Bookish Thoughts

By this point in The Dresden Files, a lot has changed. The war with the Red Court has ended in their annihilation. Dresden discovered a daughter. He died, spent some time as a ghost, and has now come back to life in the guise of the Winter Knight working for Mab. The first 100 or so pages of the book serve to orient us in the new world, but I had some trouble getting through them. It wasn't until Harry started to reconnect with his old friends and make amends that I became really engaged. Alas, by then, another change had become apparent. Harry has always leered at women in a way that made me uncomfortable. I brushed it aside in favor of the excitement of his adventures. And he seemed to be getting better. As he gathered more female allies around him and forged all sorts of different relationships with women, I really thought he was becoming less misogynistic. But in this book he levels up in a way that has me wondering if Jim Butcher has ever actually interacted with a woman. ...

Side Jobs  is not entirely part of the Dresden Series proper. As the title implies, it's the smaller cases that have less to do with the larger arcs. It's a collection of short stories that provide some history for fans of the series. Some alternate perspectives and smaller cases. It was a lot of fun to read, especially the stories narrated by characters other than Harry. This book collects stories ranging the whole course of the series thus far. From  A Restoration of Faith , which was written and takes place before the first book to  Aftermath , told from Murphy's perspective immediately following Harry's death in  Changes . The stories themselves are fun little bite-sized adventures. More interesting for the background they provide: Billy and Georgia's wedding, Thomas' involvement with the Oblivion War, Murphy's first meeting with Dresden, their relationship, and her grief when he dies. I really should have picked this book up before  Ghost Story . Th...

It took me a year and a half, but I finally made it through the last book assigned by my book club (I'm still sad it dissolved). Now that I've made it, 13 books in to The Dresden Files , I'm more stumped than ever that the dude thought this would be a good place for new readers to begin the series. There are so many things you would miss if you started here. And given that it operates as more of a direct sequel than any other book in the series, it's probably the absolute worst place to begin reading about Harry Dresden. At the end of the previous book, Dresden died. He's sent back to solve his murder and ends up in the middle of a ghostly war along the way. Solving his murder is actually a pretty minor part of the story. It's mostly taken up by the effect his death had on the people he loved and the city he protected. And lots of strange ghost battles. You need the history of the previous books for the emotions of this one to hit you. Murphy...

As the title indicates, this is the part of The Dresden Files where everything changes. And it's not just that the title is Changes . The one-word title is a distinct departure from the pattern of titles used in this series so far. Each book's title has had two words, each with the same number of letters. Until now. Given all that, I went in to this book with higher than usual expectations. And it did not disappoint. From the opening lines, in which we discover that Harry has a daughter that he did not previously know about and that she's been kidnapped, this book is just relentless. Everything starts to get stripped away from Harry, who is suddenly facing the FBI in addition to the usual supernatural stuff, and the usual supernatural goons have kicked it up a few notches. This book is really brutal. Harry comes as close to losing as he's ever done before. He gets more thoroughly beaten than in any of the previous books, and things look really grim. Bu...

As I get farther into The Dresden Files , it gets harder and harder to talk about these books without giving away plot points from the previous books. In some ways, the series is structured like a television show. There's an overarching plot that ties everything together, but each book also focuses on it's own plot that can feel only loosely connected to what's going on in the wider world. In Turn Coat , a lot of this starts to come together. Dresden's disparate cases of the past several years are seen to be part of a larger pattern designed to incite chaos across the supernatural world. Age old alliances have been unbalanced or simply shattered over the course of the series. It keeps things interesting, as Dresden's allies and enemies tend to switch places depending on the situation. And now it starts to reveal itself as part of the larger plan. For several books now, Dresden has suspected that there's a mole inside the Wizard's White Cou...

In the tenth book of The Dresden Files , Harry agrees to do a small favor for someone and quickly finds himself in way over his head. Meanwhile the main plot of the series is just treading water while everyone gets moved into place. I really don't expect a lot from The Dresden Files . They're like popcorn action movies. Something that's entertaining, but that I don't really think too hard about. The plots are convoluted but not necessarily complicated. There are a ton of characters - both allies and enemies of Harry. But keeping them all straight is what the internet is for. And I definitely kept my tablet close at hand so I could keep looking things up while I read this. This book brought back a lot of characters from the past. Both faerie courts are in play, as are the Denarians and the Knights of the Cross. The Archive shows up, along with a warden, Thomas, and the ever-present Murphy. It almost felt like an attempt to reintroduce a bunch of these c...

And so we come to the ninth Dresden book. It's a different color than the preceding books, white instead of black, so I was expecting something epic and game-changing to happen. And I suppose it did, with the virtual obliteration of an entire court of vampires (the ones who, in this universe, most resemble succubi and incubi). But the leaders still have power and ultimately, things still feel largely the same. This is possibly because there is just so much happening at this point. Butcher has left enough dangling plot threads over the past several books that they're starting to blur together. On some level this should happen. Things should start to get cleaned up and long-standing enemies should start to die off. The problem is that I can barely remember who anyone is anymore. There were two villains in this book who had appeared previously that I had to look up on Wikipedia. Then I had to read a plot synopsis of an earlier book to figure out what happened with o...

After half-starting a half dozen books in July, I finally decided that I needed to just give my brain a break. No more dense plots or complicated characters. Just some good old-fashioned magical adventures. Harry Dresden was just the thing to pull me out of my summer slump. Like the other books in The Dresden Files , Proven Guilty is a quick, easy read. Some demon is taking the form of movie monsters at a horror convention and feeding off the fear and panic of the convention-goers. Dresden has to figure out who it is before anyone else dies. Along the way he reconnects with his old mentor and picks up an apprentice of his own. The war with the vampires remains stubbornly in the background, and I've just about given up hope that it will be addressed before the final installment in the series. But there are interesting goings-on with the fairies in the meantime that will have to sate me. And I'm pretty excited about Harry's new apprentice, who should have a ...

