the Winter Court, or there will be a war that will likely send the Earth into another ice age.As you might expect, someone doesn't want him digging into their business. In addition, the war between wizards and Red Court that Harry started in the last book continues to rage on and senior members of the White Council are seriously considering feeding his ass (perhaps literally) to the vampires as a peace gesture. This all leads to him having to dodge (or, at least, survive) attacks of all kinds as he travels through, above, and below Chicago in hopes of interviewing the various principals and suspects, including the three aspects of each of the courts - Lady, Queen, and Mother. My favorite bit is the attack in the garden section of WalMart by a plant monster. This is mainly because Harry insists on calling it a "chlorofiend" because, let's face it, you can't pick up chicks with daring tales of battling azaleas. I also greatly appreciated the reappearance of Toot-toot the pizza-loving fairy.
Harry does succeed in restoring the balance of power between the Seelie and Unseelie barely in time to avert the apocalypse. Just don't expect it to be a happily ever after sort of ending.
Of the first four, this one has faded most in my mind. Some of the sharpest memories of specific scenes stick with me, but the rest of the book has faded into the background a bit. Perhaps ironically, I consider this to be a good thing. It means the writing has improved to the point where it's getting out of my way. I remember so much of the first books because of the ways in which they annoyed me. The parts of the fourth book that are clearest to me are the parts that most delighted me (as those who witnessed my guffaws as I read it over several lunches in the breakroom at work could probably attest). This is the first one I actually feel like recommending.
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