I've made it to the halfway point of The Dresden Files series. I'm still a little worried about completing this in time for my book club. Especially since I am now constantly being distracted by wedding planning things. But if I buckle down, I think I can still do it. Thankfully, the seventh book is way better than the sixth book was. This one deals with necromancers, and it returns to the style of the second book. Rather than dealing with three different plots simultaneously, Harry has to face a single problem with multiple enemies. It gives the book a nice sense of focus. Not that I'm complaining about all the plot heads butting heads in previous books; that was exciting in its own way. But it was nice to get something a little different. Not that there was nothing else going on. This book continues with some threads from previous books that will likely show up again in the future. The war with the Vampiric Red Court is still going on off page, and we g...

It turns out that the sixth book of the Dresden Files does not turn its attention to the war between the wizard's White Council and the vampire's Red Court like I was hoping. The red vampires aren't even in this book, though there is a brief conflict with the Black Court vampires. And the White Court vampires, who really have more in common with incubi and succubi than proper vampires, have a huge role. But mostly, this book deals with the porn industry. Someone is targeting a guy who owns a studio that turns out adult films by killing all the women around him. Between Harry's knee0jerk judgement of porn and everyone involved in the industry, the women who died every so often, and the truly incompetent villain who (spoiler alert) was trying to kill her ex-husband's next wife, this book was a complete disaster. But at least Dresden got a cool dog out of the deal. Here's hoping Butcher stays far, far away from these topics in the future.

The fifth book in The Dresden Files turns its eye to Christian mythology. And in doing so, it brings some mere mortals back into play in some cool ways. Dresden is tasked with finding the Shroud of Turin, which has been stolen from Italy and brought to Chicago. But a group of Fallen Angels are looking to recover it first, and they're a lot stronger than anything Harry's faced before. Luckily he also has some Knights of the Cross on his side to even things out. Butcher does an interesting thing in this series. Thanks to he Knights of the Cross, and particularly Michael Carpenter, the Christian God seems to be a fact in this universe. But Butcher still allows for other religions. One of the knights even identifies as an atheist, claiming he simply wants to do good however he can. And he's allowed to maintain that atheism through the story, which is actually pretty refreshing. See in this world, it's faith that gives power. Not necessarily whatever the ...

In Summer Knight , Harry Dresden's past starts to catch up with him. There have been hints in the previous three books that Harry's past is not so pretty. He was orphaned at six and taken in by a wizard who trained him in magic. He fell in love with his foster sister* and, when the wizard turned out to be a practitioner of black magic, killed them both in a fire. Then he struck a bargain with a rather powerful faerie and has been trying to get out of it ever since. This was all peering in at the edges of the previous books, but now it becomes far more important. The faerie Harry had initially struck a bargain with ends up selling her end of the deal to the Winter Queen, Mab. Mab uses this influence to convince Harry to investigate a murder in Faerie and prove her own innocence. If he fails, the two sides of Faerie (Summer and Winter) are likely to go to war with each other. The wizards are also on his back to succeed so that they can procure Winter's help wi...

The third book in The Dresden Files is equal parts ghost story and vampire story, with some faeries thrown in for flavor. There's even a brief cameo by a dragon. I really like that Butcher's getting more comfortable with the supernatural and is willing to throw so many things into the mix. He does a good job of delineating the various creatures, giving them their own social and political structures, desires and abilities. For everything that's in this book it never feels too cluttered. The mystery is also really well constructed. I didn't quite solve it before Harry did, but as soon as he figured out who it was I saw all the clues I'd missed during my read. I hope I get better at figuring out who the bad guy is. Then again, I appreciate that these books do a good job of keeping me on my toes. My only complain about this book is the way Butcher introduces some new characters. Grave Peril  takes place over a year after Fool Moon  and in that time Dresd...

In the second book of The Dresden Files , a werewolf is on the loose in Chicago and appears to be targeting the local mafia. Meanwhile, Dresden is on the outs with his cop-friend, Murphy, and the tension between them doesn't make solving the case any easier. Like the first book, this one had plenty of twists and turns that kept me guessing. I didn't quite solve the mystery before Dresden, but as soon as the book gave me the answer I saw how all the clues added up. I think that definitely speaks to a well-constructed mystery, and I'm looking forward to more of this. Dresden continues to be rather sexist. He hides behind his chivalry to excuse a lot of his behavior. Sometimes the text seems to be calling him out on this. For example, Harry has a tendency to withhold information from women "for their own good" or "to protect them". But this almost always backfires and he realizes that he should have been more forthcoming from the beginning....

I've been meaning to read The Dresden Files  for a few years now. I remember a friend of mine in high school being very excited when one of the books was released. In the time since then, I've been hearing more and more about the series, and it always seemed like something I'd be interested in. When a member of my book club suggested a book from The Dresden Files for our meeting next month, I was excited to for a chance to check out the series. Unfortunately, the book he picked is the thirteenth in the series. When I realized this, I decided to go ahead and try to read the series through the 13th book in time for the book club meeting. Which gives me five weeks. That's doable, right? Considering that the first book only took two days to read, I definitely think I can meet my goal of reading the next twelve before May 28th. In the meantime, this blog is going to get a bit Dresden Files heavy, though. This series, written by Jim Butcher, follows a wiz...